{"id":411216,"date":"2024-07-11T02:25:47","date_gmt":"2024-07-11T02:25:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=411216"},"modified":"2024-07-11T03:05:08","modified_gmt":"2024-07-11T03:05:08","slug":"fattys-brutal-truth-for-slack-million-dollar-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=411216","title":{"rendered":"Fatty's brutal truth for 'slack' million-dollar man"},"content":{"rendered":"

Queensland<\/a> legend Paul Vautin believes \ufeffDavid Fifita<\/a> being "a bit slack" is what robbed the barnstorming backrower of a State of Origin<\/a> recall.<\/p>\n

Fifita, 24, was a surprise omission from the Queensland team sheet again this week, meaning he will miss the entire 2024 series and won't add to his tally of eight games for his state.<\/p>\n

\ufeffSpeculation has been rife about Fifita's relationship with Queensland selectors, and particularly head coach Billy Slater<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Slater played down the snub by claiming the Titans forward hasn't been at the top of his game this season, but statistics highlighted by Wide World of Sports this week paint a different picture of Fifita's form<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\ufeffAnd despite the numbers suggesting Fifita's defensive work has been impressive, Vautin thinks he still has a tendency to go missing during games.<\/p>\n

\"Paul<\/p>\n

Earlier in his career Fifita \ufeffearned a reputation as the game's most damaging ball runner, but was accused of drifting in and out of contests.<\/p>\n

"Everyone is c\ufeffrying out about David Fifita – Billy can obviously see some deficiencies in David's game," Vautin told Wide World of Sports' Freddy and the Eighth<\/em><\/a> this week.<\/p>\n

"One of them\ufeff is that off the ball he is a bit slack.<\/p>\n

"David Fifita is 24, \ufeffI'm telling you he doesn't know how good he can be. He doesn't know how good he is and how good he can be.<\/p>\n

"He's going to find out in the next couple of years (and) as soon as he does\ufeff he will be unstoppable for the rest of his career.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2024 State of Origin series exclusively live and free on Nine and<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.\ufeff<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Maroons<\/p>\n

"\ufeffAt the moment – I know he can score tries – but just off the ball he is a bit slack, and I think that's the reason Billy didn't pick him."<\/p>\n

While the Maroons could use Fifita's power and skill in attack, it appears Slater has gone for safer defensive options in Kurt Capewell and Felise Kaufusi.<\/p>\n

A deep dive by WWOS did, though, reveal Fifita's tackle efficiency is an impressive 93.27 per cent this year.<\/p>\n

Queensland will need to do both at Suncorp Stadium on Wednesday – be more lethal with the ball and less fragile without it.<\/p>\n

The Maroons were blown off the park in game two and lost 38-18 in Melbourne, forcing a decider in Brisbane next week.\ufeff<\/p>\n

\"Slater<\/p>\n

Queensland players were accused of being bullied by the Blues a fortnight ago, and Vautin has urged them to stand up for themselves next week.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"\ufeffI know that first half down in Melbourne was horrendous, right, but there's been four halves (this series) and we have won three of them," he said.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffWe've got to play tougher and stronger. In that second game we were off, there was no aggression.<\/p>\n

"You've \ufeffgot to show them with your defence and attitude that, 'we're not letting you blokes through' – it was so un-Queensland like. It wasn't much fun."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Queensland legend Paul Vautin believes \ufeffDavid Fifita being "a bit slack" is what robbed the barnstorming backrower of a State of Origin recall. Fifita, 24, […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":411218,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411216"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=411216"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":411221,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411216\/revisions\/411221"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/411218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=411216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=411216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=411216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}