2022 Squad, Signings and Rumours Thread

[willhelm]

Worth 1.2m for his Insta game alone

[Hail Sezer]

Worth 1.2m for his Insta game alone

Insta clout > nrl premierships

[Titanic]

With the Dorpins in the mix Smith’s management can really push his price up but I hope it’s us.

[willhelm]

With the Dorpins in the mix Smith’s management can really push his price up but I hope it’s us.

Surely Dolphins will go hard for Mahoney since he's a local lad

[ozynorts]

Gold Coast Titans move to extend Tino Fa’asuamaleaui contract after Dolphins poaching bid
With the Dolphins desperate to make Tino Fa’asuamaleaui one of their marquee signings, Gold Coast may have just blown the expansion side out of the water. Deal details here.

Peter Badel
and
Travis Meyn
5 min read
October 28, 2021 - 2:59PM
News Corp Australia Sports Newsroom
21 comments

NRL: Gold Coast Titans forward Tino Fa'asuamaleaui says the club wants to win dual premierships before 2030, as part of a new vision.

The Titans have tabled a $3.3 million mega deal to Tino Fa’asuamaleaui and could offer him the captaincy as the Gold Coast move to scupper a poaching bid from Queensland expansion rivals the Dolphins.

Dolphins coach Wayne Bennett has Fa’asuamaleaui on his hit-list of priority signings after forging a bond with the premiership-winning forward during Queensland’s epic Origin series defeat of the Blues last November.

While Fa’asuamaleaui is contracted to the Titans until the end of 2023, he has an option in his favour in the final year, giving him the contractual scope to spearhead Brisbane’s new second team in their inaugural season.

Tino Fa'asuamaleaui is keen to stay loyal to the Titans despite interest from expansion rivals the Dolphins.

The Dolphins have expressed preliminary interest in Fa’asuamaleaui, but the Titans are up for the fight and have hit back with one of the most lucrative deals in their 14-year history.

It is understood the Titans want to upgrade the 21-year-old’s contract for 2023 as well as adding a three-year extension, starting at $800,000 a season and climbing to $850,000 annually.

Overall, the Maroons young gun stands to pocket more than $3 million in what represents the richest deal of his career after backing up his premiership season at Melbourne in 2020 with a fine debut campaign for the Titans this year.

The Titans are also considering Fa’asuamaleaui for the club captaincy as Gold Coast begin planning for life after co-skipper Kevin Proctor, who could retire at the end of next year.

The Titans’ other co-captain, Jamal Fogarty, was released a fortnight ago to take up a deal with the Raiders.

The Dolphins are hellbent on a marquee No.1 signing and Fa’asuamaleaui shapes as the perfect poster boy given his Queensland Origin status, cleanskin image and his ties to Gympie north of Redcliffe.

But the Titans view their Fa’asuamaleaui, David Fifita and Moeaki Fotuaika as their Big Three Origin stars who can spearhead Gold Coast’s strategic plan to win two premierships by 2030.

While Fa’asuamaleaui spoke of his respect for Bennett, he insists he is happy at the Titans and believes the club hasn’t seen the best of him as a middle forward.

“I’m set here and I want to make this home,” Fa’asuamaleaui said.

“It’s good that Redcliffe have come into the game. It’s exciting for that area of Queensland so more players can come through ... but I want to make the Titans a very powerful club in the future.

“My form this year was not too bad. To be honest, there is still a lot of work for me to do and there are areas I feel I need to improve on to help bring success to the Titans.”

Titans chief executive Steve Mitchell backed Gold Coast’s culture to stave off a Dolphins raid.

“There is an appealing coach (Bennett) at the helm (of the Dolphins) and you can’t understate that,” he said.

“The ability to be able to keep your player group is about the environment that you build and culture.

“We’ve got to make sure our programs are the best and Tino has an opportunity to become everything he can as a player.

“These guys are elite athletes that want to win premierships and be the best they can be. In this game that’s winning premierships so we’ve got to give them an environment to do that.”

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...d686de8f96d79e

[Titanic]

Tino has always come across as a down to earth bloke and although I wouldn’t blame him to follow the money, on the strength of his own convictions I would be disappointed if he left. We have a better group of young men than the Panthers imho.

[JunctionBlock]

Ties to the region because Gympie is north (2 hrs) of Redcliffe hahahaha

[Mr Bods]

He’s too young to be the Captain and some his on field calls he makes especially his wasting of reviews when he makes sloppy play the ball errors shows to me that he’s not Captain material yet.

[Hail Sezer]

He’s too young to be the Captain and some his on field calls he makes especially his wasting of reviews when he makes sloppy play the ball errors shows to me that he’s not Captain material yet.

Who is your pick for captain mate?

[Titslover]

He’s too young to be the Captain and some his on field calls he makes especially his wasting of reviews when he makes sloppy play the ball errors shows to me that he’s not Captain material yet.

Well I just saw that we were the worst team in the league at captain’s challenges last year with a 23.8% success rate so it’s not like we can do much worse. Even if Tino was calling for it Proctor/ Fogarty were allowing it so thats on them too.

[Mr Bods]

Who is your pick for captain mate?

I used to occasionally attend training and was able to form a good opinion but nowadays that’s impossible so it’s very difficult for me to make a call.

Having said that, I’d probably go with AJ Brimson if I was forced to make a call.

[Titanic]

Thompson followed by Brimson would be my choices.

[hungryjacks]

Tino co captain with AJ would be my pick.

[indoallstars]

AJ for captain is my pick, stays calm under pressure, Titans junior, can actually speak, plays 80 min, has never showed intentions of leaving the club, all the hallmarks of a great future captain

[Titans83]

I worry about tino as captain as well. He reminds me of Ryan James who I don’t think suited being captain. They both were incredibly hard workers who run themselves into the ground. Under that sort of fatigue I think their decision making can suffer. Or maybe that could be Holbrook playing him for to many minutes.
I think AJ would be a good pick but I do worry that he doesn’t have a set position yet. Becoming the captain and then also trying to play in the halves would be a big ask. Thompson would also be great and maybe could be a co captain as he’s got a lot of respect in the game and has a very level head.