3 days Ago
It’s enough to give Shane Richardson heart palpitations heading into the Wests Tigers’ showdown with the Broncos at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday night. FOX LEAGUE, available on Kayo Sports, is the only place to watch every game of every round in the 2025 NRL Telstra Premiership, LIVE in 4K with no ad-breaks during play. New to Kayo? Get your first month for just $1.
Limited-time offer. With speculation mounting that the Tigers boss is preparing to launch a massive $1 million-a-season multi-year bid to lock up boom five-eighth Lachlan Galvin , the agent for the gun teenage halfback who will partner Galvin this round has made a frank confession rival clubs are already watching with interest to see how Galvin’s decision ultimately impacts Latu Fainu. This is despite the fact Fainu is signed until the end of 2027 on a reported $500,000-a-season contract.
Amid the latest speculation surrounding Galvin’s future, we thought it was timely to ask Fainu’s agent Mario Tartak if he felt the 19-year-old would still have a career path ahead of him at the Tigers if Galvin was to stay, given Jarome Luai obviously has a mortgage on the No 7 jumper. Tartak responded cautiously: “Obviously the club is waiting to see what they do with Lachie Galvin to see where the future lies for Latu Fainu.” Asked if there had been interest from other clubs, Tartak added: “Have I been asked? Absolutely I have been asked when is he off contract, yes.
” Understandably, Tartak can’t say a lot more at this point given there can be no negotiations between rival clubs and contracted players until November 1 in the season before they come off contract. But that doesn’t mean rivals are blind to what’s going on behind closed doors. The other factor that should not be ignored is that Luai also has a get-out clause in his contract that will allow him to leave from 2027 if things go pear-shaped.
For that reason, you’d think the Tigers wouldn’t want to risk losing Fainu regardless. But the flip side of that is having a teenage backup half on a whopping $500,000 deal also makes no sense from a salary cap perspective. READ MORE Tigers’ $5m bid to stop becoming NRL doormat; Madge’s revenge mission — Jimmy Brings ‘Threatening to release them’: The secret emails that could blow open ugly DCE battle Though it does set the scene for a hugely anticipated showdown on Saturday night when Fainu gets a rare opportunity to showcase his enormous talent on the big stage when he takes over the No 7 jersey from the suspended Luai.
Teaming up with his old Westfields Sports High teammate Galvin, it will pit the NRL’s youngest playmaking partnership against the game’s oldest in Broncos’ veterans Adam Reynolds and Ben Hunt. It’s crazy to think Galvin and Fainu were only nine years old and in primary school when Reynolds won his first NRL premiership with the Rabbitohs in 2014, while a year later Hunt played in a grand final for the Broncos. But a decade on and it’s the young Tigers who starred together as schoolboys who are now the next big things.
And while Galvin has taken the NRL by Storm over the last 12 months, it’s quickly forgotten that it was just over a year ago that some of the NRL’s best judges rated Fainu on top before a hamstring opened an opportunity for Galvin to leapfrog Fainu in the Tigers’ pecking order. Scott Fulton was responsible for bringing Fainu across from Manly before a well-documented fallout with Benji Marshall saw Fulton leave the Tigers as head of recruitment. Fulton has no doubt Fainu has the potential to be as good as Galvin, albeit a different style of playmaker.
“At the same age coming through the juniors Latu was an absolute standout,” Fulton said. “I thought he was probably on par with (Josh) Schuster or slightly better, just with game management. “Schuster was brilliantly individual and all that, but Latu could control a game.
“That was the difference in them. And I think he will maintain that as he goes through because he is 19. “I think he will be a star of the game moving forward.
“He was injured a little bit too when he was at Manly with his hamstring and he has had the same issue at Balmain. “But once he puts quite a few games together he will be good for whoever gets him.” PARRAMATTA’S VERY OWN DIRTY DOZEN With Parramatta still chasing its first win of the season under new rookie coach Jason Ryles against the Clint Gutherson captained Dragons on Saturday, here’s the ultimate proof how badly the Eels’ recruitment department have dropped the ball in recent years.
While Gutherson’s form has embarrassed the decision to let him leave with a year to run on his contract, we did a quick run through the rosters of rival clubs and found no less than 12 players who either hailed from within the Parramatta juniors or spent time at the Eels. Let’s kick off with Tigers young gun Galvin who played a couple of seasons in the junior reps before being cut loose because Galvin wasn’t considered good enough, while the freakishly gifted Fainu brothers Latu, Samuela and Sione also developed in the local leagues but were snapped up by Manly from a very early age. Then there Penrith’s gun recruit Blaize Talagi who was an absolute star in the Eels system before making his NRL debut last year, and you can throw in Manly powerhouse Haumole Olakau’atu who hails from region but couldn’t crack the Eels junior pathways.
Then we’ll head down to the nation’s capital to catch up with Canberra’s Ethan Sanders, Myles Martin and Trey Mooney who at one point was seen as a future leader at the Eels. The Dogs’ Sam Hughes is another, along with Souths’ rejuvenated prop Sean Keppie, and the young Roosters forward who played in the recent win over the Panthers before returning to the building site, Taylor Losalu. It’s enough to make a long-suffering Eels fan cry in their Cornflakes as the Eels embark on another so-called roster rebuild.
As has been pointed out a couple of times in recent weeks, since when did it become a roster rebuild after Brad Arthur was sacked? Let’s not rewrite history here. The reason Arthur was let go was because the team was not performing up to the standards expected of the quality roster Arthur oversaw. PAY CUT IS SIMPLE SOLUTION TO ORIGIN ELIGIBILITY ROW Here is the simple solution to the State of Origin/international rugby league debate.
Stop paying the game’s highest paid players $30,000 for an Origin appearance and instead plough the money back into grassroots development. Gorden Tallis said on NRL 360 this week in the wake of Payne Haas potentially switching his international allegiance to Samoa after this year’s Origin series: “The cynic in me is if every jersey was worth the same amount of money who would you choose? And that’s who you play for.” The problem is players currently get $30,000 to play a single Origin game and up to $100,000 for the series.
But only $3000 for playing an international following a recent collective bargaining agreement to bring parity across all nations. Maybe if the NRL put Tallis’ theory to the test and let the money be distributed evenly across all representative matches and junior development we would see who still wants to put their hand up to play a three-match series for NSW and Queensland and who doesn’t, knowing money will not be the chief motivation. That surely would ensure Origin does not lose its integrity, and it won’t stop the growth of the international game either.
For too long the Origin eligibility rules have held back the game’s international growth in the modern game where there is a growing dominance of players with Pasifika heritage. It’s time the guidelines moved with the times. Meanwhile, Haas should be congratulated, not condemned, if he ultimately ends up choosing Samoa.
If the Broncos powerhouse wants to give up playing for Australia so he can represent his family’s heritage, good luck to him. That should not stop him representing NSW given he is not breaking any rules. The fact is the Broncos prop was born in NSW and grew up playing rugby league in his home state, so he is entitled to play for the Blues.
And from an international perspective how is it any different to many other players over the past 10 to 15 years who have chosen to play for rival nations to support the growth of the international game? The fact Haas is the best prop in the game shouldn’t make an ounce of difference..
