With reports suggesting that David Fifita will put pen-to-paper on a deal with the Penrith Panthers and Dane Gagai set to re-sign with the Knights, it means the Roosters will have missed out on two big free agency targets in the last few days.
That’s rarefied air for the Roosters, who more often than not, are able to lure whoever free agent they want.
While the Fifita decision is still a little murky, it’s apparent that the Knights will hold onto Gagai, despite the Roosters offering a two-year deal opposed to Newcastle’s one-year offer with a mutual option for a second year in 2026.
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The Daily Telegraph’s Michael Carayannis all but confirmed the Gagai news on NRL 360.
“This time yesterday if you asked me, I would have thought he’d be going to the Roosters on a two-year guaranteed deal, but he’s opted to stay at the Knights,” Carayannis said.
“It’s an interesting deal. The first year is guaranteed but the second year is a mutual option, so essentially, he’s off contract after one year, so he’s foregone that security of a two-year deal which shows where Newcastle are headed.
“We just spoke about the Gold Coast Titans and the blow that David Fifita leaving is for them… This is a shot in the arm for the Knights that a guy at the back end of his career, who hasn’t won a premiership, wants to stay at Newcastle for one year with no guarantee of a second season.”
With Fifita and Gagai seemingly out of the Roosters’ reach, NRL360 co-host Braith Anasta asked what player the Bondi-based club will aim for next.
With high-profile and expensive stars such as Joey Manu, Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, Luke Keary and Joseph Suaalii all departing the club at the end of 2024, the Roosters have cash to splash.
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“It’s very unlike the Roosters. When they open the cheque book and go to the open market, you can go back to Cooper Cronk, Sonny Bill Williams, Brad Fittler, when they decide they want to target a gun, nine out of ten times, they hit the target,” Fox League’s James Hooper said in relation to the Roosters missing out on Gagai.
“If they miss Fifita as well, if I’m the rest of the NRL, I’m shaking in trepidation because they have a $4 million war chest. They won’t be missing the next one.
Hooper theorised that a Broncos star could shape up as being an option for the Roosters.
“I was looking at the off-contract list today and the name I kept landing back on was Selwyn Cobbo from the Brisbane Broncos.
“He’s not off contract until the end of next season but he also played a lot of fullback as a young bloke.
“Teddy (Roosters fullback James Tedesco) is a champion, but Teddy is also off contract with the Chooks at the end of next year so I’m just wondering, given the way the cards look as though they are going to fall in terms of recruitment over the next 24 hours, maybe they decide ‘ok let’s look long term’”.
Source Agencies
