{"id":108610,"date":"2025-08-31T11:53:27","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T11:53:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/108610\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T11:53:27","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T11:53:27","slug":"brad-fittler-whacks-reports-surrounding-former-titans-recruitment-manager-ezra-howe-perth-bears-links-integrity-unit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/108610\/","title":{"rendered":"Brad Fittler whacks reports surrounding former Titans recruitment manager Ezra Howe; Perth Bears links, integrity unit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brad Fittler<\/a> has whacked the “ridiculous” talk surrounding former Titans<\/a> recruitment manager Ezra Howe after he was linked with the Perth Bears<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Gold Coast confirmed last month that Howe would be relinquishing the role he had held since 2019 to move on and has since been replaced by Anthony Laffranchi.<\/p>\n

However, reports from News Corp placed Howe in the spotlight, alleging that he used information to build a signings hit list for the Bears, potentially breaching the league’s anti-tampering regulations and prompting an NRL integrity unit investigation.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Wally pinpoints what Gold Coast has got wrong ‘for a long time’<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Aussie prodigy stuns again with ‘outrageous’ goal<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Gallen ‘laughed’ at Sharks boss before accepting new role<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sydney Morning Herald<\/a> has since revealed that despite being in discussions with the NRL’s newest franchsie ahead of their inaugaural 2027 campaign, Howe hasn’t agreed to a deal and Perth still may look in a different direction.<\/p>\n

That didn’t stop Fittler from going on the defensive and questioning what Howe was meant to do with information that he compiled over the past seven years – even if it meant the futures of Titans players such as Tino Fa’asuamaleaui<\/a> were involved.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Brad Fittler weighs in on the Titans\u00a0Nine\/Getty<\/p>\n

“If he’s the recruitment man at the Titans, he knows everything about the contracts of every single player there,” the Roosters legend said on Nine’s Sunday Footy Show.<\/p>\n

“He wrote the contracts, so the fact is it’s ridiculous.<\/p>\n

“Of course he’s got the information, he made the information. How do you get in trouble for that? What do you just wipe it out of your brain once you leave the Titans?<\/p>\n

“There’s not an issue, because the information is in his brain and he actually wrote the contracts. What do you do? You’re not a robot, where you erase the information.”<\/p>\n

Watch the 2025 NRL premiership live and free on Nine and 9Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bears coach Mal Meninga<\/a> will be plotting plenty of potential recruitment moves as the club looks to get on the front-foot and hit the ground running.<\/p>\n

The new team can officially sign players for their entry to the competition from as early as November 1 this year, which could see a market frenzy open up. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Perth Bears coach Mal Meninga\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

As for the battling Titans, the dreaded wooden spoon looks set to be in their possession with two rounds to go in the regular season.<\/p>\n

Fittler conceded that Fa’asuamaleaui doesn’t have enough support from the rest of the playing group and it’s led to a season that saw Des Hasler sacked<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I don’t really know why the Gold Coast hasn’t succeeded,” he said.<\/p>\n

“John Cartwright did a great job early on if you look at the senior players – Luke Bailey, Scott Prince, Anthony Laffranchi, Mat Rogers, Preston Campbell. You’ve definitely got to get some senior players there and big Tino seems to be leading the way up there.<\/p>\n

“I don’t know who else is with Tino in their leadership group and who takes control.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

The lack of development through the pathway and schoolboy system into the top grade has also been a major talking point<\/a> in the days that have followed Hasler’s demise, with those involved on the Gold Coast under the microscope.<\/p>\n

“All the best players are up there,” Fittler said.<\/p>\n

“They’ve got the best schools, they’ve got the best athletes – but all of a sudden, they get to pull on the jersey and they failed.<\/p>\n

“They have failed this year, they have been terrible.”<\/p>\n

Gold Coast will take on the Knights on Sunday afternoon. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brad Fittler has whacked the “ridiculous” talk surrounding former Titans recruitment manager Ezra Howe after he was linked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-108610","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}