{"id":478434,"date":"2026-02-14T00:48:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T00:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/478434\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T00:48:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T00:48:09","slug":"hannays-secret-to-re-signing-tino-and-bai-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/478434\/","title":{"rendered":"Hannay\u2019s secret to re-signing Tino and Bai – NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Titans’ new head coach, Josh Hannay<\/a>,\u00a0 has opened up about how he was able to keep stars Tino Fa’asuamaleaui<\/a> and Cooper Bai<\/a> after another disastrous season from the club.<\/p>\n

This will be Hannay’s rookie season as a head coach in the NRL<\/a>, after previously holding the titles of assistant coach and interim coach at the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks and North Queensland Cowboys<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Although Round One is still weeks away, Hannay has already shown promising signs after the Titans’ trial win over the Dolphins<\/a>, and now with the re-signings of the club’s young talent.<\/p>\n

Tino’s deal through to the end of 2030 not only locks in the club’s captain but stabilises the forward pack at a time when Brisbane’s signing of Payne Haas<\/a> had created fresh movement in the middle-forward market.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that has shocked all of us,\u201d Hannay told the media regarding the shock signing of Haas.”<\/p>\n

\u201cTo look at (Tino re-signing) in that context, the waters might have become murkier if Tino was still on the market, given what’s just happened with Payne.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe timing for us was perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Young star Cooper Bai<\/a> has also committed to the club, extending until the end of 2027, despite attracting strong interest and coming close to exploring an opportunity with the PNG Chiefs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Gold Coast product was also highly sought after by Melbourne Storm<\/a>, his father’s former club, but ultimately opted to remain where he began his junior career.<\/p>\n

“The sky is the limit for Cooper, and we’re excited to see him continue to grow as a player after his debut season.” Hannay shared.<\/p>\n

Hannay credited the club’s internal standards and direction as central to both decisions, pointing to cultural change rather than contract figures as the decisive factor at the Gold Coast Titans<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing I said from day one here\u2014and this relates to Cooper re-signing but also Tino (Fa’asuamaleaui)\u2014is that we needed to create an environment and program here where players felt like they wanted to be part of it,\u201d Hannay added.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe set the intention as coaches, but it’s the players that bring it to life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think once Cooper was able to spend enough time here and see the kind of environment we were creating, ultimately it became one he didn’t want to leave.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat speaks volumes for what we’ve been able to do here in a short space of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Get set for the footy with the FREE Zero Tackle 2026 NRL Season Guide!<\/a> Packed with 130+ pages of player profiles, team previews, insights and analysis, the 2026 NRL Season Guide<\/a> is built for fans who want the full picture. Download your free Season Guide HERE.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Titans’ new head coach, Josh Hannay,\u00a0 has opened up about how he was able to keep stars Tino…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478435,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-478434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478434","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=478434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}