{"id":536171,"date":"2026-03-12T19:34:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T19:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/536171\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T19:34:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T19:34:10","slug":"david-fifita-told-nick-politis-he-was-coming-to-the-sydney-roosters-now-hes-playing-for-arch-rivals-south-sydney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/536171\/","title":{"rendered":"David Fifita told Nick Politis he was coming to the Sydney Roosters. Now he\u2019s playing for arch-rivals South Sydney"},"content":{"rendered":"

It will be the first time he has faced the club that thought it had him while playing for the old enemy.<\/p>\n

Fifita, 26, who is off limits to the media, is one game into a two-year contract at South Sydney \u2013 the Titans granted him an early release \u2013 and looked the goods in his side\u2019s 40-30 win over the Dolphins. He set up a try while making 20 runs for 171 metres and three tackle breaks in 71 minutes.<\/p>\n

\"David<\/p>\n

David Fifita charges into the Dolphins defence in his Rabbitohs debut last Sunday.Credit: NRL Photos<\/p>\n

Fifita began pre-season training earlier than most of his teammates in November and did not miss a session. Conditioning has been a major focus, with the forward keen to strengthen his troublesome ankle after being limited to just eight games for the Titans last year.<\/p>\n

During one beach wrestling session over the summer, Latrell Mitchell left his battle with Fifita sporting a scar on his head.<\/p>\n

Once a destructive Origin forward, Fifita lost some of his shine at the Titans, but Bennett is adamant his best football is still to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t look too bad,\u201d said Bennett of Fifita\u2019s performance last weekend. \u201cIt\u2019s game one of a career [here] I hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe lost six to seven kilograms so that the process is already happening. It\u2019s now just week after week, turning up and doing a good job playing his game and getting his confidence out of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lure of playing under Bennett remains strong across the competition. Fifita made his NRL debut under the master coach at Brisbane in 2018, and next year the Rabbitohs will add Broncos powerhouse Payne Haas to their roster.<\/p>\n

The move to Sydney\u2019s south-eastern suburbs \u2013 with Fifita now based in Maroubra \u2013 has also been a refreshing change of pace. It\u2019s an area Bennett and teammate Jack Wighton have grown fond of.<\/p>\n

Fifita drinks a caramel latte on the day of matches \u2013 caffeine, if we\u2019re being honest, that is a bit more Rooster than Rabbitoh.<\/p>\n

Loading<\/p>\n

Privately, the Roosters may take some solace from the fact the Fifita deal never materialised, given his patchy form. But if the back-rower has a major influence on Friday night \u2013 a match that could also become memorable if Alex Johnston breaks Ken Irvine\u2019s all-time Australian top flight try-scoring record \u2013 it would only rub salt into the wound.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe brings a big physical presence with the ball,\u201d said Souths skipper Cam Murray of Fifita. \u201cIt takes a lot of energy and effort to get him down. He attracts a lot of defenders and is so dangerous in open space.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice to have someone in your side like that who can bend the line as much as he does.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s bought into what we\u2019re doing, he\u2019s happy here and wants to continue to the direction we\u2019re going.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It will be the first time he has faced the club that thought it had him while playing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":536172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-536171","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\/536171","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=536171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/536172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}