{"id":935727,"date":"2026-10-21T04:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T04:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/935727\/"},"modified":"2026-10-21T04:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T04:12:10","slug":"wests-tigers-rising-star-forward-set-to-make-contract-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/935727\/","title":{"rendered":"Wests Tigers rising star forward set to make contract call"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/nrl\/teams\/wests-tigers\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Wests Tigers<\/a> back-rower <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/samuela-fainu\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Samuela Fainu<\/a> is close to signing an extension and will not explore the open market in November.<\/p>\n<p>The Tigers released Luai from his final year with the club, originally set for 2027, and plan to use the money from Luai&#8217;s contract to extend their back-rower.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout the season, the club feared Fainu could explore the market as back-rowers have seen a significant rise in pay packets.<\/p>\n<p>Fainu was also linked to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/nrl\/teams\/png-chiefs\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">PNG Chiefs<\/a>, who landed Luai after he declined his player options post 2027.<\/p>\n<p>The Daily Telegraph reports that Samuela is expected to sign a two-year deal and stay at the club with his brothers.<\/p>\n<p>Samuela&#8217;s market value was set to skyrocket, making him a hot commodity on the open market.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, he will sign a contract lining up the same expiration date as his brother, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/sione-fainu\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sione Fainu<\/a>, who signed a three-year extension in February this year, keeping him at Concord until the end of 2029.<\/p>\n<p>Samuela&#8217;s extension is 2 years, worth $1.6 million ($800,000 per season), with ratchet clauses to increase his salary to $1 million.<\/p>\n<p>Now, the Tigers will make sure they sign <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/latu-fainu\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Latu Fainu<\/a> to an extension, as he is part of Tonga&#8217;s World Cup side.<\/p>\n<p>The Fainu brothers wanted to play for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/rugby-league\/international-teams\/fiji\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fiji<\/a> in the World Cup; however, they could not meet the criteria with sufficient documentation to make the switch from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/rugby-league\/international-teams\/tonga\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tonga<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Samuela scored four tries in 16 games played this season and has played 60 games over the past three seasons.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the drama surrounding Luai&#8217;s move to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/nrl\/teams\/png-chiefs\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">PNG Chiefs<\/a>, ownership, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/adam-doueihi\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Adam Doueihi<\/a> late in the season, the Tigers have been able to keep a core group of talent, with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/jahream-bula\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jahream Bula<\/a>, the May brothers, Taylan and Terrell, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/heamasi-makasini\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Heamasi Makasini<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/adam-doueihi\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Adam Doueihi<\/a>, and most likely the Fainu brothers for the long term.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wests Tigers back-rower Samuela Fainu is close to signing an extension and will not explore the open market&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":935728,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-935727","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\/935727","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=935727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/935728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=935727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=935727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=935727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}