{"id":560021,"date":"2026-08-05T18:44:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T18:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/560021\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T18:44:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T18:44:12","slug":"nrl-legend-sons-future-remains-cloudy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/560021\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL legend son’s future remains cloudy"},"content":{"rendered":"

The son of former NRL<\/a> star Brad Fittler<\/a> has his future rugby career up in the air after still being unsigned by the NSW Waratahs for 2027.<\/p>\n

The Sydney-based club just lost Leo Jacques to the Cronulla Sharks<\/a> a matter of days ago, and they risk losing another upcoming talent if the NRL<\/a> come sniffing to have a Fittler surname back in their code.<\/p>\n

With incoming NRL<\/a> recruit Angus Crichton<\/a> likely to take one centre position in 2027, while Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii will take another, Zach Fittler seems to be the odd man out as the club looks to work through getting him an extension.<\/p>\n

Fittler has spent this month playing for Australia<\/a> in the World Rugby Junior World Championship held in Georgia and is understood to return to local club rugby shortly.<\/p>\n

NSW director of performance BJ Mather told the Daily Telegraph\u00a0Fittler’s future at the club is \u201cstill being worked through\u201d, as the threat of wealthy European clubs and the 13-man code rises.<\/p>\n

Despite the decorated history Zach’s old man has in league, it is understood he thoroughly enjoys playing union and a birth in the NRL<\/a> is unlikely.<\/p>\n

\"NRLBrad Fittler in action during the Round 14 clash between the Wests Tigers and Penrith Panthers. (Photo: Joshua Davis)<\/p>\n

Zach played junior reps in the Sydney Roosters<\/a> system, but opted to switch to the 15-man game when the opportunity to develop professionally surfaced, but has yet to make his Super Rugby debut.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re not exactly sure where he’s going to land at the moment, but obviously he’s a player with big potential,\u201d Easts Rugby coach Ben Batger told News Corp.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he does want to stay (in union) because he is just getting better and better.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is starting to develop into a rugby player, whereas before he was a league player playing rugby.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s learning the nuances of the game, and I hope he stays because he’s certainly developing into a really good prospect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Batger was also disappointed to see Jacques leave the code for the Sharks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he’s a huge loss. I went to watch Waratahs training one day, and he already looked like a man playing against seasoned professionals even though he was only 18,” he told the publication.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlayers like him don’t grow on trees. He’s 193cm, nearly 100 kilos and fast – you want to keep those ones because they are rare.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Waratahs are yet to announce a head coach for 2027 onwards after Dan McKellar departed the club in late June after two years at the helm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The son of former NRL star Brad Fittler has his future rugby career up in the air after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":560022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-560021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=560021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/560022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}