Brad Fittler has urged David Nofoaluma to return with a positive attitude and impact at the beleaguered Wests Tigers, rather than having his head turned by his stint at the Melbourne Storm.
Fittler took aim at the controversial loan system, and said it was no shock that the players who left the Tigers for greener pastures are now seemingly reluctant to return to Concord.
“I don’t like the idea – it just muddies the water straight away already,” Fittler said on Nine’s Freddy and the Eighth.
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“There’s a few of these players, Gildart who went to the Roosters, and obviously Nofoaluma. And they’re both saying ‘we’d love to stay’ and now they’ve got to go back to the club. This was always going to happen.”
Andrew Johns said that he’d like to see Nofoaluma remain at the Storm permanently, but Fittler was having none of it.
Nofoaluma tempted to stay with Storm
“The idea is for him to come back with his experience, and be a leader,” Fittler said.
“Two years ago he was talking about getting on our bus, and chanting Tigers. All of a sudden, it’s got too hard for him.
“He should be taking their training principles and bringing them and back and go ‘this is what we should accept, and what we shouldn’t accept.’ It’s a good time for him to come back and be a leader – get on the bus Nofa!”
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The Tigers are at rock bottom right now, and are in the box seat for the first wooden spoon in the joint venture’s history.
Johns said that your attitude can shift when you’re on a bad team, as he experienced at times in the mid-2000s.
“I’ve played in a team where we got smashed and you know what? We sort of gave up. And when you say ‘give up’ it’s those 50/50 balls when you’re on the ground, you’ve got to dive at someone’s legs or knees and you go ‘ugh, we’re getting beat by 50’.
“And then your standards during the week. If you’re really careful about what you eat and then you’re like ‘we can’t make the semis, you know what? I’m just gonna have a pizza tonight. I’m gonna have that tub of ice cream. It’s Friday night, my mates are down the pub, I’ll go down there for six beers’ – that sort of stuff happens.”
“And then each player drops their standards by five or ten per cent – just reflects when you get beat by 70,” he said of the Tigers’ woes.
“I don’t know how they turn it around.”
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Last week’s awful loss to the Roosters went about as poorly as possible, but they come into the final two weeks of the season with a chance to avoid finishing last if they win at least one game, and other results go their way.
“Training’s not as fun, and when the pressure’s on, you just forget what it takes to win,” Fittler said.
“Your effort off the ball, and when the ball goes away – you’re thinking instead of moving. It’s so hard to put your finger on the difference but whatever it is, they’re not doing it.”
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