If he leaves it’s too us….
Fulton connection: The reason he was at Manly to begin with because Fulton recruited him and they have a good relationship as he recruited the whole Fainu family to Manly (all 4 of them). Fulton has a good relationship with the family.
Feledy connection: His former captain, these two fit like a glove as a pairing on the left side and you’d assume Fainu would love the idea of playing with him again.
Sione connection: we have his brother already at the club, reports are it’ll be a package deal with his other brother as they wanna play together. Why wouldn’t they all want to link up together the 3 of them.
Western Sydney/Family connection: The Fainu family are a very very very close family and don’t think he’ll ever want to relocate from Western Sydney as he’s grown up there his whole life. His uncle also played for Wests Magpies back in the day so some family history.
Benji connection: As a young 6 from Western Sydney growing up watching prime Benji, having the opportunity to play under him would be extremely appealing. They have similarities in their games with their flair but Benji was just quicker whilst Fainu is stronger. Our attack style and the way we want to play suits Fainu’s style massively, the space Api/TDS could create for him would be huge. Benji has also been very vocal about wanting players to embrace a level of X-factor and not shy away from their instincts.
Forward pack and facilities: For a young half when you look at our forward pack… you’d be frothing from the mouth and the ability to have Api as your 9 would be attractive as well. On top of that, Manly’s facilities are arguably the worst in the league if we were to give him a tour of our COE and allow him to compare I think he would be happy to make the move.
Sell the young dream:
1: Bula (most likely going to win ROTY)
6: Fainu (best 6 prospect in the comp)
7: Lot of salary cap to make a move
9. Tallyn Da Silva (best 9 prospect in the comp)
That spine has the ability to be anything and Fainu knows that. Combine that with other young players like Tupou, Feledy, Stefano, Papalili, To’a, Pole, Twal and Blore etc and then the experience of Api, Bateman and Klemmer.
If we somehow don’t get him signed and he goes elsewhere with all this in our favour, then we have a serious problem.