The Sydney Morning Herald
Tigers go to war with Nofoaluma after serving termination letter
Michael Chammas
January 23, 2024 — 10.00am
David Nofoaluma’s future at the Wests Tigers hangs in the balance with the out-of-favour winger summoned to front the club’s new-look board on Wednesday night after being served a termination letter.
The Herald can reveal the Tigers have offered Nofoaluma a termination payout of close to $300,000 to walk away from the final two years of his deal, which are worth just over $1 million. The offer, which comes after being issued his second breach notice in a month, is yet to be accepted.
It comes amid explosive accusations made by the Tigers’ greatest try-scorer to the Rugby League Players’ Association that rookie coach Benji Marshall told him that he would not play NRL again if he stayed at the Wests Tigers.
Almost eight years ago, a nasty feud erupted between club legend Robbie Farah and then-coach Jason Taylor, who tried to push the hooker out of the club by indicating his future would be in reserve grade if he stayed.
History now appears to be repeating itself. Nofoaluma has sought legal advice about the comments made to him and the perception of unfair treatment from the club’s coaching staff.
He is expected to be accompanied by the RLPA’s solicitor when he fronts the Tigers board to fight for his career later this week. New Tigers chief executive Shane Richardson declined to comment when contacted by this masthead.
“We’re continuing to work through it with all parties involved and are not in a position to make further comment,” RLPA boss Clint Newton said.
Nofoaluma’s second sanction in a month came last week after he failed to adhere to club protocols when it comes to missing training due to illness.
The veteran winger notified a club official that he was not going to be able to attend training last Monday due to a bout of gastro, however did not respond to the club doctor’s attempts to contact him for the next 48 hours.
The club, after numerous attempts by several people to contact him, had to send a player to his house to check on Nofoaluma’s welfare.
This masthead first revealed in December that Nofoaluma refused to turn up to training over a perception of unfair treatment from the club, including the training methods adopted by the coaching staff.
Nofoaluma struggled physically and with his fitness levels upon returning to pre-season training and was one of the team’s least impressive performers in a time trial, struggling to keep up with the new standards at the club driven by Marshall.
After a series of meetings with the club and the RLPA, Nofoaluma returned to training almost two weeks later but was then sanctioned by the club for arriving late for a training session before the Christmas break.
Nofoaluma, who still has two seasons to run on his deal with the joint venture club worth about $525,000 a season, once again finds himself in hot water after being served another breach notice last week.
Nofoaluma has been handed at least three breach notices by the club in recent years.
This masthead reported back in 2021 that he was stood down from the club’s senior leadership group after turning up to training hungover the morning after the wedding of former chairman Lee Hagipantelis’ daughter.
Nofoaluma, who was at the wedding alongside then-coach Michael Maguire, was unable to finish the session the following morning and was sanctioned for his indiscretion.
The Tigers have been trying to offload the winger to a rival club for the past two years and even lent him to the Melbourne Storm at the end of 2022 as part of a loan deal for the final few games of the regular season and the finals.
Nofoaluma has scored 100 tries from 192 games for the Tigers since his debut for the joint venture club in 2013.
His services have been offered to rival clubs on numerous occasions over the past two years, but the Tigers haven’t been able to agree on the amount they would contribute as part of his release. Nofoaluma had also attracted interest from the Super League.
