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'It's about being yourself at football,' says livewire tyro Fifita Chris Barrett
September 22, 2010
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He's not in the semi-final team yet, but look out if he makes it, writes Chris Barrett.
Andrew Fifita likes attention. The lanes carved in his hair before he rolled up to the Dally M awards red carpet with his girlfriend Nikkita are testament to that.
So is the outrageous mohawk he sported against Parramatta last month, following a two-try haul the week before. And the fact that, at the Wests Tigers open media session this week, the rookie forward wandered around Concord Oval with the comfort of a senior player, happily accepting interview requests from any member of the NRL fourth estate. What Fifita, 21, is no doubt craving, though, is a little more attention from his coach, Tim Sheens. He has appeared regularly and starred on occasion in his debut first-grade season, but has played only a combined 23 minutes in the Tigers' finals run, against the Sydney Roosters and Canberra.
Now, when the Tigers face the minor premiers St George Illawarra in the grand-final qualifying blockbuster at ANZ Stadium on Saturday night, he may not get a start. Sheens named his line-up yesterday, playing down injury concerns over halfback Robert Lui, hooker and captain Robbie Farah (both corked quads), Gareth Ellis (back) and Bryce Gibbs (toe) by listing them all.
Fifita, though, had to settle for a place at the bottom of an extended interchange bench of six, with the coach including Keebra Park High product Ben Murdoch-Masila, who has played a solitary NRL game. Murdoch-Masila made his first-grade debut in the Tigers' heartbreaking golden-point defeat to the Roosters in week one of the play-offs, playing 35 minutes. Fifita, by comparison, had to wait until eight minutes before full-time of normal time to even get on, having jogged relentlessly along the touchline in order to catch the coach's eye.
'' _trying to tell him I'm ready,'' Fifita said. ''Maybe it's because it's my first year in NRL. Bryce Gibbs came back [from injury] and I knew … it was lucky for me to even be in the team. I don't care if I got one minute on the field.\
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''My trainers kept going 'keep warm, keep warm, keep warm' and then Tim just says 'go on'. There was about eight minutes to go and I was like 'Yeah, it's about time, let's go'. I was just pumped.''\
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Sheens has a low patience threshold for showboating, particularly by the unproven. Several times this year he has refused to compliment Fifita on personal performances after being prompted by journalists, imploring the Blacktown tyro instead to ''keep his head down''.\
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''All Sheensy has said is 'You put that kind of stuff in your hair, you're like a human target going around','' Fifita said, referring to the mohawk. ''All he kept on saying was 'back it up, back it up' the whole week. I said 'Yeah, fair enough we will'. At the end of the day it's me … if they want to take me for me. It's about being yourself at football. That's how I grew up - even throughout the [under] 20s last year had blond hair.''\
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The veteran coach, though, clearly rates Fifita (he has played 21 games) and may still pick him for Saturday. So how does Fifita, a first-year player, feel about being one game away from an NRL grand final?\
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''Oh, f***! … oh, sorry,'' he said._
September 22, 2010
\
\
He's not in the semi-final team yet, but look out if he makes it, writes Chris Barrett.
Andrew Fifita likes attention. The lanes carved in his hair before he rolled up to the Dally M awards red carpet with his girlfriend Nikkita are testament to that.
So is the outrageous mohawk he sported against Parramatta last month, following a two-try haul the week before. And the fact that, at the Wests Tigers open media session this week, the rookie forward wandered around Concord Oval with the comfort of a senior player, happily accepting interview requests from any member of the NRL fourth estate. What Fifita, 21, is no doubt craving, though, is a little more attention from his coach, Tim Sheens. He has appeared regularly and starred on occasion in his debut first-grade season, but has played only a combined 23 minutes in the Tigers' finals run, against the Sydney Roosters and Canberra.
Now, when the Tigers face the minor premiers St George Illawarra in the grand-final qualifying blockbuster at ANZ Stadium on Saturday night, he may not get a start. Sheens named his line-up yesterday, playing down injury concerns over halfback Robert Lui, hooker and captain Robbie Farah (both corked quads), Gareth Ellis (back) and Bryce Gibbs (toe) by listing them all.
Fifita, though, had to settle for a place at the bottom of an extended interchange bench of six, with the coach including Keebra Park High product Ben Murdoch-Masila, who has played a solitary NRL game. Murdoch-Masila made his first-grade debut in the Tigers' heartbreaking golden-point defeat to the Roosters in week one of the play-offs, playing 35 minutes. Fifita, by comparison, had to wait until eight minutes before full-time of normal time to even get on, having jogged relentlessly along the touchline in order to catch the coach's eye.
'' _trying to tell him I'm ready,'' Fifita said. ''Maybe it's because it's my first year in NRL. Bryce Gibbs came back [from injury] and I knew … it was lucky for me to even be in the team. I don't care if I got one minute on the field.\
\
''My trainers kept going 'keep warm, keep warm, keep warm' and then Tim just says 'go on'. There was about eight minutes to go and I was like 'Yeah, it's about time, let's go'. I was just pumped.''\
\
Sheens has a low patience threshold for showboating, particularly by the unproven. Several times this year he has refused to compliment Fifita on personal performances after being prompted by journalists, imploring the Blacktown tyro instead to ''keep his head down''.\
\
''All Sheensy has said is 'You put that kind of stuff in your hair, you're like a human target going around','' Fifita said, referring to the mohawk. ''All he kept on saying was 'back it up, back it up' the whole week. I said 'Yeah, fair enough we will'. At the end of the day it's me … if they want to take me for me. It's about being yourself at football. That's how I grew up - even throughout the [under] 20s last year had blond hair.''\
\
The veteran coach, though, clearly rates Fifita (he has played 21 games) and may still pick him for Saturday. So how does Fifita, a first-year player, feel about being one game away from an NRL grand final?\
\
''Oh, f***! … oh, sorry,'' he said._
