Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, most sports-mad Americans have developed a fleeting interest in late-night rugby league games to get their fix of contact sport. While seeing NFL like players butt heads without helmets, you can’t underestimate the movement in the player market of late in the National Rugby League (NRL).

The Brisbane Broncos are the LA Lakers of the competition: the dynasty team that people whisper about in the halls of early nineties sporting greatness. They’ve had a roster filled with their NRL equivalents of Kobe, Magic, Shaq, Kareem and Phil Jackson like coach. It’s a team that doesn’t lose players – until now.

Edge forward David Fifita sent the NRL world into a tailspin by announcing a move to local rivals the Gold Coast Titans. It’s the equivalent of LeBron moving across the country to the Phil Jackson version of the New York Knicks. You just wouldn’t want to imagine it happening if you were a diehard Lakers fan. So, the move has been a bitter pill for the Broncos to swallow and one that will send the odds of the Titans soaring for the 2021 competition. 

The Titans have been chasing Fifita like a bad prom date over the last two years. The Titans have made the romance public and have come across as that clingy tinder date that you just have a semblance of pity for. For a relatively young 20-year-old with a bad knee injury, the Titans have bet the house to make him one of the highest-paid players in the competition. A move that has been labelled “desperate” by NRL commentator Phil Gould.