PAUL ROWLEY has confirmed the signing of David Nofoaluma for the Salford Red Devils.
The 30-year-old winger left Wests Tigers under a cloud at the start of 2024, but he will now be making the move to Super League.
“He will be coming over in the foreseeable future. It’s the first step toward addressing that issue and it’s a strong step towards addressing that issue,” Rowley said.
“We lost Ken (Sio) and Joe (Burgess) during pre-season, they were big boots to fill. In Ethan Ryan and David Nofoaluma and even Chris Hankinson I think we have added some real quality to our backline.
“We have got a little bit of depth now and a lot of quality. We are happy about getting David.
“We’ve been in conversation with a lot of players and then the measures have blocked some moves where players are now playing in other Super League teams with deals pretty much one.
“David was one of those but his relationship with Krisnan Inu (Salford assistant coach) helped. His has has been advantageous for us. We got it over the line when we needed to and that relationship was at the forefront of David picking us over others.
“I know he has had better offers but his relationship with Kris was a deal breaker.”
Rowley also has no qualms about Nofoaluma’s controversial axing at Wests Tigers.
Despite being a Wests veteran, the 30-year-old was loaned out to the Melbourne Storm at the end of the 2022 NRL season before reportedly being told by new Tigers head coach Benji Marshall that he wouldn’t play first-grade with the club again.
That led to Nofoaluma taking the alleged comments to the Rugby League Players’ Association (RLPA) as the winger took legal advice over the issue.
He then refused to train with the Tigers which was seen as the first breach before arriving late to training after two weeks of talks between himself, Wests and the RLPA.
Nofoaluma was then released following a second breach of his contract, with Salford the grateful recipients.
“The club has done really well to back the coaching staff there and bring us a new player so we are grateful for that,” Rowley continued.
“It doesn’t worry us, like anything else there are two sides to every story. We take everything on face value like we did with Tim Lafai.
“Unfortunately we are not top of the tree and beggars can’t be choosers but on this occasion we got our man and we back ourselves to manage him correctly.
“Kris is a good judge of character. I know he has had better offers but his relationship with Kris was a deal breaker. He wants to start enjoying his rugby and get his head down and potentially earn a contract further down the line.”
So when will Nofoaluma arrive?
“Not sure yet, hopefully it should be a quick turnaround.”
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