‘Selfish of me to go on’: Dolphins star lifts lid on retirement amid tears for ‘proudest moment’

Daniel Saifiti has described the decision to medically retire from rugby league due to a shoulder injury as emotional and easy after putting his partner and kids ahead of playing on in the NRL.

The 30-year-old will hung up the boots after 19 tries in 183 games for the Knights and Dolphins from 2016 to 2026, including seven Origins for NSW and three Tests for Fiji.

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However, a shoulder injury eight games into his three-year deal with the Dolphins in 2025 never recovered, to the point he couldn’t return to the field and he made the call to walk away for his family and the club.

“The shoulder’s just not holding up,” Saifiti said.

“We tried our best to do full contact and all that type of stuff, but it just would have become a liability and would have been unfair on me and the team if I had to try to keep going.

“I’ve probably known for a while to be honest, it’s just risking more damage and it’s just going to affect my quality of life after footy.

“Two young kids and I want to have more and a beautiful partner, so it would be selfish of me to keep going.”

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Saifiti admitted the final call on his career was both hard and easy after putting his long-term health and his family ahead of his football ambitions.

“I said it to the boys then, it was the hardest but it was also easy too,” Saifiti said.

“If I don’t have kids maybe it’s different, but when you’re struggling to pick the kids up when you come back from training it makes the decision pretty easy.”

The former Origin star still had two years on his contract to see out, but made the selfless call to help the club move on.

“I sat down with Woolfie at start of the year and I’ve got two more years in my contract, so if I wanted to keep going I could have,” Saifiti said.

“But I think being a front-rower is the most physical position on the team, you can’t hide, so we tried doing full contact and just didn’t go well at all.

“So then had another sit down with the shoulder specialists and we all agreed that for everyone it’s just beneficial just to make a decision now.”

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Despite only being at the Dolphins for a short time, Saifiti revealed how hard it was to tell his teammates about his decision.

“It was pretty emotional, I love those boys,” Saifiti said as his voice cracked up.

“I’ve only been here 18 months and only got to play eight games with them, but it’s the best decision I’ve ever made coming up here,” Saifiti said.

“I’ve made friendships for life and I’ll keep in touch with these boys forever, so I think seeing the roster we’ve got, how good I know this team can be and I think I could still add something to it at my best.

“I think that’s the thing that hurts the most, good boys but it’s good for the team too, they’re going in the right direction.”

After achieving everything in the game apart from an elusive premiership, Saifiti revealed his proudest moment was playing with twin brother Jacob at the Knights for so many years.

“That’s probably my proudest achievement,” Saifiti said.

“Obviously we were born on the same day and playing in the backyard and smashing each other then and getting a debut in the same game together and then playing and that’s one of those things where I sort of took it for granted.

“It’s one of those things where when you’re doing it at the time you don’t realise it and once you sit down and look back at it now, if you had told me as a 10-year-old kid I’d have gone and played 10 years in a row, that’s pretty special.”

Jacob Saifiti is in career best form for the Knights, who have climbed up the ladder this season and his brother was on hand to watch him beat Souths in Round 9.

“I went to the game yesterday and got to see him play in Newcastle, so it was good to see all the boys and I’m still super close with all those boys down there,” Saifiti said.

“I played for 10 years down there and most of those boys already knew as well, so it wasn’t really a secret, but it was just good to see everyone and see them play good footy.

“I think if it keeps going the way it’s going I think he will be back in Origin contention as well, so I love watching him play.”

It was a cruel twist of fate that Saifiti’s Knights career was during a tough run for the club, but he has no regrets about living his rugby league dreams.

“It was a weird one, me and Jacob debuted Round 1 together as 19-year-old kids and that whole year we played we only won one game,” Saifiti said.

“So that whole year sounds weird, but I was still enjoying my footy playing against all my idols, playing with my idols and the wins and losses really did matter back then.

“It proves probably how bad the club was at the time but it was just tough. The loyal Newcastle fans we were getting 17,000 fans and we were getting beat by 60 every week.

“But they are memories I look back on fondly, my kids were born there, I met my partner there, I grew up down the road so it’s good.”

Despite leaving the playing field, Saifiti will stay with the Dolphins for the duration of his contract in an off-field role and flagged his desire to get into coaching in the future.

“I’m going to sit down with Terry Reader and go through it, I’m contracted until next year and the way the agreement is with RLPA, I still get fully paid out, but it’s by the club,” Saifiti said.

“So I’ll be around the club in either a mentoring sense or work with all the younger boys and coaching, I definitely want to get into that after footy, so I’ll just sit down with Terry and nut out a plan and go from there.”

Despite having the club’s blessing to play on if he wanted to, Saifiti has no regrets over his decision to retire, apart from not getting to give more to the club as a player.

“I feel bad for the Dolphins,” Saifiti said.

“My first eight games at the club I felt like I was back playing my good footy again, but that’s all I got out was the eight games, so it would have been selfish for me to take up all that salary cap and knowing full well that I’m probably not going to come back.”

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