An emerging hooker has decided to leave the Gold Coast Titans to take up a train and trial contract with another NRL team for the 2025 season.
Spending the last two seasons at the Titans on a train and trial contract, which saw him play in the NRL Pre-Season Challenge, Zero Tackle understands that Vaka Sikahele has joined the Melbourne Storm.
In joining the Storm, Sikahele has landed a train and trial contract with the club and will also move from the Tweed Seagulls to the Brisbane Tigers - the feeder team of the Melbourne Storm - in the QLD Cup competition.
Formerly with the Burleigh Bears, the 23-year-old made 18 appearances this season in the QLD Cup, where he made 448 tackles at 90.9 per cent tackle efficiency and provided one try assist and two line-break assists.
As a teenager, he was named on the New Zealand Schoolboys team, selected for the SAS College Rugby League Team of the Year, and was part of the New Zealand Warriors development squad.
Idolosing Damien Cook, he was touted as one of the best up-and-coming players coming through the Auckland rugby league scene before making the switch to Australia.
Unfortunately, his career has continually been hampered by injuries and did his MCL and PCL at the end of the 2023 season in the QLD Cup Grand Final.
"I did my MCL and PCL in the grand final last year playing for Burleigh and I'm just grateful and thank god that it's not that bad," Sikahele told 7 News Gold Coast at the end of 2023, thanking Jayden Campbell for helping him recover.
"I'm super thankful for my rehab buddy JC too... we are always on the bike and swimming… that's been mostly our rehab at the moment.
"He started running recently as well, so it's good to be doing that together with him and he has so much energy in rehab.
"When you're doing it with him, you don't feel alone. Sometimes when you're doing rehab by yourself, it's such a lonely place… but having JC there with me is so good."