The son of Immortal and Manly icon Bob,Scott Fulton had led Manly’s shift into western Sydney,signing players like Haumole Olakau’atu,Josh Schuster and the Fainu brothers,who then linked with him once more at the Tigers.

Fulton had been in talks with the Dragons,and reportedly another unknown rival club,before linking with the Tigers,and is highly regarded in club circles.

The Tigers have enjoyed long overdue wins on the recruitment front in recent times,led by themarquee signing of Panthers premiership-winner Jarome Luai on a five-year,$6 million deal after knocking back a similar verbal bid from Canterbury.

Richardson has lauded Luai’s arrival in 2025 as havingthe potential to match that of Greg Inglis’s move to South Sydney in 2011.

It was Marshallwho led the initial pursuit of Luai rather than Fulton,with the rookie coach meeting Luai at his home before Pascoe and then Richardson handled the rest of his multimillion-dollar contract.

The rookie coach flew to Melbourne to meet with Olam before again handing the remainder of the process to Richardson.

The Tigers’ interest in Olam was put on hold for several weeks while awaiting Luai’s decision.

Fulton led the club’s push for Addin Fonua-Blake,tabling a lucrative four-year deal for the Dally M prop that was then withdrawn by Richardson when he stepped into the CEO role.

Olam found himself out of favour for the first time in his NRL career in 2023,dropped by Craig Bellamy late in the season before returning for Melbourne’s finals campaign.

As well as Luai and Olam,the club has signed playmakers Jayden Sullivan (until the end of 2027) and Aidan Sezer (mutual option for 2025) as notable recruits under Fulton’s watch,though there was angst between he and Marshall about signing Sezer from the UK.

The Tigers had also previously expressed interest in Newcastle’s Bradman Best,who was tabled a three-year extension by the Knights in November.

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