Given that he gave up social media at the start of the year, in a bid to stop being confronted with speculation about his own future, Jahream Bula didn’t immediately catch on to the description of his playing style as “creamy”.
It’s one of the adjectives Canterbury supremo Phil Gould recently used in commentary for Nine, the owner of this masthead, to characterise the Wests Tigers fullback.
“He’s just creamy, so fluid, beautiful, like apple pie on a Sunday,” Gould gushed.
Now that he has recommitted to the Tigers on a four-year deal – ending any speculation that he might transfer to Gould’s Bulldogs – Bula can see the lighter side of it all.
“At first I thought it was funny,” Bula said.
“I was watching a replay of the game, and then I heard it and at first I was like, ‘What the heck?’
“I had to go back and listen to it again. I knew that the boys would get onto it, so now I think it’s gonna be sticking with me forever.
“It is flattering, it is good coming from someone like Gus.”
Speculation that Gould’s public praise, akin to the type he showered upon Lachlan Galvin before prising him out of the Tigers, was a poaching ploy is a moot point.
Gould himself congratulated the Tigers on sealing the Bula deal on the latest edition of his Six Tackles with Gus podcast on Wednesday. “Jahream Bula, you’ve heard me talking about him,” Gould said. “It’s great when they stay with their own clubs and he’s seen fit to do that … fullbacks are so important in the modern game and he’s one of the emerging, really good fullbacks … A wonderful result for them, signing Jahream Bula.”
Over the course of the past six months, during protracted negotiations with Bula’s agent, the Tigers felt they had got their man. However, Bula said he wanted to see how the club would start the season, and any concerns were allayed after it climbed to fifth spot on the ladder after nine rounds.
The 24-year-old even felt the club would earn a breakthrough premiership before his contract extension expired.
“Yeah, I think so,” he said.
“We’ve got the players to do it, we’ve got the skills to do it. And I think we’ve shown it against some of the best teams.”
Bula opted to recommit to the Tigers before news broke that fellow spine player and co-captain Jarome Luai announced that he would join the PNG Chiefs from 2028.
“I had already made my decision before he announced that, it was just the timing,” Bula said, adding he had no second thoughts after learning of Luai’s looming departure.
“I think the culture that we have here, we’ve still got him for the next 18 months, so we’re so happy to have him here for that period of time.
“We’re gonna do all that we can with him. We know that he will give us his best during that time period.”
Bula’s previous contract contained options that sparked conjecture over how long he would stay at the club. The Fijian international opted against inserting similar clauses in his new agreement.
“I didn’t want to deal with all that sort of stuff and I just wanted to be committed for however long I signed for, and not have any options to get out or anything,” he said.
“I would just keep giving my best foot forward for the four years that I’m here.”
Asked what convinced him to stay, Bula said: “I think the way that this club has been moving forward.
“We’ve come so far since the first time I’ve been here and we’re still not anywhere near where we can be, which is the exciting thing.
“I love what [coach] Benji [Marshall] is doing, the leadership as well.”
