Seeing Benji announce his retirement from the game showed me he pure class. He thanked everybody starting with his first coach, Tim Sheen & all the coaching & admin staff that he had dealing with. He thanked the NRL the supporters of every club he had to do with. He mentioned he learnt a lot of lessons playing footy, he said the start was great, everyone saying how good he was & he was on top of the world. But then injuries set it, lost of form & speed you start to doubt yourself. But he never gave up & said to the younger players, NRL is a journey & to be good you have to put up with the good & bad. Special mention to Wayne Bennett, great to see him joke with the super coach. He happy he leaving on his terms, he was always going to make Grandfinal week about the team, not himself & he didn't want to carry the pressure into the last game. At last his family on both sides & he mentioned how proud he was to leave this dream for others to follow. And last he thank his rock, his wife, I tell you this guy is a super star maybe the best Kiwi to lace on a pair of boots & their are many to choose from. Good luck Benji, thanks for the show!
It certainly make you think how Hayne left the sport after that dreadful decision to go to the states. It all went down hill from there & when he returned, it got worse. He lost his opportunity to retire, he disappeared into a black hole where everything he done for Rugby League, will mean nothing in the future as he will always be remembered for his disgraceful act that he was convicted for.
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Benji and Hayne were traveling similar paths in their younger days. Differences were the family members who's job it is to keep them grounded.
If we signed the bloke for 12 months I wouldn't have been upset.
You have to wonder what sort of mentoring value he could have been for Dylan Brown. Given that, I assume, he had no other offers, you could probably have got him for close to minimum contract.
What would the chances of BA doing that, he seems to have made the decision with his backup half. My guess is Benji could get to about 50 before JA would catch him for pace.
NB, If he is patient enough (BA that is), young JA could be ok in a couple of years, he will need to put on about 5 metres in pace, which isn't impossible at his age. Physically he will get stronger .......its the speed and agility that he needs to work on.
If we are going to have JA play more than one game in First Grade next year, specifically as a replacement for Moses or Brown, you can write those games off. A serious injury to either of those two and JA is the replacement, write the season off.
The fact that he was on the field for the Manly, Souths debackles was enough to tell you the players have no confidence in him.
So negitive Poppa , your bias against JA really damages your opinions credibility. You're better than that .
Yes your right Wiz, I am ashamed, I should not be knocking the kid, only supporting him and by that factor the team. I'm glad I have someone with your wisdom to point these things out.
Definately have taken your comments on board and will look to be more proactive with my critique in the future.
Look forward to these mentoring moments, makes me feel young again.
PS "Negative" is spelt with an "a" .
He missed 70 games at the start of his career due to injury. Had he managed to play half of them, he'd be second only to Cameron Smith in number of matches played. Which again shows you how lucky and durable Cronk and Smith were to both avoid any form of long term or recurring injuries.
Seems Wayne is a done deal for the new Dolphins Team...https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nrl-premiership/nrl-2021-wayne-ben...
Wouldn't surprise me if he took Benji with him as a mentor to the new team / field runner similar to Langer at the Bronco's. Benji played some games for the Dolphins during his Bronco's days too.
Nice contrast Tin Tin on the way Benji retired with a lot of footy dignity and Hayne,s unfortunate demise I liked Hayne trying to pursue his child hood dream to play in the USA. Testosterone was his undoing and maybe his dream was an illusion.
It was a sad end, his picture only needs to be posted among other footy players & people go off! Unfortunately he has ruined his life in so many levels. Yes it was his dream, but it quickly turned into a nightmare. No many players leave the NRL & come back as good or better than when they left. Matt Rogers is probably the only one that came back & played better. Others came back, made first grade to their credit, but they were never the same.