Nelson Asofa-Solomona has turned his back on up to seven NRL clubs interested in his service, quitting the NRL to take up a full-time deal in boxing.
News.com.au can exclusively reveal the NRL’s biggest man has quit rugby league indefinitely to pursue his dream of becoming a heavyweight boxing champion.
The 115kg enforcer has also become the first off-contract player to shun the mega bucks of R360 and also the riches on offer in the English Super League.
The former Melbourne Storm forward has signed a full-time boxing deal and could earn up to $1m a year in his new sport.
Plans are already underway for a rugby league super fight with another high profile NRL behemoth.
Replies
Players want to go to any club that will overpay them.
I'm blaming the club for the lack of response or signings of letting one of the best wingers go. Why was Ryles so quick to get rid of an elite player pisses me right the fuck off without getting an recruitment play. If we are relying on simmo, Tago or juniors count our days it's going to be a long season.
Chief I know you mean well, but atm with our current team we are trekking to become bottom 3. Shits gonna hit the roof with the fans.
No. I'll say fringe 8 . Good chance of making the 8 bazza
Bazz its a slow burn for Parramatta. We're in the same shoes as the dragons - not being considered to be anywhere near the top 4 chances, making it difficult to attract the top echelon players. We can blame ba for a lot of it making mistakes in holding on to the wrong personal after making the 22 gf. I don't know if BA was given too much power but it seems the current hierarchy are blaming him for the majority of the fuck ups, including making bad decisions in buying has been players as back ups rather than developing players. Our reserve grade list in the past has been a total basket case.
Now we can see changes, our development is one of the best but its very early. I saw many top prospects at Fairfield training on Saturday, Teancum Brown, Ryda Tualagi and Sam Tualagi will form the cornerstone of our pack for years to come along with Jessaia Funaiuta.
Lincoln Fletcher, he is the new club leader in fitness. He beat out Ryley Smith in every run on Saturday. I think the club are grooming him to be our next 6.
These guys are still very young, but we're in a great position. The likes of Ryley Smith, Kitione Kautoga and Iongi were unheard of this time last year and there's three players who are now mainstays and there'll be more in 26.
We're definitely on track. If we can land a big fish like Kolomatagi, it could be a major turning point of this club. Time will tell but we have to wait
Arthur could only bring through the juniors our pathways was producing. In 2018 we nstarted a rebuild with players from our strong SG Ball winning team and our NYC side that made the grand final. Arthur's brought those youngsters through and we made a grand final. Then in 2020 Covid hit and the club's revenue dropped off a cliff. We didn't start investing in pathways again until 2022, making SG Ball grand finals in '23 and '25. That's why we now have strong juniors again ready to come into first grade. For a few years there we didn't have them. It wasn't the coach's fault and the current crop isn't because of the coach either. Pathways aren't the head coach's responsibility.
Margo Kneel baits a lot of hooks but he never lands the fish...I think he ties the hook to the line with a granny knot then wonders why he can't land 'em in the boat.
I am certain Margo reveiws his own KPI's...how else would he still be here
We have a 10% of a 1/3rd of a chance with Koalamatangi
Nope I don't rate NAS at all and glad they didn't buy him. But the club need to get their act into gear and purchase a player to cover Lomax at least..If the club has stacks of 💰 💰 💰 left where is it going? As they're not buying anyone? Is it going into the CEO, coaching superfund
CE, I know you are old and stupid....but even you would realise that money provided for the cap by the NRL cannot go to the CEO , coaching superfund etc.
Now you can make some reasonable comments so why degrade yourself with dumb comments like that.
A better question is simply where are the Administration spending the money, which players, whether top 30 or development, depth etc.
My guess amongst all the rhetoric is that players don't want to come to Parra, simply not attracted but the pot of money is being saved for once the fallout is finished. All the players we have been talking about Koota from Souths, NAS from Melb were the best we were going to do and arguably that would not have meant much happening other than satisfiring the "group" on here that are demanding "someone " be signed.
My preference is don't sign anyone that is not going to make us a more competitive side for the sake of buying what we already have. We all know what we want and they are simply not available!
I was basica[ly convinced eventually/coming around with the other 95% on here that Lomax was not wanted.
That said I am now coming back around again to my original thoughts that we should never have released him untill we had an adequate replacement.....and bugger whether he wanted to be here or not.
He is now laughing at us and has managed a getaway we should not have allowed. Hindsight is always fine especially under the circumstances and me whinging about that becomes meaningless.
I have great faith in the development of our forwards but shit where is our backline going to take us, and I am not talking depth. Which we don't have anyway?
It has fcuked our season and who knows what effect it has had on players who may have come here otherwise?
PS what ever happened to the talk of Lomax's transfer fee?
Is it really a group "demanding someone be signed Pops" or could it be a group getting very annoyed even pissed that we keep missing players we have identified and gone after. I am definetely in the last group without doubt. The first group definition not so much.
Our back 3 of Simmo, Penisni and Russell won't put much fear into the opposition. I don't believe they are fast enough and/or footy smart enough to capitalise on what Moses, Pezet, Iongi and Addo Carr can open up for them.
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