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.
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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.
Exactly 💯 don't let chiefs BS get in the way of the actual truth.
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.
Truth what's the plan Mike Tyson mentions everyone has a plan until you get punched in the face well we knew we were losing Brown the plan stop gap and wait for juniors.
Lomax leaves ok cool what's the plan.
Are juniors the plan ?
Are we just waiting for something to come up with regards to replacement and depth.How the fark with anyone with a recruitment and retention brain believes Tago should be in your top 30 contract regardless.That guy should be playing reserve grade at best and no where near a FG roster he's not it as an example.
Back 5 is so important in this nrl and we've been deficient of it since 2020.Fergo started the rot.We got a stop gap in there in Opacic.We got the best years out of Sivo and now I feel in such a key area of the team we are yet again left deficient.The recruitment plan and development of it has been poor.
Well again as i mentioned about Galvin, they sort of showed their hand a little with their attempted recruitment. MON said on TCT last year they wanted another back to sign, they never got one. They went for Cody Ramsay, didn't get him. They are now looking at Brian Kelly. Could say now Kelly is a bridge to someone else.
Who is that someone else? Rokosuka perhaps? They hedging their bets Alamaddeine will all of a sudden be consistently decent?
Common theme of going for players, missing out, we invest in juniors.
How is Lomax laughing at us? He left for R360 and it hasn't worked out. He still wanted out but at the same time it was not like we really wanted him to stay, he's kicking stones let's just do it. It was agreed upon very quickly, Parramatta came to the party quickly and Ryles was very open to his release. Says a lot.
How is that him laughing at us? Yeah we are weaker without him but we also were firm on our clause for him not to play elsewhere until 2029 unless we agree to it.
Plus talk of transfer fee is that it happened and that is it. That will stay will the club the amount. Not a lot of info leaks out of Parramatta.
Sorry but a Winger screwing our season? It is more important of a position than it used to be but come on.
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