I was surprised as well. Better player than that.
From what i hear he is just another country kid who was constantly homesick, struggled to adapt to city life, lost motivation for footy and returned home to work.
He was a South Newcastle junior. They have a very good coaching staff of Ben Cross (Now Broncs assistant), Andrew "Bobcat" Ryan and Micheal Hagan who have managed to get him to resume playing fro 2019. The Newcastle club comp is the equivalent of the Ron Massey cup and offers good coin. Quite a few ex NRL, NSW Cup and U20's running around.
Wasnt NRL ready yet and needed a year or two in NSW Cup. Very tough and hard worker who had an injury plagued 2018. Did a fair bit of training with the NRL squad, club rated him highly and wanted to keep him but as we were stacked with forwards the club couldn't offer him a top 30 or development deal for 2019 but did try to keep him through Blacktown with a view for 2020. Had plenty of interest and offers from NSW and QLD cup teams. Manly are still monitoring his progress and keeping an eye on him.
