Always loved watching Astle play
General 2015 Warriors Where Are They Now?
- Thread starter mt.wellington
- Start date
Didn't know where to put this but just watched a good interview with Israel Dagg talking to Ngani Laumape online on prime. He said he wishes he knew now what he didn't at the Warriors about professionalism as once he made the Warriors that was enough since he was making money that he could only dream of after struggling growing up.
The lure of a title probably doesn't matter a huge amount to a lot of guys who just want to set their family up aswell as themselves. I remember on the keeping the faith doco the 2002 team that made the final got a big end of year bonus and that was a big obviously a big incentive.
Said he loved his time at the Warriors.
The lure of a title probably doesn't matter a huge amount to a lot of guys who just want to set their family up aswell as themselves. I remember on the keeping the faith doco the 2002 team that made the final got a big end of year bonus and that was a big obviously a big incentive.
Said he loved his time at the Warriors.
bruce
Contributor
NRL: Former Warriors star PJ Marsh opens up on struggles 20 years after serious neck injury.
Former New Zealand Warriors star PJ Marsh says he still struggles with recurring pain following a serious neck injury suffered almost 20 years ago.
Marsh played 35 games for the Warriors across three seasons in between stints with the Parramatta Eels before ending his career at the Broncos.
He started in the Warriors' grand final defeat against the Sydney Roosters in 2002, the same year he made his State of Origin debut for Queensland.
But the following year he suffered a serious neck injury playing against the Eels.
In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, he has revealed almost 20 years later he's still dealing with the pain.
"I don't want this to be about 'poor me' but things are hard. I can't even go for a run, the pounding on the footpath is too hard, I can't use the gym," Marsh told the Daily Telegraph.
"I just deal with it and get on with it."
Marsh opened up about the tackle in the round 14 game at Parramatta Stadium when Eels second-rower Darren Treacy joined a tackle attempt, putting pressure around the Warriors hooker's neck.
"I heard a couple of cracking noises," Marsh said. "It was probably accidental. I fell into it a bit.
"As I tried to get up to play the ball I had this ridiculous pain through my whole body.
"It scared the absolute shit out of me. You try to wiggle your toes and move your fingers.
"It's shocking fear. They put me in a brace. Then an ambulance. Then hospital and I couldn't move for two days."
X-rays later revealed a neck fracture which saw Marsh miss the rest of the 2003 season and the entire season the following year. He continued playing in 2005 until a back injury lead to medical retirement in 2009.
The Broncos paid out the final year of his contract but the medical bills still went up as he continued to undergo tests by making the trip from his home in Yeppoon to see specialists in Brisbane.
"The cost has been enormous," he said.
"In any other industry where you get hurt as seriously as I did, you get your medical bills paid or at least some help with them.
"I've tried cortisone injections and exhausted every medical avenue ... It all adds up.
Marsh also spoke about the mental health battles that he has faced after his career. He turned his back on rugby league and didn't want his sons to play the sport with his wife registering them while he was away one weekend.
"I couldn't believe the game wiped me the way it did. I've never had anyone check on me since the day I retired. Maybe I'm partly to blame because I just sucked it up and didn't reach out for help.
"A lot of people do the old 'there's a lot of people out there going worse than you'. Well, am I meant to feel better because some poor bugger feels even worse than me. At my lowest points, I felt pretty damn ordinary. I hated football, I hated everything. I didn't watch it, I didn't want my kids to play. I gave all my jerseys away. My Warriors grand final jerseys. I didn't want anything to remind me of the shit I'd been through.
"It was my wife, who has been incredibly supportive, and three beautiful kids that kept me going."
Marsh's 15-year-old son Braelan recently signed with the Dolphins and has been in the Broncos and Cowboys development squads.
Marsh revealed his situation because he wants strong penalties and deterrents to continue in the NRL, especially around crusher tackles.
"You've got to make the consequences serious to stamp them out.
"They can potentially end a career. They're worse than a punch.
"The bunker should be able to pick them up and they can act on it.
"Not just on report but use the sin bin. You don't see a punch anymore because you're immediately off."
Marsh said the neck pains aren't there every day but it's still a recurring issue.
"It's for peace of mind because I still get nervous that something in my neck isn't right.
"The pain in my back and neck still gets me ... Not every day but it's there. I've learnt to live with it.
"I just don't want my kids or any other footballer to experience what I've been through."
Source: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/nr...rious-neck-injury/YZHDAROXXXROUNHLAS5RJZX32E/
Ever Hopeful
Contributor
That's not pleasant to read, and puts the judiciary stuff in a clearer light. One of my favourite Warriors player of all time.
playdaball
Heritage Member
I just saw Monty’s interview with Nathan Friend - he was very honest, esp with the 3 coaches he had. He didn’t rate Bluey, Elliot or Cappy.
bruce
Contributor
playdaball
Heritage Member
Possibly not, but a player isn’t usually that straight up:
Bluey: good guy , but coaching kiwis different from NRL. Didn’t have ability to change game plans
Elliot: no one understood what he was saying
Cappy: a surprise …. Said he wasn’t honest??????
bruce
Contributor
Bluey was never a good coach. Lost of dud coached the Kiwis to wins. Check out Bob Bailey or Tank Gordon.
and he made it hard for them to admit that!! Especially boards of directors
Cappy had been an assistant promoted to the top job. Graham Lowe was always down on that and it is also management 101, or maybe 401.
Very refreshing to listen to some honest answers about his time with the club and the difficult times could be attributed to not having a strong leader at the helm like he experienced with Craig Bellamy at Melbourne.
I remember Chad Townsend spoke very highly of Cappy. But that was in regards to halfback specific coaching.
It’s very rare for players to speak poorly of past clubs, coaches and other players.
The sport is very professional in that sense, to the point we rarely see what really happens behind the scenes.
Yeah pretty uncommon to publicly bite the hand that use to feed you.
But he’s simply re-iteration g what we all complained about when these morons were coaching the team.
The only coach with any skill, intelligence and common sense, was Nathan Cleary. And we got rid of him. Unbelievable.
Geez BM I didn’t realise Nathan had that much sway while representing the Lions U8 restricted team
Jokes aside that will go down as one of (if not the biggest) blunders in the clubs history
playdaball
Heritage Member
bruce
Contributor
Stay off whatever you are on bro, it was Ivan Cleary. John Monie was second, which speaks volumes.
Almost a one hit wonder: How Erin Clark saved his career
Source: https://www.nrl.com/news/2022/08/05/almost-a-one-hit-wonder-how-erin-clark-saved-his-career/When Erin Clark’s once promising rugby league career stalled in the months following his 20th birthday, he knew something drastic would need to happen for him to ever want, or have the chance, to return to the NRL arena.
His rise to first-grade as a teenager with the Warriors in 2017 was quick, but so too was the subsequent fall, and months later Clark made a mid-season switch to the Raiders.
That too was ill-fated and lasted just months before he was released without playing a single NRL game for the Green Machine.
His return to Auckland appeared to signal the end of any professional rugby league prospects, but instead over the next two years Clark slowly discovered a new level of self-awareness and purpose back at his junior club the Manurewa Marlins.
Now set to play his 50th Telstra Premiership on Friday night against the Storm, the 24-year-old Titan credits the two-year stint back home in Auckland for getting his life and career back on track.
“I’m glad I had those two years off because they kinda molded me into who I am today, the father I am, the person I am,” Clark told NRL.com.
“Just making me appreciate what I have. If you do this from so young it feels like more of a job than something you love, which was the point it got to.
“We all have our journey and I’m happy those two years came, because I needed it to refresh and reflect.”
A flashy halfback growing up, Clark was better than most he came up against in Auckland and he knew it.
Named by the Warriors as the Player of the Tournament at the New Zealand secondary schools nationals in 2014, he was hot property well before making his National Youth Competition debut with the club as a 17-year-old the following year.
But with a mouth to match his fast feet, Clark had a habit of rubbing people up the wrong way at times, according to former Manurewa coach Ben Phillips.
“I used to go down and watch his high school games and think ‘look at this cocky little prick’, that’s how I used to see him,” Phillips told NRL.com
“I quickly found he was actually a nice fella, you just had to get past that arrogance.
“Don’t get me wrong, even when he came back [to Manurewa in 2018] he had a bit of a big head.
“I think a few of the boys sort of pinned him down a bit and that’s when the real Erin turned up and started contributing.”
When he looks back now, Clark said his mindset at the time was never going to cut it in the NRL.
“I was just young, arrogant, thought you had it all. But looking back I had nothing,” Clark said.
“I had good backing, good parents, so it wasn’t that. They always kept me grounded.
After experiencing life at both the Warriors and Raiders, and playing on the international stage with Samoa, it was back in the Auckland club environment, where most play for the love of it and maybe an occasional fuel voucher, that Clark rediscovered his passion for the game.
Surrounded by his childhood friends, the desire to give it another crack at the highest level started to return.
“That was one of the reasons I went back there, just to have that social side of footy, play with my mates, like we all do when we are younger,” Clark said.
“Even just to have a beer after the game with a few of your friends, that was something I enjoyed.
“I had good people around me and they always kept whispering in my ear ‘bro, you shouldn’t be here, you know where you should be’, so that kept me striving to get back to the NRL.”
Phillips said during that time Clark also benefitted from the presence of Manurewa’s head coach at the time, Neccrom Areaiiti, who played a lone NRL match for South Sydney back in 2012 and could relate to the situation better than most.
“When [Erin] came back his head wasn’t in a good place,” Phillips said.
“He just wanted to play with his mates and be with all his boys again. He found the love again for the game because he was playing with all his mates again.
“Neccrom had been in that environment the same as Erin, and Neccrom was always on him, not pressuring him, but guiding him and encouraging him.
“We are just so stoked for the guy now; we are so proud.”
As he approaches game 50 at NRL level, Clark also finds himself firmly in the frame for New Zealand selection at this year’s World Cup.
His Kiwis prospects will have only improved in recent weeks too, with Clark showing an ability to play as a middle forward as well as a hooker for the Gold Coast.
Kiwis coach Michael Maguire said Clark had been on his radar for some time before he picked him in the wider squad for the mid-year Test against Tonga.
“To have Erin come in and have a look at what is required at this level, it’s up to him now to step it up and take it forward,” Maguire told NRL.com.
“He wants to grow his game, that’s what I have always got from Erin.
“He’s talking to Issac Luke, he looks at other players to grow his game. It takes time to understand how to play that role at the highest level.”
Clark now has the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of his mum Temepara – who played for New Zealand in netball – in representing his country of birth, having already had the chance to play for Samoa.
