Yeah, I enjoyed watching his League Express podcast last night. He's usually quite introverted, IMO, but I found him talkative and informative about his career. His disappointments with how it ended at Hudds and his gratitude that he got a call off DP to play full-time, without knowing which club it was at the time, enabled him to play on because he needed a full-time gig so his kids could attend their football academies, which are both rightly the centre of his world, as all doting parents. It's the reason he never moved to the NRL after that good WC. He said he got a few others but at most, it'd have been 2/3 years down under, which would have meant taking his kid out of his academy at Man City I think and he wouldn't have known whether that would have derailed his ambitions and potential career, so he got a better wage and stayed at Hudds. As many know he's got lads playing England age group, one at Man Utd and the other at Man City, if that works out he'll be made up for them both and he deserves it, he's sacrificed for them.
After his initial frustration with the injury, he puts it as one of his most memorable seasons he's had for various reasons, mostly because he just had so much fun with the lads, they all got on so close and of course his Wembley win etc.
I think reading between the lines if it wasn't for that back-to-back bicep tear and he'd have got through this season's injury free, I reckon he'd have probably gone another season because he was still good enough, fit enough etc. But I think those injuries made his mind up. As he says when the lads start playing he'll miss it but not the early morning training sessions.
personally, I'm really glad we had him at Trinity even if it was just for the year, a top bloke and an absolute gent.
