{"id":122927,"date":"2021-09-02T02:39:23","date_gmt":"2021-09-02T02:39:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=122927"},"modified":"2021-09-02T02:57:38","modified_gmt":"2021-09-02T02:57:38","slug":"prop-paid-90k-per-game-retires-from-nrl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=122927","title":{"rendered":"Prop paid $90k per game retires from NRL"},"content":{"rendered":"

Russell Packer has announced his retirement from the NRL after 184 first grade games, taking arguably the most contentious contract in the game off the books of the Wests Tigers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Packer finishes up his NRL career having played with the Warriors, Dragons and most recently the Tigers, who he joined on a massive four year deal during the Ivan Cleary era.<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old was famously handed an NRL lifeline<\/a> when in 2015, he joined the Dragons after serving a jail sentence for assaulting a man, which had threatened to end his rugby league career.<\/p>\n

Following three years at the Dragons, Packer joined the Tigers<\/a> on a reported $3 million deal over four seasons but has since only played 33 games for the Concord-based club. The prop has ultimately earned more than $90,000 per game for the Tigers, with the deal becoming a huge issue for the club's salary cap as the front-rower struggled through form and injury issues and dropped out of first grade.<\/p>\n

Packer played 19 games in his first season with the Tigers in 2018 under Cleary, however, he has struggled to see time on the field under Michael Maguire.<\/p>\n

\"Russell<\/p>\n

"Rugby league has been my life since I was 17 and it's always been a constant, so I'll definitely miss that," Packer said in a club statement. \u00a0<\/p>\n

"I got to play in a grand final and play for New Zealand early in my career, and while my life took a different path, being able to come back and re-establish myself and reach the pinnacle again with international football was a very special moment for me and my family.<\/p>\n

"I'm incredibly proud of the way we have fought through the adversity we have.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

"With the injuries too that I've had in the past few seasons, this decision is something that I've been contemplating for a while. But it's allowed me to be thankful this year and leave it all out there.<\/p>\n

"I've noticed particularly through COVID just how special sport can be and I've really enjoyed what I have been able to achieve in the game. \u00a0<\/p>\n

"I'm also incredibly thankful for the opportunity I had to captain Wests Tigers\/<\/p>\n

"I never expected to be made captain of a club, so it was a massive moment for not only myself but all who have been on the journey with me to get to that point."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/em><\/strong> clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Russell Packer has announced his retirement from the NRL after 184 first grade games, taking arguably the most contentious contract in the game off the […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122927"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=122927"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":122929,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122927\/revisions\/122929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=122927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=122927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=122927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}