{"id":323919,"date":"2023-08-16T04:45:10","date_gmt":"2023-08-16T04:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=323919"},"modified":"2023-08-16T05:59:13","modified_gmt":"2023-08-16T05:59:13","slug":"how-pangai-told-gobsmacked-teammates-he-was-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=323919","title":{"rendered":"How Pangai told 'gobsmacked' teammates he was done"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bulldogs<\/a> general manager Phil Gould<\/a> has described Tevita Pangai Junior's NRL retirement announcement<\/a> as a "thunderbolt" and given his account of how the situation played out behind closed doors.<\/p>\n

Gould has also hit back\ufeff at suggestions Pangai Junior was forced out of the club because the $750,000-a-year enforcer had been taking up too big a chunk of the Bulldogs' salary cap, declaring "the conspiracy theorists can go jump in the lake".<\/p>\n

"It (Pangai Junior's retirement announcement) came out of the blue," Gould said on Wide World of Sports' Six Tackles with Gus<\/em><\/a> podcast on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

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"\ufeffHis form during the year has been mixed. He's had some good days and he's had some not-so-good days, pretty much like the team itself. They have some good days and they have some terrible days, too. They had an ordinary day on the weekend up at Newcastle and Tevita was nowhere near his best."<\/p>\n

In the wake of the Bulldogs' 42-6\ufeff thrashing at the hands of the Knights on Sunday<\/a>, Pangai opened up to coach Cameron Ciraldo in his weekly personal review.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"He said … it was a difficult week and it was on his mind. He spoke to Cameron Ciraldo and he said, 'It was on my mind and I let the boys down, I let myself down, I let the team down\ufeff'," Gould said.<\/p>\n

"He's a deep thinker, Tevita, and he just suddenly blurted out to the coach. He said, 'I think I'll give it away'. The coach said, 'What are you talking about?'. He said, 'I think this'll be my last year, I think I'll go and find something else to do'."<\/p>\n

That "something else" is boxing. The 27-year-old has fought two professional boxing fights for two wins, against Gerico Cecil and Jerry Tupai, and will take up a full-time career in the sport at the end of this season.<\/p>\n

"I think it comes down to the pressure of expectation and the pressure of personal performance and the standards he'd like to play at, but he's obviously\ufeff not (meeting those standards) at the moment," Gould added.<\/p>\n

"Cameron rang me straight after (the personal review) and we just kind of put it down to … the performance the day before … It's not unlike him to take a lot on his own shoulders. There are a number of times he's said he wishes he was on less money, he wishes he didn't have all this expectation, I think he's a bit sensitive to media, I think getting picked in the Origin side gave him a pick-up, but then he got dropped. There's been a whole lot of things.<\/p>\n

"He's quite a sensitive kid. For a big, strong brute of a man he's quite a sensitive young man. He's a deep thinker and he's obviously very family-conscious and he's got his religion, as well.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Stream the NRL premiership 2023 live and free on<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

"Cameron rang me and I said, 'Oh well, we'll have a talk to him tomorrow and see what happens from there'."<\/p>\n

What happened next staggered Pangai Junior's teammates, and even Ciraldo.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"Then they went to the team meeting … and there was a little bit of an honesty session … Tevita gets up and apologises for his performance the day before, which is not unusual for a player if he's had a bad day," Gould said.<\/p>\n

"He said, 'I'm sorry, I've had some personal issues, I don't want to delve into it, I probably didn't turn up with the right focus, I didn't turn up with the right attitude. In fact, I think this next three weeks will be my last three games. I'm going to give rugby league away'.<\/p>\n

"It stunned everybody. Cameron didn't expect him to go there. They'd had that conversation downstairs about the form and the game and all that.<\/p>\n

"He said, 'In fact, I've been thinking about this for a while and I think I'm going to give it away'.<\/p>\n

"Cameron was a bit gobsmacked."<\/p>\n

Pangai Junior then confirmed the decision with Canterbury chief executive \ufeffAaron Warburton.<\/p>\n

"An hour later Aaron Warburton rang me … He said, 'He's adamant, this is what he wants to do … He doesn't want any money for next year, he just wants to make a clean break at the end of the season, he's going to pursue a boxing career and get on with his life in a different sport'," Gould said.<\/p>\n

\"TPJ<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs supremo said he didn't speak to Pangai Junior until he saw him at the club's Belmore headquarters\ufeff on Wednesday morning, when the front-rower confirmed his decision with the Canterbury boss.<\/p>\n

"Whether he rethinks and comes back to rugby league down the track, I don't know," Gould said.<\/p>\n

"You don't know with Tevita."\ufeff<\/p>\n

Gould was not done with the doubters.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"Absolute rubbish, absolute poppycock … The conspiracy theorists, as I say, are wide, wide of the mark, and it's deliberate, it's just aimed to agitate and create headlines," Gould said.<\/p>\n

After playing 96 NRL games for the Broncos and having a short stint with the Panthers late in the 2021 season, Pangai Junior joined the Bulldogs on a three-year deal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Tongan international has made 35 appearances for Canterbury\ufeff and is expected to play another three games, against the Raiders, Sea Eagles and Titans.<\/p>\n

He was a shock\ufeff call-up<\/a> for Brad Fittler's NSW Blues side for game one of this year's State of Origin series<\/a>, but was hooked 27 minutes into the match and axed for game two<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bulldogs general manager Phil Gould has described Tevita Pangai Junior's NRL retirement announcement as a "thunderbolt" and given his account of how the situation played […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":323924,"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\/323919"}],"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=323919"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":323928,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323919\/revisions\/323928"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/323924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=323919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=323919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=323919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}