{"id":41197,"date":"2021-03-05T00:11:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-05T01:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=41197"},"modified":"2021-03-05T05:05:52","modified_gmt":"2021-03-05T05:05:52","slug":"russell-crowe-opens-up-on-suaalii-defection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=41197","title":{"rendered":"Russell Crowe opens up on Suaalii defection"},"content":{"rendered":"

Enigmatic South Sydney owner Russell Crowe has opened up on teen sensation Joseph Suaalii's defection to bitter rivals the Sydney Roosters<\/a>, questioning the motives behind the move.<\/p>\n

Speaking for the first time about the contract saga, Crowe says he holds no bad feelings toward the 17-year-old but was confused by his decision.<\/p>\n

"Does it hurt? It's a little perplexing, shall we say," Crowe told the Sydney Morning Herald.<\/p>\n

"I just hope Joseph is in a place where he's comfortable and where he can play his best football. I think he's a good kid.<\/p>\n

\"Russell<\/p>\n

"We're not quite sure what the difference is between our dollars and somebody else's dollars, because theoretically the figures are the same. Who knows?"<\/p>\n

Crowe played a pivotal role throughout Suaalii's negotiations with South Sydney, entertaining the prodigy and his family at his famed Nana Glen Farm last year – but it wasn't enough to seal the deal.<\/p>\n

While Crowe undoubtedly plays a big role in the direction and culture of the club, the hollywood star stressed that he has no bearing over the details of contract talk.<\/p>\n

Suaalii is arguably the most hyped schoolboy prospect in NRL history<\/a>. He had previously been at the centre of a bitter battle between rugby union and league, with multiple NRL clubs and Rugby Australia jostling to secure the young star's signature.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Joseph<\/p>\n

The teenager was contracted to South Sydney on a deal worth around $60,000 but had no interest in remaining in Redfern,<\/a> with the Roosters looking to add Suaalii to their squad as quickly as possible<\/a> after contract talks between he and the Rabbitohs turned sour.<\/p>\n

The Tricolours are now lobbying the NRL for an exemption to allow Suaalii to play top-flight football this year despite still being under the league's minimum age requirement of 18.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Enigmatic South Sydney owner Russell Crowe has opened up on teen sensation Joseph Suaalii's defection to bitter rivals the Sydney Roosters, questioning the motives behind […]<\/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\/41197"}],"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=41197"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41199,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41197\/revisions\/41199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}