{"id":94491,"date":"2021-07-03T00:47:24","date_gmt":"2021-07-03T00:47:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=94491"},"modified":"2021-07-03T01:59:05","modified_gmt":"2021-07-03T01:59:05","slug":"brave-eels-star-plays-hours-after-brothers-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=94491","title":{"rendered":"Brave Eels star plays hours after brother's death"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Parramatta Eels<\/a> encouraged Tom Opacic to pull out of Friday's one-point loss to the Panthers<\/a> but the Eels centre wanted to play just hours after his older brother died in Queensland.<\/p>\n

Police suspect Jakob Opacic died in suspected road rage incident following an alleged argument outside the Numinbah Correctional Centre just after 10am on Friday. <\/p>\n

Opacic's teammates showed their respect by wearing black armbands in their 13-12 loss to the Panthers, with Opacic playing 80 minutes at right centre. Parramatta coach Brad Arthur confirmed the club urged him not to play but the courageous Eel didn't want to let his teammates down.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"I spoke to him earlier today and suggested that he didn't play, but he wasn't taking that," Arthur said.<\/p>\n

"He wanted to be around his mates and wanted to make a sacrifice for his teammates. I think as a club it shows you where we're at. We didn't get the result, but we were close."<\/p>\n

Parramatta has the bye next week and Opacic could possibly given an exemption to leave the Eels bubble to be with family in Queensland. The Eels released a statement on Friday night.<\/p>\n

"We are sad to learn of the sudden passing of Jake Opacic today, brother of Tom Opacic," the club said.<\/p>\n

"The Parramatta Eels extend their thoughts and deepest sympathies to the Opacic family.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"Tom was brave to play in tonight's game under painful circumstances, and we will support him during this difficult time."<\/p>\n

It comes as tributes are flowing for the brother of the former Bronco and Cowboys player. Reports state Jakob Opacic went to the low-security prison farm for the release of his ex-girlfriend.<\/p>\n

Police say Mr Opacic got into an argument outside the jail with at least two other males and died in a motorcycle crash soon after. <\/p>\n

A 28-year-old man is in custody over the incident.<\/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>\u00a0clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Parramatta Eels encouraged Tom Opacic to pull out of Friday's one-point loss to the Panthers but the Eels centre wanted to play just hours […]<\/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\/94491"}],"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=94491"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94493,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94491\/revisions\/94493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=94491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=94491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=94491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}