Rogers to return to NRL post France '07

[Burgs]

Rogers' shock NRL return

By Dean Ritchie, Daily Telegraph/Fox Sports
September 13, 2006

AUSTRALIA champion Mat Rogers will today sensationally announce plans to quit rugby union and return to rugby league with the Gold Coast Titans.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal Rogers, 30, will join coach John Cartwright's side after his Australian Rugby Union contract expires at the end of next season.

Rogers will play the 2007 Rugby World Cup before moving back to rugby league and the region where he grew up.

Gold Coast, the NRL's 16th and newest franchise, has organised a press conference at 9.30am today at Conrad Jupiter's Casino to announce the signing of the dual international.

It is understood Rogers will sign a two-year deal, worth about $600,000.

Rogers, the son of late rugby league legend Steve Rogers, moved from rugby league to rugby union in 2002.

He was rated among the finest rugby league backs of the modern era before shocking the game and signing with rugby union.

His return is a huge boost for the NRL and a major coup for the fledging Titans.

He will join a backline that includes Scott Prince, Preston Campbell, Brian Carney and Steve Turner.


Rogers to return to league

Brad Walter, Sydney Morning Herald/Rugby Heaven
Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Wallabies player Mat Rogers is set to return to rugby league with the NRL's new Gold Coast Titans franchise.

Rogers, 30, one of three big-name league players recruited by the Australian Rugby Union before the 2003 World Cup, told senior union officials of his plans during a meeting late yesterday at the InterContinental hotel in Sydney.

He is then believed to have advised his Australia and NSW teammates at last night's John Eales Medal presentation, won by Chris Latham, where he refused to comment to the Herald.

The move will be confirmed today by the Titans managing director, Michael Searle, and coach, John Cartwright, at a news conference at the Conrad Jupiters Casino on the Gold Coast.

It is understood that Rogers intends to see out the remaining year of his ARU contract and will make the switch after the Rugby World Cup in France next September and October.

He would also play the 2007 Super 14s season for the NSW Waratahs, but may be available for the Titans afterwards if not chosen in the Wallabies squad for the World Cup.

Otherwise, he will join the NRL newcomers the following season at the age of 32.

Rogers is believed to have tired of the travelling involved in an international rugby career and was keen to return to the area he grew up in.

The birth of his third child, Max Danger, in June to the model Chloe Maxwell helped him come to the decision.

A winger during his league career with Cronulla, Queensland and Australia, Rogers is likely to play either five-eighth or full-back when he returns.

Lote Tuqiri and Wendell Sailor, the two other major league stars to switch codes, have also expressed a desire to return to the NRL. Sailor, who is serving a two-year ban for cocaine use, last weekend declared he wanted to join St George Illawarra if he succeeded in having the penalty reduced at an upcoming appeals hearing.

Tuqiri has often stated that he would like to return to league after next year's World Cup.

The Sharks' point-scoring whiz Rogers signed with the ARU in 2002 in a five-year deal worth at least $350,000 a season and $10,000 a match in Wallaby payments. At the time he was on $320,000 a season with the Sharks and had played State of Origin for Queensland and for Australia. He grew up on the Gold Coast and represented Queensland in rugby as a schoolboy in 1993.

Rogers has 41 Wallabies Test caps and has played full-back, centre and at flyhalf.

His father Steve, 51, an Australian rugby league representative, was found dead in January on the stairs of the block of flats where he lived in Cronulla with his second wife, Ingrid.

There were no suspicious circumstances but he had been suffering from depression. Rogers's mother Carol died in 2001, after a battle with cancer, which devastated him and his siblings Don and Melanie. Rogers has two children, Jack and Skyla, with his first wife, Michelle.

[shasta]

Well good luck to him. Sadly, we never saw the best of him in RU due to injuries. Well not on a regular basis anyway. Hopefully he can have a trouble free run in his remaining time.

[Sagerian]

Well if it makes him happy, good on him.

Curious where they'll want to play him, Fullback, centre, 5/8th?

[chook]

Hey,
Good on him, and Lote as well, both those guys have the ability to entertain us with the ball in the hands, to me doesnt really matter what code it is. Like Shasta says we probably didnt consistently see the best of Mat but I enjoyed what I saw, then again I'm a fan!

Probably play him at 5/8 I reckon.

Only other point i'd make is that international professional sports breed a mercenary nature into its particpants, so I dont think we can be too surprised (just look at soccer for instance).

cheers
chook

[littleleck]

must say that i am actually pretty (very) happy to see him go

[Jess]

I heard about the potential move to league last night when i was watching the news while i was snuggled up in bed. Was tempted to run downstairs and make a post on TWF about it but i wasn't game enough to brave the cold floor.
I'm indifferent about the move really. I've always liked rogers but never been a huge fan. Perhaps this was due to his injury prone union career or his off field demeanor where i'm told he wasn't the friendliest of sorts.
But still anytime a union player picks league over the game they play in heaven, i'm a little annoyed, angry, heart broken. Any time a league player (like mat) converts to union i think 'what took them so long!'

I've still got to give this one more thought as to whether or not i'm actually sad to see him go but either way i wish him all the best with the Titans and hope his future endeavors bring him nothing but happiness.

All the best.

[inactive]

I am also quiet happy to see him go. I think the only good league convert we got is Lote. But it is ridiculous that they sign with rugby and pretty much go straight into the wallabies without proving themselves and taking spots away from other players that deserve to be there.

[Moses]

There's talk that Lote is also considering a return to League... I hope we make a good offer to hold onto him..

[Sagerian]

I am also quiet happy to see him go. I think the only good league convert we got is Lote. But it is ridiculous that they sign with rugby and pretty much go straight into the wallabies without proving themselves and taking spots away from other players that deserve to be there.

Yup... and forcing good Waratahs players overseas.

[Darren]

Good thing there's a new team in town to bring them back again, eh? Silly, silly waratahs.....

[Sagerian]

Hmmpf...

[Moses]

pfft...

[Jess]

why coach... go on.

[The InnFORCEr]

I agree that we have not yet seen the best of Mat, lets hope he's saving the best for last in RWC 2007.

After his old man passed the rumours were rife over east that this would be the case...not to the Gold Coast though. This Titans team is doing a FORCE with thier signings and poachings, come 2009/9 they could be real contenders if they get enough support from members to continue.

Good luck to him, he has been a great player in both codes which is no easy feat, earnt the respect of opposition and team mates alike.

The other thing about all of this is that he has made his intentions very clear to the ARU, NRL and his repective or future club/s. Not holding anyone to ransom for his services, which I'm sure there would have been some spirited bidding from other NRL clubs had they been given the opportunity to have go at him.

Well done Mat and all the best.

[blindsid3]

This is smart play from Matt Rogers and his management. At the completion of the World Cup season he will be 32 and at the end of his longevity (based on current injury time v time on field etc). I doubt whether the ARU would extend his contract for much more than a twelve month period beyond the world cup anyway.

The move back to League, while representing a pay cut, means that Rogers will play until he is almost 35...it is unlikely that he would compete at the top level in Union for this long and so he is stretching out his pay packets for as long as he can. Remember, if he gets injured during the contract period, they still have to pay him...

I would suggest that the World Cup will also represent a time that others will seek the "retirement contract", including George Gregan, Brendon Cannon, Steve Larkham - some of these guys have been playing senior Rugby longer than MT Beaver has been alive and whilst we probably think they will go on forever, when you are in your thirties professional Rugby has gotta be hard on the body.

While George Gregan will probably just hang his boots up where they can be displayed in one of his many business interests in Sydney, there will be plenty of others seeking to play some more in overseas competitions such as the UK and Japan. We will bitch and moan about their loss to Australian Rugby, but the reality is that come the end of the World Cup (win, lose or draw) we will see the retirement or relocation of many of the legends.

As Simba said, "Its the Circle of Life"...