Revealed: The REAL reasons Blake Austin left Leeds Rhinos

In one of the biggest shocks of the season Leeds Rhinos star and former Warrington Wolves man Blake Austin left Leeds for Castleford Tigers for the rest of the season.

This came after lots of speculation about whether or not he would stay at Headingley in 2024 as he was vocal about the difficulties over agreeing a new deal.

He made some interesting comments on Sky Sports as well as on the JBK Show.

There was a suggestion of a fall out, now Austin has revealed the reasons he left:

“No, not that I’m aware of. Obviously, there was a bit of speculation as to why it happened.

“I received a phone call at 9.30pm on a Wednesday night. Gareth Widdop said, ‘are you interested in coming and giving us a hand?’

“I sort of said I’m not sure if Leeds will let me but the way my situation is I’m open to come in and help and if you think I can help, then yeah within 12-15 hours I was a Tiger.

“I wasn’t looking to leave, obviously I was a bit upset with my situation but I was fully focused on forging ahead for them for the rest of the year and yeah here I am.

“I guess in life all you can do is deal the cards you’ve been dealt. I think that’s a good lesson in all of it for myself.”

Asked about what next for him in 2024, he said he hasn’t agreed anything:

“No, I haven’t. I was probably more stressed about the contract stuff six to eight weeks ago than what I am now.

“Obviously there’s only four weeks to go. I’ve got a couple of things in the pipeline but nothing set in concrete and I’m just enjoying each week as it comes.

“Obviously being at this place it’s something that’s really important and something I don’t look too far ahead because we’re only seven days away from being back in a real battle again so yeah it’s been refreshing.”

He also spoke positively about former club Warrington:

“It’s normally a pretty positive reaction. It’s a place I really enjoy going back to, not for the obvious reason I’ve got. I’ve got a lot of lifelong friends that I made there.

“I’ll never speak negatively about my time at Warrington. I thoroughly enjoyed it and still got a lot of mates and family friends back there.

“I just enjoy the opportunity to go back and see a lot of them. Obviously, going back to the Halliwell Jones and winning is enjoyable, but just seeing friends that I’ve made along the way.