Rugby league agents reveal controversial issue behind Konrad Hurrell’s Leeds Rhinos exit and move to St Helens

When Konrad Hurrell made the move from Leeds Rhinos to St Helens in the off-season, there were a few eyebrows raised.

Hurrell, who joined Leeds back in 2019, had done enough to impress Saints and Tonga head coach Kristian Woolf to be given a one-year deal despite looking somewhat sluggish in his final year at Headingley.

But, when the centre made his first appearance for Saints against Catalans Dragons in round one, the new trimmed-down Hurrell was there for all to see.

That got Leeds fans questioning why his condition wasn’t like that at Headingley, but rugby league agents who work for the biggest agency in the UK – Show Me The Money UK – have discussed why that could have possibly been.

“They made it clear that he wouldn’t be allowed to get away with it, even contractually, it was ‘if you want to be a Saints player you need to do this’,” one agent said on The Full Eighty Minutes podcast.

“Is that frightening coming from one of the biggest clubs (Leeds) in the world?” Show Me The Money owner Craig Harrison said on The Full Eighty Minutes podcast.

“If you want to sum up Leeds compared to Saints over the years, what Konrad Hurrell has done sums it up,” another Show Me The Money agent said.

“They’ve gone ‘I see what you’ve got but you can’t be in that condition because that’s not our standard and if you trust us and get into condition you will be a far better player’.

“He (Hurrell) went for it and the results speak for themselves.”

Since moving to the Totally Wicked Stadium, Hurrell has become a firm fans’ favourite and, in the process, earned himself a new deal at the reigning champions.

There had been murmurings earlier in the season that the Tongan international could have returned to the NRL with new club the Dolphins, but chose to extend his Super League stay for another year.