Rugby league legend Darren Lockyer has named the Super League side he turned down with the Australian explaining why he opted against a move to the northern hemisphere.
Arguably the greatest player of all time but certainly a man who would feature in most top ten rankings, the Australian racked up 355 NRL appearances, all coming for Brisbane Broncos, with whom he won four Grand Finals.
He also played a whopping 59 games for Australia and 36 for Queensland, captaining both country and state, before retiring in 2011 at the age of 34.
Post-playing, he’s remained active in rugby league with his most recent venture being part-ownership of London Broncos and when appearing on Sky Sports’ The Bench Podcast to discuss that, he also revealed which Super League club he turned down.
Lockyer played throughout the period where Super League was the far wealthier competition, however, he never made the switch despite multiple approaches, including from Leeds Rhinos.
Darren Lockyer explains why he rejected Super League
“I had a few approaches from Super League clubs over the years, Leeds was one”, he confirmed to Sky’s Jenna Brooks, before going to explain just how attractive Super League was to so many NRL players at the time.
“I think, again we talked about it earlier, but back in those days, a lot of players would come over here at the end of their career to a) have the travel experience and b) because the money was significant.
“You were probably getting paid more here than you were in Australia but that’s changed.”
Despite that, Lockyer still opted to hang up the boots and he revealed why: “I decided (against Super League), I’d just had my first child and had a lot of opportunities in the corporate world and I decided to hang the boots up.”
There’s no doubt that a 34-year-old Darren Lockyer would have absolutely torn Super League up and he’d have been the biggest signing in the competition’s history but it wasn’t to be.
Lockyer was also asked if he would have signed for his current club London if they existed back then in their current guise as a club with plenty of promise, something that prompted an honest and reflective answer.
He responded: “We’ve said this to our players, they’ve taken a leap of faith on us, they’ve uprooted their family to come here.
“So for me, it would have been a big risk to come over here in this situation as a player but I think London is a great city. It would have been a difficult decision.”
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