Super League star regrets staying at club

Ash Handley at Leeds Rhinos, Liam Marshall at Wigan Warriors, Matty Ashton at Warrington Wolves, Ryan Hall at Hull KR and Josh Charnley at Leigh Leopards; Super League is full of top English wingers.

One of the best England wingers over the last decade could be headed out of Super League and to the Championship with Wakefield Trinity.

That is of course Jermaine McGillvary who has been open about the disappointment of his exit.

He has also suggested he now regrets staying at Huddersfield:

“I’ve had a couple of opportunities to move to either side of the Pennines to different clubs, and I’m looking back now the way things have gone I’m like ‘should I have done it?’

“The Australian thing, that was a possibility, but the main thing I stayed over here is because it probably been a two-year deal I think I was like 28, 29 at the time and my eldest son was obviously at Manchester City and doing well, so that was my biggest concern because obviously football’s not a big deal out there and I didn’t want him to fall behind.

“I think looking back now I’ve made the right decision in that way because obviously he’s doing well, but I reckon if I look back now with everything out, everything’s gone and how things have been dealt with, I would do with it a little bit, not taking an opportunity when I was a little bit younger.”

He has also underlined his disappointment with his exit: “It’s my hometown club, I live here, I still live here, I grew up here as a player, became the player I was here. It has a little bit of a sour taste how it’s ended, but that’s Rugby and it is what it is I suppose.

“It’s just disappointing that it’s ended this way, but I understand at my age as well you have to go down a different direction at some point, but I was expecting maybe I’d get a deal or sat down somewhere in the office and get ‘thank you for your time, shake my hand, you’ve doing well, you’ve helped the club, off you go’, but it was on a phone call, for 16 years of my life dedicated to Huddersfield, to be told on a phone call before presentation and only because the club was going to release that I was potentially retiring.

“It’s a bit shit, it’s quite embarrassing really having to tell my family how I found out. It’s just not nice, over the phone.”