The inside story of how Rhyse Martin became a Leeds Rhinos player despite rejecting them

Since arriving in 2019, Rhyse Martin has become one of Leeds Rhinos’ best players.

He joined mid way through the 2019 season with the number 41 on his back and in 2020, after switching to the number 12, helped Leeds to Challenge Cup Final success.

Last season he was perhaps Leeds’ best player and equalled Jamie Ellis’ and Liam Finn’s World Record for most goals without missing as Leeds made it to the Grand Final and he went on to represent Papua New Guinea at the World Cup.

A great bit of business pulled off when Leeds were in peril but how did the signing come off?

Speaking earlier this year, Martin revealed that he initially rejected the Rhinos in 2018 before having a second opportunity to move to Headingley:

“The year before Leeds approached me when I was off contract at the Bulldogs and I decided to play an extra year in the NRL with the bulldogs to see what I could do.

“That season I was personally playing good but I just wasn’t enjoying myself anymore. I was turning up to training negative. I should be grateful with the job I get to do and I wasn’t doing that so I thought it was time for a change and Leeds came back straight away and we reached out and they were doing anything they could to get me over.

“That was probably the biggest thing was feeling wanted and a new challenge and a new change for us. I think it was the right move.”