WILLING AND ABLE
THEY say things happen for a reason.
Will Matthews’ decision to renege on his Super League deal was a tough conversation to have with Widnes officials. But the realisation that his young family was unlikely to make it through two years in England’s north may have delivered the foundation Titans player a career swan song close to home.
Matthews, who made his NRL debut for the Titans in 2008 before leaving for St George Illawarra at the end of the 2011 season, snapped up an offer from the Gold Coast for 2018 and is thrilled to be coming full circle.
“I had signed a contract at Widnes but thankfully they were pretty helpful and understood it was for family reasons that we wanted to move back to the Gold Coast, so they were pretty good in giving me a release,” Matthews said. “It was a tough situation because they were expecting me to go there, they probably missed out on signing (other) players but in the end, it was more family reasons.
“It was really hard for me because I’d signed a contract and I think I’m a pretty honourable person and to go back on what I’d already signed was massive for me, I didn’t make the decision lightly.
“It was just one of those things that I knew in the back of my mind and my heart was the right thing to do. I don’t think we would have lasted two years over there.”
A Kyogle product whose wife, Shantel hails from the Gold Coast, Matthews knows he ultimately made the right decision for his family.
The decision may also prove to be best for the Titans, who lost Matthews – a foundation development player – when they started to stray from developing local talent.
“There was that year when they signed a fair few players from other clubs and because I played 20s here, I knew there was a lot of good talent in that team they weren’t utilising, they sort of just let slip,” he said.
“If they had’ve worked maybe a bit harder on keeping their juniors around (who knows how they could have developed).
“I think (coach) Garth (Brennan) is doing a good job of implementing that now.”