ALL SIZZLE NO FIZZLE
Holmes compares his NRL return to the Hayne plane
VALENTINE Holmes is confident his NRL career won’t fizzle out like Jarryd Hayne’s after revealing he has returned from the NFL stronger and just as fast.
Holmes will play his first game of rugby league in 490 days when he pulls on a North Queensland Cowboys jersey for the first time tonight to face the Broncos at Barlow Park.
At 24, Holmes decided to end his NFL experiment last November and returned to his home town of Townsville to sign a six-year contract with the Cowboys.
Hayne was the last NRL player to try his hand at the NFL.
The two-time Dally M Medal winner quit the NRL at his peak in 2014 and played eight NFL games for San Francisco in 2015.
Hayne returned to the NRL, via a brief cameo in rugby sevens, with the Gold Coast Titans in late 2016 as a 28year-old, but never reached the same lofty heights and is no longer in the game.
Holmes said he was better prepared to return to the NRL after completing the bulk of North Queensland’s pre-season.
“I did not think he (Hayne) was really bad,” Holmes said.
“I thought he played OK, he wasn’t back to his 2009 year (first Dally M), but he was getting older.
“He went to rugby sevens and did other things then just jumped straight back into (the NRL).
“He came back and went straight into playing. He got a lot of hate, but that was always going to be hard for anyone to do.
“I’ve come straight back and got into pre-season. I was struggling at the start when I came back, so I’m grateful I got to come back earlier.”
Holmes put his hand up to play in tonight’s trial game against the Broncos, telling coach Paul Green he did not want to be rested like captain Michael Morgan.
He will start at fullback and wants to get straight into the action ahead of his NRL return against the Broncos on March 13.