Matulino charged for final hurrah
AT the end of the Warriors’ loss to Melbourne on Tuesday, coach Stephen Kearney told the squad Ben Matulino had an announcement to make.
But the Warriors prop, for all he tried, couldn’t get the words out of his mouth. He would be leaving the NRL club at the end of 2017.
‘‘(Stephen) pretty much finished it off for me,’’ Matulino said. ‘‘It was pretty tough telling the boys, being at the club for 10 years. It got pretty emotional.’’
The 28-year-old Kiwi international, who has made 197 Warriors appearances since 2008, signed a lucrative three-year deal with Wests Tigers this week.
The contract, reportedly worth $A700,000 a year, is a swift response by the Tigers to the allbut-confirmed departure of offcontract skipper Aaron Woods.
But for Matulino, who played his first game of the season in Melbourne after recovering from a knee infection, there was only one thing on his mind.
Success with the Warriors in 2017, starting with the Roosters on Sunday.
Likely to again start on the bench, Matulino will be injected into the fray against the likes of Kiwis enforcer Jared WaereaHargreaves, returning forwards Mitch Aubusson and Dylan Napa and NSW Origin regular Boyd Cordner.
The fourth-placed Roosters will also have the power of exWarrior Sio Siua Taukeiaho to call on from the bench.
‘‘The amount of quality players in that team – nearly everyone in that forward pack is an international or representative player,’’ Matulino said.
‘‘They’re traditionally a team that likes to bully players, big and tough through the middle, so we’ve got a big task on our hands.’’
Once one of the NRL’s premier frontrowers, Matulino struggled for consistent form in 2016 and was one of six players stood down from Test football after taking a cocktail of prescription drugs and energy drinks on an Auckland night out. - AAP AKUILA Uate rides his bike to and from training and is the centre of attention again. The scowl has been replaced with a smile. The family fretting over their dad and husband playing injured is a thing of the past. Just as coach Trent Barrett said, some blokes just need an arm around them.
‘‘That’s the best thing at the moment ... just winning games again,’’ Uate smiled. ‘‘I haven’t won in the last two years. I’m happy now and I can’t look back and say, ‘I should have done this or I should have done that’. It’s too late.
‘‘I don’t give up too easily. I just keep going and keep going. My kids are the main thing. If my kids are happy then I’m happy. I just keep fighting until I know they’re set. I want them to grow up having a great life, finish school ... if I keep going.’’
Thankfully, Uate has. Languishing in Newcastle’s Intrust Super Premiership squad last year behind an NRL side that couldn’t get out of its own way, many thought the cult hero was done. Not the man himself.
Then the Sea Eagles traded the ever reliable and younger Jamie Buhrer for Uate, both of whom haven’t been seen in NSW colours since 2012. One was apparently still improving, the other in the rugby league wilderness. But Barrett and Bob Fulton knew something no-one else did.
‘‘It was hard because Jamie was one of the [favourite] sons of Manly,’’ Uate said. ‘‘Moving down here I just needed to prove myself to the Manly fans and do my job. That’s what ‘Baz’ has been telling me every day.
‘‘And because in the last two years I’ve been really down on confidence this year I’m really, really concentrating on [the Sea Eagles]. If I do my job for Manly I