Hooker happy to remain with Warriors
In the end, Issac Luke has got what he wanted, a contract that recognised his talent.
The Warriors hooker, striving to recover from a shoulder operation in time for next weekend’s game against the Bulldogs, recently came close to packing up and joining the Eels.
An out clause in his contract allowed him to move to any club that offered him a deal better than the lowly one he was on at the Warriors for 2019.
When the Eels came knocking with a two-year deal worth in total four times more than what he was on at the Warriors, it looked as if Nathaniel Roache would be wearing the No 9 jersey at Mt Smart Stadium this season.
However, the Warriors quickly negotiated an improved one-year deal for Luke with his manager Bruce Sharrock, with the club tapping into the money saved from no longer having Shaun Johnson on their books.
Speaking for the first time about the saga, Luke said he just tried to keep his head down and let his manager and the club sort it out between them.
‘‘He [Sharrock] gave me his word about it and he’s been pretty strong for me. I just had to keep training and give out an example and they’ve given me that extension.’’
The Warriors last year offered Luke a reported $160,000 to play for them in 2019, following the collapse of his move to the Knights because of his shoulder problem.
It came at a time when the club was struggling to stay under the salary cap.
There were question marks about Luke’s shoulder operation, but it wasn’t really market value for what the player was worth. Even so, he decided to accept it.
‘‘We tried to explore options,’’ Luke said.
‘‘But it was more of a family decision to stay, my kids and wife love it here, so that’s why we signed and I’m happy now that I did.
‘‘We had the get out clause and the Warriors knew about that, but I’ve been able to tick a lot of boxes and make this happen.
‘‘I was fortunate that Shaun moved to Cronulla, because that gave us a bit of breathing room.’’
Sharrock told Stuff earlier this week that Luke would have been prepared to move to another NRL club for a better offer, but it would have been tough to uproot his family at short notice.
Luke’s new Warriors contract is just for a year, so the 31-year-old will have to go to the market again during the season for a new deal, but he says that won’t put any pressure on him.
‘‘It’s a contract like last year, so I’m fighting for another one. Hopefully I have a good season,’’ he said. Rugby league great Steve Mortimer has been heavily criticised after placing some of the blame for the NRL’s spate of off-season sex scandals on ‘‘the young ladies looking for a little bit of notice’’.
Mortimer, a former Australia and New South Wales representative, was discussing the game’s off-field incidents that have overshadowed the buildup to the 2019 NRL season kicking off next week.
Speaking to Australia’s ABC News, Mortimer, 62, said the sex tape dramas were a bad look for the sport, but he also pointed the finger at the women involved.
‘‘When you go out, you’ve got to look after each other and rather then try crack onto the girls or whatever, do what you have to do and then go home,’’ Mortimer said.
‘‘Obviously, they’re human beings as well. But look, I just think it’s not just the players. I think it can also be the young ladies that are looking for a little bit of notice – that ‘I’m being taken out by a certain great rugby league player’. And I think that’s wrong.’’
Mortimer quickly received scathing criticism on social media.