Reni knocks back chance to jump ship mid-year
Date
July 1, 2013 - 1:52PM
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Michael Chammas
Rugby league reporter
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Reni Maitua Ricky Stuart Sydney England
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Co-captain Reni Maitua has revealed his "relief" to have been shown the door at Parramatta but has turned down a mid-season offer at another NRL club to stay loyal to his teammates.
Maitua told Fairfax Media he had been thinking about leaving the Eels before Ricky Stuart included him in the mass clean-out, but his gratitude to the club for giving him a second chance after he was suspended from the game, as well as his relationship with his teammates, kept him in blue and gold.
"I spoke to a club about moving on this week," Maitua said. "But I don't think it would've been fair and it's not how I was brought up as a person. I wouldn't want to abandon the boys through this tough period. Everyone's hurting, there's no point getting up and running away from all of it.
"It's a tough period for the club and it's just as tough for the players. I didn't want to abandon the boys. I'm really close to these boys and I've never met a bunch of blokes who are so close. There are no clicks within the team. Morally it wouldn't have been right. I wouldn't abandon any of mates any time, whether that's in sport or in general life."
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The 31-year-old is on the lookout for a club capable of winning a premiership in the next two years, preferably in Sydney, and has indicated he won't join another team in a rebuilding phase.
The thought of leaving Parramatta was a notion he had been considering long before Stuart told him to pack his bags, and admitted he was relieved to have the decision taken out of his hands.
"I did take the news pretty tough but to be honest it was a bit of a relief as well," he said. "It's something [leaving] that had been on my mind and consuming me as well. It's not fun. I'm going two-and-a-half years here and it hasn't just been a thing from this year.
"We've lost a lot of games here in two-and-a-half years and Ricky saw that it was affecting me and overtaking me as a person. We had a great conversation and it was just time to move on."
Maitua insists there is no bad blood between him and the coach, despite sitting out the round 13 game against the Roosters to come to terms with his axing just a few days earlier.
The former Bulldogs premiership winner said he was given the respect by the coach, who organised a meeting with Maitua to inform him of his plans before he fronted the rest of the team.
"Ricky and I had a great conversation and gave me the respect of telling it how it was," Maitua said. "Anyone that's honest with you, you respect that kind of stuff. There were no hard feelings. Ricky could see that I was getting very frustrated and down at training, and that's probably showing on the field a bit. He thought it would be time to move on for my well being. We had a long discussion about retirement, England or moving on somewhere else in Sydney.
"Ricky gave me the respect to call me in the office before the meeting, so I was prepared for what was to come. Whether or not I think it is right or not is irrelevant. That's how Ricky wanted to do it, and that was that."
Maitua said he considered retiring but his two-year hiatus from the game for failing a drugs test had rejuvenated his passion for the game. "Retirement was a massive part of my thoughts and I wasn't sure if I'd be able to find a club here and I didn't want to go over to England," Maitua said.
"I still think I'm playing good enough of footy to be of value to a club. I would've retired by now for sure if it wasn't for that break. I needed that time away from the game, they were obviously difficult circumstances, but I needed to get away because things were spiralling out of control.
"I would've been retired by now so I'm lucky enough to be still playing now. I'm confident I can get two more years out of my body."
