Adam MacDougall misses Johns, NRL finals
Monday, May 22, 2006 - 6:21 PM
South Sydney centre Adam MacDougall misses playing finals football alongside the likes of Andrew Johns and has instructed his manager to find him a strong club for 2007.
The rejuvenated former premiership winner with Newcastle cast doubt on new club owners Peter Holmes a Court and Russell Crowe's promises of a star-studded playing roster.
"I'm not going to lie, I'd love an opportunity to play finals football again so whether that happens here or not I don't know," MacDougall said.
"But that's definitely my goal next year, to be part of a club that looks like they're going to play in the finals.
"Looking back now I miss playing in a side with the likes of Andrew Johns and Danny Buderus."
MacDougall, who played 11 State of Origin matches for NSW and five Tests, said his dream of playing alongside brother Luke had been fulfilled at Souths and he was ready to move on if he had to.
"The opportunity to play with Luke's been fantastic but if that's not going to happen down the track, well I've done it."
The off-contract pair had been linked to a package deal with new NRL side Gold Coast.
But MacDougall said he'd told manager George Mimis to find him a strong club - with Souths and the Titans not yet measuring up.
"I've just told him to go away and do what he's meant to do and that's to find me an opportunity at a strong club," he said.
"I'm going to sit back and maybe wait and see what happens here and see what sort of players they're attracting before I make a decision.
"There's a lot of players off contract here so I'm sitting back with great interest to see who does re-sign before I make any decision."
Souths coach Shaun McRae suggested at Sunday's post-match media conference that the club had a way to go in its player retention and recruitment.
"Those decisions will be made I guess over the next month or so, the next few weeks," McRae said.
"We probably need to sit down and talk about our retention and recruitment a little bit more.
"We already have started to talk about things and I just don't think we've quite reached the decision yet to make them public."
MacDougall, who scored an impressive individual try and set up another in Souths' 28-26 loss to the Sydney Roosters, said his return to form was due to him getting his hands on the ball more often.
"At the end of the day, you play out wide you're at the mercy of the blokes inside you so it's good to get a bit of footy," he said.
Source: AAP
