boborogers said:
Don't you guys think that it says what type of club you are to sign Chris Walker. Souths paid a lot of money (money they could have spent else where) for him to play like crap and then leave and go to the team on top ... what a joke !! East should have taken a stand and said its not right ... i would be embarrassed to have that guy in mt team......
lucky for you boogerberry you don't have to worry about Chris Walker.
It may be an idea to get your facts right about Chris and the decision he made. He made it abundantly clear last november/december that he didn't want to play for Souths and Piggins wouldn't release him. He wasn't released until the new board took over. I'm not sure if you noticed or not but Souths had a pretty horrendous year and I'm not talking about on the field. Internally they imploded and without the respect for your coach and management it is very difficult to continue in a football environment. FFS the kid was coached by Wayne Bennet then to go to Coleman then Langmack must have made him dry reach.
Chris walked away from a further $700,000 for a $45,000 a year contract. Business is business and if you are unhappy, unsatisfied and certainly unproductive, it's in your best interests to move on, no matter what the situation is.
Here is a news story on Chris.
Walker finally set to cash in on walkout
By Brad Walter
October 1, 2003
Out of the darkness: the Roosters' Chris Walker at training yesterday for Sunday's grand final against Penrith. Photo: Craig Golding
Chris Walker has never tried to win any popularity contests.
Playing winning football is what motivates Walker and he's now on the verge of a premiership with the Sydney Roosters on Sunday night.
Yet even some of Walker's teammates find it hard to accept his decision to walk out mid-season on wooden-spooners South Sydney and join the defending titleholders.
By his own admission, the past 12 months have been a roller-coaster ride as he struggled with relocating from Brisbane and playing for a battling club.
Walker, 23, has been the subject of criticism and abuse, and he even received death threats after quitting the Rabbitohs in May.
Roosters supporters hardly warmed to him either, and senior players warned the former Queensland Origin winger that he needed to improve his attitude before the club signed him to a one-year $45,000 deal.
After his two-try haul in last Saturday night's preliminary final defeat of the Bulldogs, however, fans loudly chanted the former Queensland Origin winger's name when the team arrived back at Easts Leagues Club in Bondi Junction.
He's now also got a new two-year deal with the club and is finally starting to feel settled in Sydney.
But Walker knows Souths fans will never forgive him and he doesn't really care too much either.
"I was worried about the reaction of the fans at Souths, but it lasted for all of about a second," Walker said yesterday as the Roosters prepared to train before hundreds of adoring supporters at Aussie Stadium.
"They're not the ones having the feelings and mixed emotions about an occupation that they love doing. I can understand what they're going through but they don't know what I'm going through.
"There was a time when I was playing for Souths that I was that unhappy that I didn't want to play footy any more. I was going to retire. I just wasn't happy."
At the time of his departure, the Rabbitohs had won just one of their first nine games.
They'd also been through the turmoil of coach Craig Coleman's sacking before the opening round of the premiership. Despite turning his back on more than $700,000 with no guarantee that he'd get a start anywhere else, let alone play in a grand final, many people felt that Walker should have toughed it out at a club that badly needed quality players.
Test hooker Craig Wing, who joined the Roosters only after Souths were dumped from the competition in 1999, said: "It's probably not something I would have done.
"I'm sure it would have been a massive decision, and if he hadn't done it he may have regretted it more. But personally . . . I would have stuck the year out. Lots of things heal with time, but I suppose South Sydney people won't forget too soon."
Walker's brother Shane, the Rabbitohs hooker, also empathises with the club's supporters, saying: "I've never experienced fans so supportive and loyal, but Souths are very much the working-class battlers, and for their prize signing to up and leave and go to the silvertails . . ."
But Shane, who joined Souths only because Chris had signed there, was aware his young brother was unhappy at the club and eventually he advised him to leave - a decision the pair's former coach at Brisbane, Wayne Bennett, also supported.
"He could have copped the big cash and kept playing [at Souths]," Shane said. "But, as he's showed, money is not his driving factor. Playing good footy is . . . At first he said maybe it was just adjusting to moving to Sydney and a new club. Things weren't settled at the club either, and I guess that didn't make things any easier."
According to Chris, the hardest part was leaving Shane behind - but as soon as he made the decision he knew it was the right one for him.
"The reason I left Souths definitely wasn't because we were losing. I'd been through that with the Broncos in [2001] when we lost nine or 10 games in a row. I didn't pack up and leave then," Walker said.
After gaining a release from the remainder of his three-year contract with Souths, Walker then had to find a new club.
The Roosters, Bulldogs and Newcastle were his preferences - all successful, stable clubs.
While the Roosters have been criticised for signing him, he first had to convince coach Ricky Stuart and others at the club that he was worth the gamble.
"They were a bit tentative at the start because people have this perception of me," Walker admitted. "Probably what I do on the footy field after I score a try turns a lot of people off. But I sat down and had a meeting with their senior players and we talked about my attitude and how it had to pick up to force my way into the team."
Since then, Walker has lost weight and improved his fitness to again become one of the most dynamic wingers in the game.
Shane Walker said: "Gorden Tallis . . . called him a f---ing bum. Well, I'm sure Gorden wouldn't mind that bum in his team right now the way he's playing."
