Jamie Lyon to retire at end of 2016 season

[mikail-eagle]

http://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nrl...n/news-story/f2d5eaf1d38dc4203a3d9e6cbc5037eb

Jamie Lyon will retire at the end of the 2016 NRL season

MANLY skipper Jamie Lyon has shocked the rugby league world by announcing he would retire after this season.

Lyon told the media at Narrabeen on Wednesday that he would leave the game after 16 years of top-flight football.

The Daily Telegraph has been told the 34-year-old informed teammates as they were about to leave their Newcastle hotel for Hunter Stadium before Sunday’s win over the Knights.

“I know it’s time,” Lyon said.

“The body aches a bit these days. It’s hard to get up for.

“I’ve had a good run and am looking forward to the end of the season.

“Baz (Manly coach Trent Barrett) wanted me to stay for another year but I knew it was time.”

Lyon first bust onto the scene in 2000 as an 18-year old sensation for the Eels.

He scored 15 tries in 29 matches the following season as a part of the record breaking Parramatta outfit who were upset in the grand final by Newcastle.

Test and Origin debuts shortly followed and Lyon was ensconsed as one of the finest centres in the game.

In 2004 he made the shock decision to walk out on the blue and golds after just one match, claiming the pressures of big time rugby league had worn him down.

After returning to his hometown of Wee Waa in northern New South Wales, Lyon signed with English club St Helens for 2005 and won the Man of Steel award for player of the year.

He returned to Australia in 2007 and started at five-eighth for the Sea Eagles in the 2007 and 2008 grand finals with Manly triumphing in the latter courtesy of a 40-0 demolition of the arch-rival Melbourne Storm.

Lyon returned to the centres in 2009 and led the club to another title in 2011 after asusming the captaincy.

For better or for worse, Lyon’s career will always be dogged by his refusal to representative football during his time at Manly.

Lyon had played five Tests and five Origin matches before leaving the Eels and was rushed back into the Test side for the 2006 Tri Nations before he’d returned to the NRL.

Despite appearing in two more Test matches and five more Origin games, Lyon did not play any representative football after 2010 in order to focus on on playing for the Sea Eagles.

Lyon was named Dally M Centre of the Year in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2014 and was named Captain of the Year in 2012 and 2014

 

[Incorrect]

A fantastic career. Whatever his reasons were for walking out on my club in 2004, it's all water under the bridge in my mind. And I never understood why he was pilloried for not wanting to play rep footy. His decision and his alone and I can respect someone who maybe placed other things in life above Origin camps and Tri Nations tours.

Well played, his record speaks for itself.

 

[JJ]

Great centre, no question

 

[Disco]

Absolute Legend

Will leave a big hole in the Manly team

 

[Patorick]

Absolute Legend

Will leave a big hole in the Manly team

This.

 

[Blade23]

Thought he'd go around again. But its time.

 

[Mogsheen Jadwat]

IMO, he's starting to look like a guy that has played a season too long, capable of the occasional flash of brilliance but mostly a passenger.

Hodges was the same.

 

[Jason Maher]

Filthy traitor and coward. Good riddance.

 

[Snappy]

You could tell during the Knights game that he wasnt interested anymore.

 

[blaza88z]

Great player but his decision to not play at a representative level when without doubt his State needed him will always leave a big asterix over his career

 

[Danish]

One of the biggest whinging selfish cats is retiring? Happy days.

Played really well for manly though

 

[sensesmaybenumbed]

It would be an odd person who could genuinely say that they'd prefer any other centre over the last 10 years.

Any team would be better over that time for having him in it, despite how you might feel about his rep decision. A real gun, and a really talented footballer, not just an athlete.

 

[roostersrule2]

Good, his head annoys me and I won't have to see it anymore.

Top player though.

 

[Ron Jeremy]

Hope those coins finally hit him this time in his fairwell game.

f**king dog.

 

[Ron's_Mate]

It would be an odd person who could genuinely say that they'd prefer any other centre over the last 10 years.

Any team would be better over that time for having him in it, despite how you might feel about his rep decision. A real gun, and a really talented footballer, not just an athlete.

+1 thanks, saved me having to type it.
Most fans would have loved to have had him at their team.

 

[El Diablo]

Filthy traitor and coward. Good riddance.

agreed

good riddance to the piece of shit

 

[jk13]

i thought pig face retired last year

 

[gunpk]

One of the best centres I've seen play.
Made ordinary wingers like wolfman look much better than they actually were.

 

[nomis88]

An absolute legend. His career skyrocketed when he left a minor club (Parramatta) and joined a premiership contender (Manly) He is also higher in my estimation for putting his family ahead of those glorified exhibition matches they play 3 times a year.

 

[Mogsheen Jadwat]

He is also higher in my estimation for putting his family ahead of those glorified exhibition matches they play 3 times a year.

if anything he's probably helped himself with regard to long term legacy by not playing.

he largely missed a period of origin domination where extremely few players from NSW came out with any credit.

hayne
gallen - to an extent, though everyone thinks he's a shit captain

...struggling after that point.

if he had of played in most of the series, and got flogged like the rest of them, i wonder whether his "best centre of the decade" would still apply.