Leuluai leaving at seasons end.

[Rich102]

Vodafone Warriors utility Thomas Leuluai has been granted a release from the last year of his contract on compassionate grounds enabling him to return to England at the end of the 2016 NRL season.

The 31-year-old began his second stint with the club in 2013 after returning from eight seasons in the English Super League.

“Tommy is contracted until the end of next season but he approached us some time ago asking for a release so he and his family could return to England,” said Vodafone Warriors managing director Jim Doyle.

“While we were certainly keen to see him play out the term of his contract, Tommy has always made it clear he would go back to England at some stage.

“His leadership qualities and professionalism have been invaluable but we understand his desire to return to England and take comfort from the fact we have a number of options in his positions.

“For now he’s fully committed and passionate about giving the Vodafone Warriors all he can for the rest of this season.”

Leuluai said he was grateful to the club for clearing the way for him to take his English-born wife Natalie and their baby daughter back to the United Kingdom.

“My intention was to see out my time here,” he said.

“I’ve loved being in familiar surroundings even though we’ve had our share of challenges but we’ve reached a point where we would like to go back.

“I can’t thank the Vodafone Warriors enough for their understanding with this. Jim and Cappy (Andrew McFadden) have been fantastic about it.”

Leuluai is the second youngest NRL debutant in the Vodafone Warriors’ history. He was six weeks short of his 18th birthday when he played his first game against Canterbury Bankstown in May, 2003.

He played his 77th match for the Vodafone Warriors in their 27-18 win over the Gold Coast Titans at Mount Smart Stadium on Saturday night.

It was his 304th first-grade appearance overall following 189 games for Wigan from 2007-2012 and 38 for the London Broncos/Harlequins from 2005-2006.

Leuluai has also played 34 Tests for the Kiwis since his debut in 2003.

Warrior's email.

 

[Wheeled Warrior]

So some of you got your wish and now he's gorrrrrneeeeee

Wish TL the best for the future.

 

[JJ]

Massive loss, how will we cope?!?!?!?!

Good luck to him, below ordinary NRL half, but seems a good team man

 

[Meth]

Apparently, he was credited with the second half revival on the weekend. He put the call out- "do it for Simon"- which seemed obvious to me...probably could have put that one out before the game.

Anyway, all the best Tommy. I agree with JJ's assessment. A Jerome Ropati type figure, in the end.

 

[VillaTheGorilla]

I feel like I'm gunna be the only one to miss him haha. Many on here seem to not really appreciate his value to the team, so it will be interesting to see how we go with out him.

What does that mean we do this year? Do we push forward with him and really go for it this year, or do we look to the future and blood Hingaro now, or even put Tui there? Now is when we need to see what long term plans Cappy has for the number 6 jersey

 

[vvvrulz]

I'll always remember an interview somewhere in 2013 where we put on a run of 5-6 wins in a row, Tommy was asked if "so you must be happy with where the team is now" and the response was straight up "nope, nice to get a few wins but we're still far below where we should be" (something to that effect).

Certainly has my respect as a person but he was a major misfit in this side from day one.

The silver lining is that this now *forces* us to look at new options at six.
In an ideal world we'd start blooding someone new this season and give Thomas bench impact instead.

 

[ZEROMISSTACKLES]

Untill then he has a championship to win.

 

[VillaTheGorilla]

On the plus side, must have been on an okay salary so hopefully frees up 3-400k to add to Hurrells money.
Could have a quality signing coming up...

 

[Manu Vatuvei]

You know I've always kinda liked Leuluai, very strong defender and gave the impression of being a "smart" footballer who did the 1%ers, but....

Does anyone else kinda feel like somehow, after 13 YEARS of first grade, 300+ games, 34 tests, they're still not really sure what he's about as a player, how he ever managed to rise through the ranks in the first place, why a big club like Wigan ran with him in the halves for years? It seems like he always had the "vibe" of being a calm, collected played, but what did he actually do? Does he have a highlight reel? Did he put people in gaps or make breaks or even kick well? This isn't supposed to be hating, it's just kind of amazing that a guy could play in a spine position for big teams for so many years but always sort of slip under the radar.

 

[Izz]

I think he went to the ESL way too early, so never got a chance to reach his full potential. I've always rated him at hooker, and from what i saw when he was in England he was good enough to be an ESL half. But he's obviously not an NRL-quality half. Would've liked to see more of him at 9. Just when he was beginning to get into form there last season he got injured.

 

[RHYTHM AND STEALTH]

gonna be missed around the club for sure. as long as we are in the hunt for the 8 now is not the time to piss around with the team for next year. Hingano is ready to take over for next year

 

[JoeD]

You know I've always kinda liked Leuluai, very strong defender and gave the impression of being a "smart" footballer who did the 1%ers, but....

Does anyone else kinda feel like somehow, after 13 YEARS of first grade, 300+ games, 34 tests, they're still not really sure what he's about as a player, how he ever managed to rise through the ranks in the first place, why a big club like Wigan ran with him in the halves for years? It seems like he always had the "vibe" of being a calm, collected played, but what did he actually do? Does he have a highlight reel? Did he put people in gaps or make breaks or even kick well? This isn't supposed to be hating, it's just kind of amazing that a guy could play in a spine position for big teams for so many years but always sort of slip under the radar.

Totally agree MV.

 

[vvvrulz]

He's the type of player, like Tomkins, who would excel at the ESL.

Apart from being much lighter than the NRL, the key there is not having to play at 100% full tank week in and week out, Tomkins basically admitted that you'd prime yourself for a bunch of key games and the rest were basically like playing the Knights.

Thomas being a good utility would fit in that comp, but here he lacks the ability to go 26 intense rounds and needs at least one more dimension to his game.

I hope we never look for ESL backs ever again.

 

[Manu Vatuvei]

I think he went to the ESL way too early, so never got a chance to reach his full potential. I've always rated him at hooker, and from what i saw when he was in England he was good enough to be an ESL half. But he's obviously not an NRL-quality half. Would've liked to see more of him at 9. Just when he was beginning to get into form there last season he got injured.

It seems like being given a lot of responsibility very young (first grade at 17, Kiwis 18, off to England at 19) led to an accelerated development of the mental side of his game but slowed down the actual skills part.

I guess like most of us I didn't watch much of him in ESL and so don't really know what style of player he was over there, but when he came back to play for the Kiwis (he always seemed to be the one guy who was always available) I kept expecting to see development in his game but it was never quite there.

For a guy who never had size, speed, or much more than a rudimentary passing or kicking game, he's done pretty well for himself.

 

[VillaTheGorilla]

He's played 6 years in the NRL (including this one) and has only clocked up 77 games. Injury has really messed him up in terms of being a consistent player.
Imo definitely not the most talented player, but I think he's offered a lot to the Warriors and when he's been injury free for a period of time, I think the Warriors have played their best patches of League in the past few years (I'll try and find some stats for this)
But hay, we've got some exciting prospects coming through so I'm happy to see how they go. There's been lots of talk about Hinengaro for most of this year so I hope he's as good as some have been saying.

 

[Penrose Warrior]

Yeah, it's hard to get a gauge on Thomas and what he adds/doesn't add. He was great for the Kiwis at hooker and I think in the NRL, that's his best position. ESL, he'll probably carve up at 6. Won't be missed too much, and if he happens to get injured before the end of the season it's Ata's time.

 

[Rich102]

gonna be missed around the club for sure. as long as we are in the hunt for the 8 now is not the time to piss around with the team for next year. Hingano is ready to take over for next year

Agree totally. And I am sure Cappy won't be taking any chances. Which begs the question why is Hingano being named in the squad?

 

[ZEROMISSTACKLES]

Does he have a highlight reel?

Nah not really as far as whats on youtube but I did find this clip which personifies a quality about him that cant be argued..

[youtube]25Qw_5gd6gc[/youtube]

 

[JoeD]

Yeah, it's hard to get a gauge on Thomas and what he adds/doesn't add

When the best thing you can say about a half is that he defends well he probably doesn't add much.

 

[Meth]

I can accept that a bit of what the halves go is intangible. For example, the organising- you have to look beyond the obvious to see it, and other players are made to look better.

In saying that, I don't think TL is a NRL standard half