Fittler To Walk Away

[pies4ever]

Fittler to walk away
FoxSports
By Margie McDonald
May 3, 2004

THE footballer with impeccable timing has picked the perfect time to say goodbye.

Brad Fittler was given an early shower by coach Ricky Stuart with 12 minutes left to play and the Roosters leading 28-4. As he walked towards the bench in front of the western stand at Aussie Stadium, most of the 11,000 crowd were on their feet clapping and cheering.

They had no idea how significant that standing ovation would become. They were simply recognising another superb Fittler performance - he scored one try and set up two more - that paved the way for another Roosters win.

Half-an-hour after the game, Fittler uttered the words no rugby league fan had wanted to hear: "This is as good an opportunity as any, I won't be playing on next year."

Even with 18 rounds of the premiership to play and potentially four finals appearances, it still won't be long enough for the true believers to get enough of that left-foot step, that cross-field kick, that perfectly placed high bomb, that grubber kick in behind the defence, that long cut-out pass and that ball-and-all tackle.

But the man who has shown such deft touch and timing on the field showed the same off it by choosing the right time to make his announcement.

He confessed he had made his decision several weeks ago. But the past two weekends would have been too close to the Anzac Test and with still more than three weeks to the first Origin game, Fittler has not robbed the representative players of their time in the sun.

"I've been working up to something," Fittler said. "It's one of those things when everyone is asking, so I just wanted to get it out of the road."

Although he again dominated play yesterday, Fittler said the much closer tussle with old rivals St George Illawarra before a huge crowd the Sunday before typified what he would miss most.

"You're lucky enough to go to training every day with 20 blokes," he said. "You keep fit which I find important in life. And you get to play, as we did last week, in front of 26,000 people ... great crowds and when you walk off after winning those games ... most people don't get to feel that.

"I've had great moments. I'll miss playing in front of big crowds, I'll miss big games, training with the boys, singing our song after games."

Fittler has played 318 first grade games, won two premierships with different clubs (Penrith in 1991, the Roosters in 2002), and played 29 Origin games for NSW, 34 Tests for Australia, three Kangaroo tours and two World Cups.

"Brad will go down as one of the greatest players ever," Stuart said without a moment's hesitation when asked what life would be like without him.

"You can't fill the spot of a player of Brad Fittler's calibre; not just for what he's done on the field but what he's done for this team - for its culture, as a leader - has been just phenomenal. The way he handles himself off the field, the way he handles himself with dignity on the field, he's just a credit to be involved with and I'm lucky as a coach to have had that."

The tributes for Fittler poured in from Telstra Stadium yesterday with former Test team-mate, Brisbane captain Gorden Tallis, saying he would not look out of place being ranked among the game's seven Immortals. That list includes such legendary players as Clive Churchill, John Raper, Bob Fulton, Reg Gasnier, Graeme Langlands, Wally Lewis and Arthur Beetson.

"He captained me and I learned a lot off him and he re-invented himself and how do you re-invent a legend?" Tallis said.

Australia coach Wayne Bennett said it was good to see Fittler go out on his own terms and that he had been a wonderful ambassador for the game in his 17 years in first grade.

The timing of Fittler's announcement - two months before the anti-tampering deadline of June 30 - means the Roosters have the motive and method to start pursuing another high-profile, high-impact player such as Lote Tuqiri or Darren Lockyer.

"Now the decision has been made, we sit back and look at what we can do," Stuart said. "Do we look within the club or do we look outside the club.

"I'll sit down with the other coaches, I'll sit down with Brian (Canavan, Roosters CEO) and Nick (Politis, Roosters chairman) and go through what we think is the best decision with the club, what's going to make the team the strongest."

Stuart said he did not try to talk Fittler out of it, although the pair had downed a few beers discussing the for-and-against arguments.

"I think Brad's made the right decision," he said. "You can see the way Brad is playing now, every game this season he's been very dominant and only the great players can choose when they retire. There's only a handful of them and Brad is one of them."

Fittler said he would like to stay involved with the Roosters, though not necessarily as a coach, as it was "a fun, positive place".

Telling his team-mates after yesterday's game was "pretty tough", but Fittler said most of them already knew and the rest would have suspected.

"I learned a good lesson years ago," Fittler said. "In 2001 I had a pretty ordinary year and a lot of that came down to worrying what I was going to do next year.

"I found that if you can just concentrate on what you're doing week in, week out, life becomes a lot easier and less confusing.

"I'm at a stage now where I see blokes coming through, where they can pretty much control the side and take the side forward.

"If I elected to play next year and suddenly my attitude changes, I don't want to go on too far and then have a disappointing end. I feel now I can contribute to this year and contribute well, so I'm thinking the timing is perfect."

Despite having had what is widely agreed as a superlative career, Fittler said he did have one regret.

"I actually regret I didn't grow up a bit earlier," he said. "I took a long time to mature as a player. I knew I had talent but it took me a while to get a bit smarter. Maybe I might have left a bigger impact if I got smarter, earlier, but I had plenty of fun."

His family, partner Marie and four-month-old daughter Demi, had the largest say on his decision.

"I've got a little girl who's growing up now, so I look forward to being a bit more active there," he said. "I hope she likes golf courses."

The Australian

[pies4ever]

Fittler to quit at end of season
HeraldSun
03may04

SYDNEY Roosters' former Test captain Brad Fittler yesterday announced his retirement at the end of the season.

Fittler, 32, is the longest-serving player in the NRL. The champion five-eighth has played 318 first-grade games to be fourth on the all-time list behind Terry Lamb (349), Cliff Lyons (332) and Andrew Ettingshausen (328).
He has played 34 Tests for Australia, many as captain, 27 State-of-Origin games for NSW and five grand finals. Fittler was a member of Penrith's maiden premiership-winning team in 1991 and captained the Roosters to their first title in 27 years in 2002.

THE Bulldogs put aside the controversy over the Coffs Harbour sex scandal to defeat Brisbane 25-18 yesterday.

Test captain Darren Lockyer suffered a rib injury and may be in doubt for the opening State-of-Origin game. AAP