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'I was getting slammed': Matt Dufty on why he ditched the NRL for the Super League

By AAP
(Photo by Jason McCawley/Getty Images)

Former St George Illawarra and Canterbury fullback Matt Dufty has explained why he will be making his Warrington debut this weekend – a year after saying a move to Super League would be a backward step.

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The 26-year-old is set to make his debut at Huddersfield on Saturday after fast-tracking his move to England following his release from Canterbury, where he was a little over halfway through a 12-month NRL contract.

A year ago Dufty said a move to Super League would be a backward step at that stage of his career but now he says he needed to remove himself from the glare of the media.

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Speaking on Wednesday at his first press conference as a Warrington player, he said his relationship with the media was behind his U-turn.

“They are a lot harsher, you are a lot more in the spotlight, especially in Sydney,” Dufty said.

“I don’t read the papers but I was getting slammed a bit at the start of the year and it really started to affect my mum and dad and my nieces.

“Mental health is a big thing and it was starting to get to the point where I was losing the drive to come to training and losing the drive to play.

“For a sportsman, if you’re not enjoying doing what you’re doing, it’s a massive thing. I was still playing good footy, I just needed a fresh start.”

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Dufty had been on coach Daryl Powell’s radar since his time at Castleford but it was Wigan’s Australian pair, Jai Field and Kaide Ellis, who finally sold him the idea of coming to Super League.

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“I played a lot of under-20s with Fieldy at St George,” he said. “We’re pretty similar, we’ve got speed and love to skip around the field.

“Fieldy was under a bit of pressure in his last year at St George as well and he said it’s a lot better over here in that sense. Also, the way he likes to play footy suits him and he loves living in Manchester.

“Kaide Ellis is one of my best mates – we lived together for two years – and he was telling me how much he loves the lifestyle so that was a big selling point for me as well.

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“I said last year I wasn’t ready to come to Super League but I always wanted to come.

“At the time, I was on 82 NRL games and it was a goal of mine to get to the 100-game mark. At that time in my life I was not ready to move, I was a lot younger mentally, that’s what I meant, I didn’t mean any disrespect.

“It’s a goal for me to experience a different competition and this felt like the right time.”

Dufty, contracted until 2024, says his early move will help him settle into his new surroundings and he will be in a position to help his former team-mates, Paul Vaughan and Josh McGuire, when they join the Wolves next year.

He also believes he can help his new club save their season by reaching the playoffs.

“I want to help Warrington achieve something,” he said. “I know how much they love their footy here.”

Meanwhile, Wakefield’s Tongan international Jorge Taufua has suffered a season-ending injury just two matches into his Super League career.

The 30-year-old former Manly winger scored a try on his home debut in their defeat by St Helens last weekend before breaking his arm.

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J
Jon 9 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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