David Stagg to retire at end of NRL season
DAVID Stagg was already the last of a dying breed and now that he’s retiring, the 90kg lock forward is probably extinct.
Stagg, the premiership-winning personification of hard work, is calling time at season’s end.
“I have had a few injuries in the last two years, knees, shoulders, ankles and all the rest,” Stagg said.
“My body has told me many times it needs to stop.”
Stagg has tackled men at least 10kg heavier than him his entire 205 game, 13 season, career for the Brisbane Broncos and Canterbury Bulldogs and one State of Origin game for Queensland.
He played in the centres too, performing well in the Broncos’ run to the 2006 premiership when Justin Hodges moved to fullback. Even in the centres, Stagg often played outside his weight division.
In 2004, he set an NRL record for tackles in a game with 64, a mark only equalled this year when Andrew McCullough reached the same figure.
He played in the forwards at 90kg for the majority of his career before being forced to bulk up to keep pace.
Lock is now a position now dominated by 115kg Jason Taumalolo and 103kg Corey Parker.
“That’s how the game is going. I often say that I should have played 10 years ago, when the game suited my style,” Stagg said.
“I have had to put weight on over the years to try and adapt but I have always been a lightweight out there and that has taken its toll on the body but I wouldn’t change anything.
“I have never been the bloke to win a game, or score a spectacular try. I am regular guy just doing my best.”
Stagg, 31, considers himself one of the lucky ones. He has an engineering degree and has been working one day a week at a civil engineering firm in Brisbane since he returned to the Broncos for the 2013 season.
His transition into post-career life won’t be seamless but it will be easier than most and he will continue playing this season with Wynnum-Manly who are finals bound.
“I have known in my head for a while this would happen,” Stagg said.
“I was close to finishing up last year but I wanted to go out playing football rather than being injured.
“I am looking forward to the next stage of my life.
“Winning that premiership in ‘06, playing in the grand final with the Bulldogs in 2012 and playing Origin and winning player of the year for the Bulldogs in 2009 are all the things that stick out to me.
“It will still be a big change, going from what I have been doing since school to a new life.
“One thing that has kept me going in the last three years through all my injuries is the mateship.
“I point that out to the younger guys that you don’t know what you have until it is gone.”
