His exit came in a rush and with a campaign for the NRL to insert clauses into the contracts of players preventing them trialling with NFL teams, but former Cronulla officials have opened up on why Valentine Holmes was right to pursue his American dream.
Almost four years since stunning rugby league by walking out on the Sharks to pursue an NFL career, Holmes will return to PointsBet Stadium for the first time in a finals blockbuster against his old club on Saturday night.
His off-season switch, which came with a year still to run on his Sharks deal, prompted premiership-winning coach Shane Flanagan to call for the NRL to protect clubs from losing players mid-contract to potential NFL careers.
Holmes’ management initially asked for a release from his 2019 contract without hinting at Holmes’ NFL dream, and then came clean before the State of Origin star headed to the United States.
The Sharks initially blocked Holmes’ request to be cut loose from his deal fearing he would head straight to the Cowboys, but had no idea he had been considering swapping codes to follow the lead of Jarryd Hayne.
“I wasn’t going to let him go without a fight,” Flanagan said. “We definitely didn’t want him to go, but we understood he had a dream he wanted to fulfil and it was probably the right time to do it. It was hard to take at the time, but in the end we wished him well and we couldn’t hold him back.
Valentine Holmes will return to PointsBet Stadium for the first time as a Cowboy.Credit:Getty
“We knew when he came back to Australia he was probably going to want to go home [to North Queensland] – and we celebrated his time at the Sharks.”
Holmes, a member of the club’s only title-winning team in 2016, was picked up by the New York Jets for their practice squad before returning to Australia when he was cut by the franchise at the end of 2019. He swiftly signed a lucrative deal with the Cowboys, and has found his best form at centre under Todd Payten this year.
“It all happened really quickly,” former Sharks chief executive Barry Russell said. “He had a desire to fulfil a lifelong dream, which he did, and now he’s back. No-one held any grudges. He actually came back and trained with the guys before he went to America. He’s a great person, a great athlete and he had an opportunity to do something he hadn’t tried before.”
Cronulla captain Wade Graham told News Corp two years ago he thought Holmes handled his Sharks exit “the wrong way”, leaving the club with a huge hole in their salary cap at short notice.
Cronulla signed Shaun Johnson with money that was allotted to Holmes, but the New Zealand halfback didn’t reach great heights during his three years in the Sutherland Shire.
“I had no doubt [Holmes] would come back – I just didn’t know it was going to be at centre,” Flanagan said.
“I always knew he was going to come back and be an equally good player, he just needed to get his aerobic fitness up and his body back into NRL footy shape. He’s been great.”
While Holmes will come up against Jesse Ramien on Saturday night, the Sharks have had more concern over fellow centre Siosifa Talakai, who was hurt in a hip drop tackle from Newcastle’s Mat Croker in the dying minutes of their final-round clash last week.
Cronulla coach Craig Fitzgibbon said Talakai had recovered better than expected from the injury.
“He looks strong, probably better than expected,” Fitzgibbon said. “He got through more work than we thought [on Thursday], so he’s looking good.”
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