The Daily Telegraph<\/a> of how he was on the verge of tears with Cronulla Sharks Craig Fitzgibbon as he struggled to make the call to leave the club.<\/p>\nTalakai will join the Perth Bears on a three-year deal next season.<\/p>\n
It was a decision that did not come easily to the NSW Origin representative as he wrestled with leaving the club.<\/p>\n
The 29-year-old even revealed that he allowed a lucrative contract offer deadline to pass from the NRL\u2019s newest team in the process.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to be here (Sharks) until I was six-feet under,\u201d Talakai said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was something (the decision) that I was avoiding, they\u2019d (Bears) given me two weeks to think about it and it took me well over a month to make a decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI just kept coming back to the Sharks,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve given me my second chance (after being released by Penrith in 2018).<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd, you know, I just wanted to be as transparent as I could with the club that\u2019s pretty much given me everything.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time I thought about it or had to talk to my manager about it, I was in tears.\u201d<\/p>\n
M Siosifa Talakai of the Sharks walks off the field after losing the NRL Qualifying Final match between Melbourne Storm and Cronulla Sharks at AAMI Park.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Talakai said speaking to Fitzgibbon about leaving after seven seasons with the club was one of the hardest things he has done in his career.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had spoken about the pros and cons of things with my manager and it was pretty much set (on the Bears),\u201d Talakai said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s another side of footy that people don\u2019t see and it\u2019s a business.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reality is we have so many players off contract and little cap space and that\u2019s unfortunate for myself, but it\u2019s a great opportunity for young players coming through.\u201d<\/p>\n
He continued: \u201cOnce I made the decision and got over the tears, I came to tell Fitzy, I was in his office.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was close to crying, I didn\u2019t want to look like a big softie.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I had to be a man and confront it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NRL great Matty Johns has received a VIP invite to the UFC\u2019s upcoming White House blockbuster, while an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3722,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[4947,124,4931,4943,637,4936,3604,3521,2296,4951,4950,2137,4938,4941,4942,4944,4945,4953,665,4929,4937,624,4952,4949,4948,513,1273,1269,4946,770,532,705,119,135,3264,1724,335,4940,4935,4939,4932,4930,788,4933,117,275,4934],"class_list":{"0":"post-3721","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-perth","8":"tag-aaron-woods","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-andrew-fifita","11":"tag-annual-season-opener","12":"tag-brisbane-broncos","13":"tag-cap-space","14":"tag-coaching-staff","15":"tag-cronulla-sharks","16":"tag-daily-telegraph","17":"tag-dana-white","18":"tag-decision-making-process-led","19":"tag-donald-trump","20":"tag-end-goal","21":"tag-extraordinary-sporting-events","22":"tag-first-of-its-kind-fight-event","23":"tag-florida","24":"tag-grade-appearance","25":"tag-helping-hand","26":"tag-hugo-savala","27":"tag-immense-gratitude","28":"tag-james-magnussen","29":"tag-james-tedesco","30":"tag-josh-dugan","31":"tag-josh-morris","32":"tag-kaseya-center","33":"tag-las-vegas","34":"tag-matty-johns","35":"tag-melbourne-storm","36":"tag-miami","37":"tag-michael-maguire","38":"tag-nevada","39":"tag-newcastle-knights","40":"tag-north-america","41":"tag-northern-america","42":"tag-panthers","43":"tag-pat-carrigan","44":"tag-perth","45":"tag-rogue-elbow","46":"tag-rugby-league-journey","47":"tag-seat-arena","48":"tag-sin-bin","49":"tag-special-invitation","50":"tag-sydney-roosters","51":"tag-teary-exit","52":"tag-united-states-of-america","53":"tag-washington","54":"tag-white-house-south-lawn"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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