Blake Ferguson can't assist however burst into laughter when requested if he thought his profession would play out this fashion. The previous Kangaroos winger’s rugby league journey has taken a novel and generally controversial trajectory however even by these requirements, as he adjusts to life as a participant in England’s second division – the place the vast majority of the golf equipment are part-time and a few crowds barely attain 1,000 – it's maybe unsurprising when Ferguson affords himself a second to replicate on how he has reached this level.
“I wouldn’t have thought I’d be right here, that’s for positive,” Ferguson admits. In any case, it was solely this time final 12 months Ferguson was an everyday in a Parramatta Eels facet that reached the NRL finals, however lots has occurred since then. That features an ill-fated stint in Japanese rugby union membership NEC Inexperienced Rockets, which ended with the 32-year-old spending a month in jail in Japan after being arrested for alleged possession of cocaine, earlier than being launched.
Ferguson is loth to debate the finer factors of that saga an excessive amount of, however after finally returning to Australia earlier this 12 months and failing to safe an NRL contract, he had, by his personal admission, determined he was “semi-retired”. “I wasn’t actually bothered about getting a full-time enjoying contract and I used to be truly on the point of begin searching for an precise job,” he says. “However then the decision got here in.. and right here we're.”
That decision Ferguson refers to was from Championship membership Leigh Centurions, who made him a suggestion to return to enjoying on a short-term contract, nestled away from the Sydney highlight in a Lancashire city the place the inhabitants barely exceeds 40,000 individuals. “I used to be transitioning into a unique a part of life and searching ahead to it, however the alternative to maintain enjoying was one thing I made a decision to in the end discover,” he says.
“It’s been actually refreshing coming right here. We’ve an ideal proprietor, the teaching workers are incredible and it’s been so superb to come back right here and expertise one thing new and one thing completely different with my household, who've come over too. It was vital for me to get the appropriate membership, and it’s nice to get the love again for rugby league.” Ferguson’s affect was instant, scoring 4 tries on his debut in opposition to Workington City. He even performed at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in Might as Leigh received the 1895 Cup, a contest reserved solely for groups outdoors of Tremendous League.
But that's all a far cry from each the life Ferguson skilled on the high of the sport within the NRL, and the life he was about to embark on had that decision by no means arrived from Leigh to revive his rugby league profession. “I used to be going to enter the coal mining business,” the winger laughs. “I had an interview again house concerning the job earlier than I came to visit right here, round three weeks earlier than in reality so it was getting fairly shut.
“I’d mainly received the job however the likelihood to come back right here and maintain enjoying, discover Europe, and get the excitement again for enjoying the sport. It was what I wanted. It’s been an absolute breath of contemporary air too and I’m actually glad I’ve performed it. We didn’t get so far as locking down the precise job I used to be going to be doing within the mines simply outdoors Sydney, nevertheless it was positively going to be completely different to what I’d been used to.”
Ferguson would be the largest star on present this weekend on the Summer season Bash, the equal of the NRL’s Magic Weekend, the place all groups play in the identical stadium on the identical weekend. However as he surveys the environment in West Yorkshire the place he'll make his newest look as a Leigh participant, the query must be requested: what does the longer term maintain past 2022? Leigh are the favourites for promotion to Tremendous League, and the Centurions are eager to maintain him and lengthen their blossoming relationship right into a second season with a membership and a city which have taken him to their coronary heart.
Does enjoying in Europe’s elite competitors entice him? Or has he not but given up hope of crafting a method again into the NRL? “We’ll see what occurs,” he says. “In the intervening time we’re focussing on footy, my agent does the whole lot for me in that regard and it doesn’t fear me. I got here right here to get pleasure from myself and get the excitement again and it’s been precisely that: actually gratifying. Everybody in Lancashire is very nice, you'll be able to exit for walks, say hi there to individuals.. it’s been an ideal change.
“All that stuff from my previous is behind me now I hope. It’s been good over right here to get a contemporary begin. It’s been a breath of contemporary air, seeing completely different faces and experiencing various things. Let’s benefit from the subsequent 10 weeks with Leigh and fear concerning the future then.”
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