{"id":104682,"date":"2025-08-29T16:42:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T16:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/104682\/"},"modified":"2025-08-29T16:42:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T16:42:10","slug":"super-league-and-former-nrl-star-pens-emotional-retirement-message","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/104682\/","title":{"rendered":"Super League and former NRL star pens emotional retirement message"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

One of England\u2019s finest rugby league players across the last two decades has confirmed his retirement after a final season in Super League.<\/p>\n

Catalans Dragons announced on Thursday that 13 players would be leaving at the end of the season<\/a> with Elliott Whitehead among them. That announcement from the French side also confirmed that the veteran forward would be hanging up the boots and he\u2019s now confirmed that via his own social media.<\/p>\n

Whitehead debuted for Bradford Bulls in 2009 and played over 100 games for his hometown club before heading to Perpignan to sign with Catalans Dragons for three seasons.<\/p>\n

He\u2019d then swap the south of France for the NRL as he made the move to join Canberra Raiders, playing over 200 games for the Green Machine and cementing himself as one of the club\u2019s great servants.<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old then returned to Super League on a one-year deal, rejoining Catalans as part of the club\u2019s heavy NRL recruitment which sadly failed as the Dragons missed the play-offs.<\/p>\n

Whitehead only managed 13 games in his second spell with the French side, however, he retires as a fan favourite and with the admiration of all in the sport.<\/p>\n

Elliott Whitehead confirms retirement after incredible career<\/p>\n

Taking to his social media, Whitehead confirmed: \u201cThat\u2019s me done as a player,\u201d as he set about his retirement statement.<\/p>\n

It continued: \u201cA season full of injuries and suspensions wasn\u2019t the way I wanted to finish though, but who would have thought a kid from Buttershaw would have had played for his hometown club, moved to France, then spent nearly 10 years playing in the NRL?<\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely not me when I was an electrician apprentice at 17, thinking I would never have got to play one game, never mind nearly 400 and over 30 for my country.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to thank all my teammates, coaches, clubs and fans for supporting me throughout my career and giving me the chance to do what I love for so many years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve made friends for life and memories that will last with me forever. Looking forward to what\u2019s next now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whitehead has previously stated that he will return Down Under to take on a coaching role<\/a>, explaining his intent to link up with the Raiders once again.<\/p>\n

Speaking in October 2024, he said: \u201cI want to come back to Canberra once the year\u2019s finished at Catalans and do some coaching here (Canberra) and hopefully progress in that aspect.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of England\u2019s finest rugby league players across the last two decades has confirmed his retirement after a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104683,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-104682","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}