{"id":243815,"date":"2025-10-27T09:23:19","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T09:23:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/243815\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T09:23:19","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T09:23:19","slug":"mcdermott-reds-pay-tribute-as-departing-wright-farewells-ballymore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/243815\/","title":{"rendered":"McDermott, Reds pay tribute as departing Wright farewells Ballymore"},"content":{"rendered":"

A trio of Wallabies skippers have led the tributes for departing back-rower Liam Wright as he prepares to leave the club.<\/p>\n

Wright and the Reds confirmed on Monday that they would part ways <\/a>after they were unable to finalise terms for a new agreement.<\/p>\n

Watch every second of the 2025 Autumn Nations Series live and on demand via Stan Sport.<\/a><\/p>\n

The 27-year-old has been a central piece in the club\u2019s rebuild amid his injury battles, including helping them to the Super Rugby AU title in front of a packed-out Suncorp Stadium.<\/p>\n

Wright has led the Reds for the majority of his time alongside scrumhalf Tate McDermott, debuting together in Melbourne in 2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many good memories with \u2018Wrongaz.\u2019 We started our career together\u00a0in Melbourne, came off the bench together, got our first cap together, captained the team a\u00a0couple of years later together but across our whole journey together there’s probably too many\u00a0memories to really reminisce upon,\u201d McDermott said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuch a good man, one of the best people I’ve ever been around,\u00a0one of the best players and one of the best leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fellow back-rowers Harry Wilson and Fraser McReight are amongst a plethora of Wallabies that have been guided through the system by Wright, whose leadership qualities have shone well beyond his years.<\/p>\n

It saw him selected by Joe Schmidt to captain the Wallabies in his first game in charge<\/a>, with his fellow Reds back-rowers eventually taking over the honour.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy first Reds game, \u2018Wrongaz\u2019 was the\u00a0captain which really is cool and then for the next six years playing for Reds he’s always been my\u00a0captain and he\u2019s just an unbelievable leader,\u201d Wilson.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe always has his own backyard sorted, he always\u00a0speaks at the right time, never overuses his words and just has the respect from the whole\u00a0playing group.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s not been many captains as good as him I reckon in Queensland history\u00a0because geez has an almighty record.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Wrongaz\u2019 is someone who on the field would do everything\u00a0meticulously,\u201d McReight added.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe would be unbelievable [at] set piece and lineout\u2026he\u2019s so tactical\u00a0and the way he prepares his body second to none,<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has his weird toes to the calves to the feet\u00a0and you see how low he can get on the field and how flexible he is and that’s a credit to him\u00a0because he’s so prepared to get in here at 6am, 6.30am, be the first person here, last person to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\"L-R:L-R: Fraser McReight, Liam Wright and Harry Wilson have built a remarkable bond on and off the field at the Queensland Reds. Photo: Brendan Hertel<\/p>\n

Wright said he was proud of the legacy he leaves at Ballymore as he embarks on the next chapter of his Rugby career.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m ready to chase the next phase of my career. I’ve done a lot of development\u00a0here and I’ve grown as a man, as a person, as a player,\u201d Wright added.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I’m a much better player and\u00a0person than when I came in here and I’d like to think I’ve left the jersey and Ballymore and the\u00a0Reds in a better place than when I came to but I guess it’s important for me now to find new\u00a0ways to challenge myself.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve probably been in this same sort of routine and cycle for a while\u00a0now and it’s just important for me to spread my wings a little bit and chase the next phase.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A trio of Wallabies skippers have led the tributes for departing back-rower Liam Wright as he prepares to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243816,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,12061,760,85,48013],"class_list":{"0":"post-243815","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-queensland-reds","11":"tag-rugby","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-super-rugby-pacific"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243815","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=243815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}