{"id":362152,"date":"2025-12-21T08:11:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T08:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/362152\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T08:11:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T08:11:10","slug":"matt-parcell-lifts-lid-on-motivation-behind-retirement-u-turn-i-was-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/362152\/","title":{"rendered":"Matt Parcell lifts lid on motivation behind retirement U-turn: ‘I was done’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matt Parcell has opened up on his retirement U-turn decision.\"MattMatt Parcell had announced his retirement after the 2024 Super League Grand Final.<\/p>\n

Former Hull KR star Matt Parcell has admitted he never planned on returning to the rugby league<\/a> field after retiring at the end of the 2024 season.<\/p>\n

However, the Australian hooker has been convinced to lace up his boots once more, agreeing to a return in 2026 with Queensland Cup side Western Clydesdales<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Parcell called time on his career aged 31 after the 2024 Super League Grand Final at Old Trafford. He made more than 200 career appearances in the northern hemisphere, initially joining Leeds Rhinos before moving to Hull KR<\/a> on loan in 2019, a switch that later became permanent.<\/p>\n

Now, Parcell has been tempted out of retirement by former NRL brothers Ben and Shane Walker at the Western Clydesdales and has spoken to Australian media about his surprise decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I finished in England. I was pretty happy. I was done,\u201d Parcell said. \u201cA chat with Ben and Shane changed that though and to be honest, they didn\u2019t really have to say much.<\/p>\n

\u201cI owe them so much. I was 17 when I played for them at Ipswich Jets and I wouldn\u2019t be a professional player if it was not for their support, their coaching and everything else they did for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe opportunity to play for them one more time was too good to pass up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clydesdales finished at the foot of the Queensland Cup table in 2025 but will be bolstered by Parcell\u2019s experience, having won a Grand Final with Leeds and a Challenge Cup with Hull KR. He also represented Brisbane Broncos and Manly Sea Eagles in the NRL ahead of his Super League move.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Matt Parcell has opened up on his retirement U-turn decision.Matt Parcell had announced his retirement after the 2024…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362153,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-362152","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-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362152","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=362152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}