{"id":66536,"date":"2025-08-14T02:21:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T02:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/66536\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T02:21:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T02:21:09","slug":"nrl-eels-forward-announces-immediate-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/66536\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL: Eels forward announces immediate retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Shaun Lane has announced his retirement from the NRL, four months after taking indefinite leave from Parramatta.<\/p>\n<p>The towering second-rower played 186 first-grade games after making his NRL debut with Canterbury in 2015.<\/p>\n<p>Editor&#8217;s Picks<a name=\"&amp;lpos=story:editorspicks:inline:1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com.au\/nrl\/story\/_\/id\/45952349\/nrl-look-finals-here-come-penrith-panthers-again\" class=\"img-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/r1530749_1296x1296_1-1.jpg&#038;w=130&#038;h=130&#038;scale=crop&#038;location=center.jpeg\" width=\"65\" height=\"65\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>He joins Joe Ofahengaue, Clint Gutherson, Bryce Cartwright and Reagan Campbell-Gillard as another big name to leave the Eels&#8217; playing list since Jason Ryles took over as coach.<\/p>\n<p>Lane, 30, is working towards a Masters degree in positive psychology and will transition into a role in Parramatta&#8217;s pathways and NRLW programs.<\/p>\n<p><img class=\" lazyload lazyload\" data-image-container=\".inline-photo\" height=\"320\" width=\"570\"\/>Eels forward Shaun Lane runs the ball against the Bulldogs.\u00a0Brendon Thorne\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Shaun has been a wonderful ambassador for the Parramatta Eels,&#8221; said Eels head of football Mark O&#8217;Neill.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He carries himself with humility, integrity, and professionalism and he&#8217;s been an exceptional role model for younger players.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Lane played stints at the Bulldogs, Manly and Warriors but is best remembered for his 138 games in blue and gold.<\/p>\n<p>He found career-best form in the 2022 season, becoming one of the NRL&#8217;s most dangerous second-rowers as the Eels made their first grand final in 13 years.<\/p>\n<p>That year, Lane produced more try assists than any non-spine player, finding wonderful chemistry with five-eighth Dylan Brown on the left edge.<\/p>\n<p>He struggled to reproduce that elite form in the years that followed amid injuries and Parramatta&#8217;s fall from heavyweight status.<\/p>\n<p>Lane was granted leave to assess his NRL future in April, with the hefty round-six loss to Canberra in Darwin proving his final appearance.<\/p>\n<p>Off the field, Lane became known as one of the NRL&#8217;s deepest thinkers.<\/p>\n<p>He has completed a Bachelor of health sciences and a Graduate Diploma in psychology and produced a feature-length documentary focusing on mental health that premiered in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve absolutely loved my time playing for the Eels,&#8221; Lane said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This club means a lot to me, and I&#8217;m incredibly grateful for the experiences I&#8217;ve had and the relationships I&#8217;ve built here. I&#8217;m really thankful to the fans for their unwavering support throughout my career -it&#8217;s meant the world to me.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m now looking forward to continuing my career at Parramatta in a different capacity, helping our young athletes thrive on and off the field.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shaun Lane has announced his retirement from the NRL, four months after taking indefinite leave from Parramatta. The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66537,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-66536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66536","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=66536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}