the longest finals drought<\/a> among active NRL players. <\/p>\n\u201cI\u2019m probably one of the longest-serving players that hasn\u2019t played finals since my first year, so it means a lot to me to get in that team and play finals footy,\u201d Aitken said a few weeks ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the only thing I had written down before the start of the year was to play finals, so hopefully I\u2019ll be able to get to do that over the next few weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt stings. It hurts the most. That\u2019s all you want to do as a footy player is win games, play finals and try for that ultimate premiership at the back end.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been around for a while now, played over 200 games, so that\u2019s all I want to do. That\u2019s the last thing I need to do is to have a good finals series, and hopefully we can get there.\u201d<\/p>\n
The injury means Aitken will have to wait another year to hopefully end the streak, with his teammates aware of how long he had waited for this opportunity. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe was shattered and he couldn\u2019t believe it,\u201d Souths skipper Cameron Murray said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an unforgiving game sometimes, and sometimes you don\u2019t get the rub of the green. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been a pivotal player in our team this year and did some really great things, so we\u2019re going to miss him. We really feel for him, so we\u2019ll just try and get around him and support him as best we can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Powerhouse prop Keaon Koloamatangi will leave the club at the end of the season to join the Dragons but hopes the Rabbitohs will be in the finals next year just so Aitken can be there.<\/p>\n
There is no chance for him to return in the finals, with Aitken leaving Allianz Stadium with his arm in a sling following a heavy collision last week. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s probably one of the boys here that takes his rehab and training very seriously. He\u2019s always looking after his body and it\u2019s one of those things that was sort of out of his control. It was just one of those crazy tackles,\u201d Koloamatangi said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember him saying last week that it\u2019s his first finals game in 11 years and he felt like he jinxed himself. But that\u2019s how footy works and that\u2019s how life works sometimes. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s not much you can do about it. But knowing him and knowing this team, they\u2019ll definitely be back next year and he\u2019ll get his opportunity again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Originally published as \u2018Shattered\u2019: Euan Aitken\u2019s brutal finals drought to continue after scans rule him out for the rest of the year<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Sydney players are rallying around luckless veteran Euan Aitken who will have to wait at least another…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":883573,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[452322,452318,442836,390985,399009,411964,443695,452319,146677,378883,452330,452333,381157,423696,452335,452337,452342,376730,452338,452325,386130,452348,452046,57709,452324,394390,64,63,5079,8849,162,4597,16308,9116,39598,1852,405681,380045,424018,452349,452329,452321,452336,452347,377197,12979,391190,449322,13307,8280,452341,452346,761,762,43961,155207,420982,158,407491,452320,1654,129167,114514,452328,452343,452332,452334,85,4031,392287,452331,452339,452317,452340,391546,23275,382205,64274,215379,377514,422488,417727,378741,452323,452345,117951,405505,406354,378780,378229,174850,452326,356269,376950,435698,378969,452344,447097,386816,364611,452327,380902,3198],"class_list":["post-883572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-s-brutal-drought","tag-s-brutal-finals","tag-s-most","tag-s-win","tag-curse","tag-11-years","tag-200-games","tag-201-games","tag-146677","tag-a-blow","tag-a-devastating-blow","tag-a-devastating-injury","tag-a-few-weeks","tag-a-finals-game","tag-a-footy-player","tag-a-good-finals-series","tag-a-heavy-collision","tag-a-lot","tag-a-pivotal-player","tag-a-sling","tag-a-while","tag-active-nrl-players","tag-aitken","tag-allianz-stadium","tag-an-unforgiving-game","tag-another-year","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cameron-murray","tag-days","tag-dolphins","tag-euan-aitken","tag-finals","tag-footy","tag-friday","tag-games","tag-his-arm","tag-his-body","tag-his-control","tag-his-first-finals-game","tag-his-opportunity","tag-his-rehab-and-training","tag-his-rookie-season","tag-his-scapula","tag-his-teammates","tag-injuries","tag-just-one","tag-koloamatangi","tag-last-week","tag-life","tag-luckless-veteran-euan-aitken","tag-my-first-year","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-newswire-sport","tag-next-year","tag-no-chance","tag-nrl","tag-our-team","tag-powerhouse-prop-keaon-koloamatangi","tag-rabbitohs","tag-scans","tag-shattered","tag-since-aitken","tag-some-really-great-things","tag-south-sydney-players","tag-souths-skipper-cameron-murray","tag-sports","tag-star","tag-stints","tag-that-lone-final","tag-that-team-and-play-finals-footy","tag-that-ultimate-premiership","tag-the-31-year-old","tag-the-back-end","tag-the-boys","tag-the-club","tag-the-dragons","tag-the-end","tag-the-finals","tag-the-green","tag-the-injury","tag-the-last-thing","tag-the-longest-finals-drought","tag-the-longest-serving-players","tag-the-most","tag-the-next-few-weeks","tag-the-only-thing","tag-the-rabbitohs","tag-the-rest","tag-the-roosters","tag-the-rub","tag-the-season","tag-the-start","tag-the-streak","tag-the-year","tag-there-there","tag-this-opportunity","tag-this-team","tag-this-year","tag-those-crazy-tackles","tag-those-things","tag-warriors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883572","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=883572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/883573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=883572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=883572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=883572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}