The last NRL player to make an NFL team was Jarryd Hayne <\/a>who impressed the San Francisco 49ers enough to offer him a contract and he went on to make eight appearances before being cut from the squad. <\/p>\nVa\u2019a, 21, knows he will face a difficult task trying to earn an NFL deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very rare that you see players go over and successfully make it \u2026 so why not give it a crack and try to follow in their footsteps?\u201d Va\u2019a said.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, I\u2019m big enough to play offensive line if I put on some size, but they said, based off the video footage, they felt my athleticism could also put me in potentially another position. So, I guess I\u2019ll have to wait until they see me in person and make that decision for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Will Spencer Leniu land at Parramatta? | 02:45<\/p>\n
WAYNE\u2019S HEARTBREAKING REALITY FOR DODD<\/p>\n
Former South Sydney halfback Lewis Dodd has revealed the painful moment he realised he wasn\u2019t going to make it in the NRL.<\/p>\n
In May, 2024, Dodd signed a three-year, $2 million deal with Souths but he quickly realised he wasn\u2019t in the club\u2019s long-term plans under new coach Wayne Bennett.<\/p>\n
Dodd arrived at Souths as a Super League Grand Final-winning halfback at powerhouse club St Helens, but less than 18 months later he was released by the Rabbitohs. <\/p>\n
He only played six games for the club when Bennett gave him some crushing news.<\/p>\n
Speaking on The Nova Sport Podcast, Dodd said Bennett told him: \u201cI just don\u2019t see you as my halfback in this team.\u201d<\/p>\n
While upset, he said he didn\u2019t blame the super coach and still had plenty of respect for him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t be angry at someone who\u2019s made a decision. Yes, it\u2019s not in my favour, but I can\u2019t be angry at them,\u201d Dodd said.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid I do everything possible to give myself the best possible chance to play and play well? Probably not, I probably wasn\u2019t there mentally to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
AUS RLG World Cup squads announced | 03:01<\/p>\n
Dodd didn\u2019t get off to a good start at Souths after a poor performance in the pre-season Charity Shield match where he copped a suspension. <\/p>\n
\u201cI had a shocker, I was awful,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew I could play at this level, but I just wasn\u2019t showing it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dodd rang his father back home in England and told him he was \u201cmiles off\u201d the pace in Australia and couldn\u2019t figure out why.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t angry towards anyone else, it was more myself. It was like, why am I not getting it?\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m missing stuff I normally see. I\u2019m not taking stuff on I normally take. I thought something\u2019s not right here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dodd praised Souths superstar Latrell Mitchell, saying he protected him from the Australian media, which is more present in the NRL than the Super League.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just knew as soon as the game (Charity Shield) finished, three or four cameras were around me. To be fair to Latrell, he stood in the way of the cameras and told them to move away,\u201d Dodd said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s completely misunderstood. He\u2019s such a nice guy, like a great partner, a great dad, great friend, great teammate.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor someone as famous in Australia as him, he was unbelievable with me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anasta: “You got it wrong!” | 00:40<\/p>\n
Dodd\u2019s suspension in the Charity Shield meant he missed the first game of the season against the Dolphins, and from there he we was out of favour.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt got to the mid-year and I sort of knew I wasn\u2019t playing regardless,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Even while playing at a lower level in the NSW Cup, Dodd was struggling to find his best form.<\/p>\n
Bennett knew he couldn\u2019t keep a $700,000 halfback in reserve grade <\/a>so he moved Dodd on and he\u2019s now playing for Catalans Dragons in the Super League.<\/p>\n\u201cOne game I was playing well, the next game was a bit of a struggle,\u201d Dodd said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe stuff he (Bennett) taught me and us as a group I still use now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Giant Roosters forward De La Salle Va\u2019a is set to ask the club for a release so he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":918734,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-918733","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\/918733","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=918733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/918734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=918733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=918733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=918733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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