{"id":175581,"date":"2025-12-09T15:14:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T15:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/175581\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T15:14:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T15:14:09","slug":"injury-hit-panthers-veteran-contemplates-hanging-up-the-boots-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/175581\/","title":{"rendered":"Injury-hit Panthers veteran contemplates hanging up the boots – NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Entering the final year of his current contract with the\u00a0Penrith Panthers<\/a>, reports have emerged that a veteran forward is contemplating hanging up the boots on his playing career before the start of the 2026\u00a0NRL<\/a>\u00a0season.<\/p>\n

Regarded as one of the most resilient players in the\u00a0NRL<\/a>,\u00a0Matthew Eisenhuth<\/a>\u00a0has been a valuable member of the Panthers squad for over half a decade, following stints within the\u00a0Parramatta Eels<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Wests Tigers<\/a>\u00a0systems, where he played 70 first-grade matches.<\/p>\n

Although he hasn’t reached the status of the likes of\u00a0Liam Martin<\/a>,\u00a0Moses Leota<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Lindsay Smith<\/a>, he is well-respected among the playing group and even captained the side against the\u00a0Canterbury Bulldogs<\/a>\u00a0in one match during this year’s campaign.<\/p>\n

Turning 34 next year,\u00a0Wide World of Sports<\/a>\u00a0reports that he is now considering retirement due to multiple injury problems, which would be a massive blow to the beginning of next season for the Panthers.<\/p>\n

The 18th man for the Panthers during the 2024\u00a0NRL<\/a>\u00a0Grand Final against the\u00a0Melbourne Storm<\/a>, Eisenhuth previously opened up to\u00a0Zero Tackle\u00a0about the heartbreak of not being named in the four grand finals that the club won.<\/p>\n

“The first one – I was playing a lot that year – probably hurt the most but once you have a little bit of time to reflect on it, my perspective is that you don’t get to be a part of teams like this too often,”\u00a0he said in 2024.<\/a><\/p>\n

“After that one you sit back, reflect and since then we’ve gone on and won two more and I’ve played big parts in all three years.<\/p>\n

“I don’t know how many\u00a0NRL<\/a>\u00a0games I’ve played across those three years and we’ve won comps. As much as you’d want to be a part of them, I feel like I’ve played my part in helping the boys getting them there.<\/p>\n

“I still party like I’ve played in it anyway. The memories will be there for a lifetime.<\/p>\n

“I can tell my kids, my grandkids that I was part of something special so it’s something I’ll look back on at the end of my career and be pretty stocked that I was part of it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Entering the final year of his current contract with the\u00a0Penrith Panthers, reports have emerged that a veteran forward…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":175582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-175581","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-newzealand","10":"tag-nz","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}