Shaun Lane said the call to retire from the NRL had been brewing long before the Parramatta Eels confirmed it on Thursday.
The 30-year-old, who made 186 appearances across 11 seasons with the Bulldogs, Warriors, Sea Eagles and most memorably Parramatta, admitted the game had lost its spark. He last played in April and knew almost immediately he wouldn’t return.
Body and motivation gave way
“I’ve had time off for the last three or four months, but I pretty much knew once I decided to take time off that I wouldn’t play again,” Lane told SEN’s Afternoons with Jimmy Smith.
“I’ve kind of just been mulling over the decision for probably the last 12 to 18 months. I just wasn’t really enjoying playing footy anymore, and my body was pulling up sore day after day, and I’d rock up to games feeling sore and not really keen to play.
“And I didn’t really have anything that I really wanted to chase that hard anymore, so the motivation fell off a cliff and from there, the performance just starts to go as well.”
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Lane highlighted Parramatta’s 2022 Preliminary Final win over the Cowboys in Townsville as the high point of his career, calling it one of his best games under pressure despite defeat in the Grand Final.
Meanwhile, the 30-year-old now turns to a new role in Parramatta’s NRLW pathways, working in mental health and player welfare. With degrees in health sciences and psychology, and a Master’s in progress, he says his father’s long battle with depression gave him a personal drive to study the field.
“It got to the point where I’ve got more interest in my studies and getting into work in that field rather than concentrating on football.”