Jack Bird has taken aim at the Broncos after his $4m gig in Brisbane ended in tears before he left to link up with St George.
Jack Bird is hoping for a second coming as an NRL star after a miserable three-year stint in Brisbane came to an end, taking aim the Broncos for their handling of him.
The 25-year-old left Cronulla at the end of 2017 and signed a lucrative four-year deal with Brisbane reportedly worth $4 million. But he managed just 17 games in three seasons as the injury curse struck, a second ACL issue ruling him out for the entirety of 2020.
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Bird took up his contract option to continue with the Broncos next year but they chose to release the former NSW centre to ease salary cap pressure.
He has moved to St George for 2021 and feels welcome in Wollongong — more than he can say for the end of his time at the Broncos.
“I knew they didn’t want me there. Kevvie (new coach Kevin Walters) was saying he wanted me there, but I got a feeling he didn’t,” Bird told the Sydney Morning Herald.
“They wanted to free up some cap (space), they let go of ‘Of’ (Joseph Ofahengaue) and Kevvie was saying he wanted him there as well.
“So the best thing for me was to start fresh. There’ll be no better feeling than playing for the Dragons.”
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Bird claimed the Broncos “didn’t care about me” and weren’t committed to helping him overcome his injuries.
“At the end, I felt like a burden there. Like I was just there for the sake of it,” he said.
“I felt like they weren’t putting their time and effort into me, my rehab. I felt like I was just another number … they were pushing me to the side.”
Bird was the NRL Rookie of the Year in 2015 after a breakout season for the Sharks and he won five caps for NSW during his stint at Cronulla, but after heading north to Queensland, everything went south.
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The pressure of being on a deal worth roughly $1 million a season and the burden of expectation that comes with that weighed him down as injuries crippled his career.
Speaking on 1170 SEN Breakfast, Daily Telegraph rugby league writer David Riccio recalled former Sharks captain Paul Gallen warning his young teammate about the pitfalls of signing a big-money deal with the NRL’s flagship club.
“Jack said he felt the pressure to perform, due to his earning capacity at the Broncos, on about a million-dollar deal,” Riccio said.
“Back in 2018, I was writing Paul Gallen’s autobiography, and I specifically recall how Jack was torn on whether he wanted to leave the Sharks for the Broncos.
“Gallen went and met Jack at a Cronulla cafe to discuss the pros and cons of staying and going.
“The one thing that Gal said was, ‘If you take the $1 million deal, I’ll support you the whole way, but what you need to know is, you immediately succumb to price tag pressure’.
“All the players want to earn the big money but some can’t handle the pressure that comes along with it, and I think Jack was one of them at the Broncos.”
Brisbane suffered its worst season in history this year, claiming the wooden spoon for the first time in club history.
Coach Anthony Seibold left less than two years into a long-term term, replaced by Kevin Walters.
