Chris Lawrence announces retirement

[ATown]

https://youtu.be/nTCkUrmFQEc

Damn that simultaneously gave me goose bumps and made me really nostalgic and a bit sad.

 

[Tiger_Steve]

Not sure if you will read this Chris but the biggest accolade I can give you is, as a 53 year old man, you are a true hero in the game to me.
Why?
No garbage ever
One club player
100% effort every week
No excuses ever
Returned from adversity many times

If WestsTigers have any sense at all Chris, you will be involved in the club for many years because you have all the attributes young players need to emulate.
Well done Chris. Champion effort!

 

[NT_Tiger]

Thanks Chris. If the club needs an ambassador on how to carry yourself as a Wests Tiger, You fit the bill. Cheers and all the best with your post WT career.

 

[TCL]

Well done on a wonderful career, horrible injuries and has certainly given all for the club. All the best in retirement.

 

[Russell]

Well Chris - you think the time has come to pull the pin. I'm sure you have finally made a decision for what is best for yourself instead of the club and the other players that you always put first.

From that very first game, you have always given more than 100% and then some, sustaining injuries that would have made a normal player chuck it in, not long after they were received. Not you, back on deck as soon as humanly possible to help the club, the team and your mates do battle again.

Loved watching you play Chris, your commitment, your fitness, attention to detail, the speed in the early days, the hard lines you ran after the hip injury - wow! You may think of yourself as an ordinary player, most of us Tiger supporters, see you as a legend of the highest order. You were inducted into the Tigers Hall of Fame, it is a shame that there is not a more worthy award they can give you.

Off the field just as big a legend, always doing your best for the club, taking a pay cut to help us out, helping the youngsters get it together for their careers, being a great family man and with all of that going on, running your own business.

I haven't got any award I can give you Chris, except to say how much your contribution has meant to all of us during those 250 games, how much we have enjoyed watching you play, how we felt the pain of you being injured and not being able to take your place in the team, the excitement we all felt when you scored each of those 84 tries.

What a legend, what a player but most importantly what a man.

We are all so proud of you, none more so than myself and I am sure Laurie Nicholls would be looking down about now and saying:

Chrissy ain't no sissy,
Well played old son
You gave it to 'em in heaps,
So say all of us peeps.

Tiger, TIGER, T.I.G.E.R.SSSSSS!!!!!! eeeeeeeeaaaaaagggahhh!!!!!

 

[rustycage]

Played his first game the year after we won the grand final, and then retired the year before we won the next one. Who'd have thunk it?

 

[cochise]

Played his first game the year after we won the grand final, and then retired the year before we won the next one. Who's have thunk it?

Wow, that would hurt as a player.

 

[Swordy]

As far as im concerned, the greatest wests tiger to date, no exceptions.

Embodies everything I want in a player. Skill, humble, intelligent, and with a deep and untranished, unwavering love for the club.

 

[Tcat]

Good on you Chris. A true WTs clubman. Oh what could have been if it wasn't for that tragic hip injury all those years ago. Enjoy your retirement.

 

[Cultured_Bogan]

A career wasted. Should have been the games premier centre and would have been if not for the hip injury.

The club wasted him too. 15 season career, he saw a finals series twice. He deserved better.

 

[Speed2burn]

As far as im concerned, the greatest wests tiger to date, no exceptions.

Embodies everything I want in a player. Skill, humble, intelligent, and with a deep and untranished, unwavering love for the club.

He’s in my top 3 that’s for sure. It’s really hard to split him, Farah and Marshall

 

[JC99]

He’s the best clubman we’ve ever had that’s for sure. Stayed here 15 years and made many sacrifices for the club. Not many left like him in the modern game

 

[Chainlink]

As far as im concerned, the greatest wests tiger to date, no exceptions.

Embodies everything I want in a player. Skill, humble, intelligent, and with a deep and untranished, unwavering love for the club.

Absolutely, the greatest West’s Tiger of all time. A player we have all been able to be proud of with the heart and soul of what we want every WT and NRL player to be.

Congratulations on the career Rowdy.

 

[jirskyr]

Chris Lawrence is the Wayne Pearce of Wests Tigers - started off as a physical dynamo with plenty of speed, applied utmost professionalism to everything he did, high injury toll, became a tough and universally respected footballer, epitomised the heart of the club. Never got the Grand Final glory he deserved.

All the best Rowdy, but you are a smart fellow, I know you'll succeed off-field as well.

ps how's that old footage, a young Lawrence absolutely burning a young Brett Morris, who himself was an absolute speedster, but Lawrence just had a ferrari-like top gear.

 

[bbobb]

Classy centre and even classier individual. Stellar career that was hampered by injuries that would have stopped many lesser men. Absolute speed machine then evolved his game and became a hard running, fearless second rower.

Provided one of my fav Wests Tigers moments when he gave Slater a cold one night at Leichhardt to give us an unlikely win,

Kudos Rowdy - from a very grateful fan base.

 

[cochise]

Classy centre and even classier individual. Stellar career that was hampered by injuries that would have stopped many lesser men. Absolute speed machine then evolved his game and became a hard running, fearless second rower.

Provided one of my fav Wests Tigers moments when he gave Slater a cold one night at Leichhardt to give us an unlikely win,

Kudos Rowdy - from a very grateful fan base.

Will never forget that try.

 

[happy_tiger]

A career wasted. Should have been the games premier centre and would have been if not for the hip injury.

The club wasted him too. 15 season career, he saw a finals series twice. He deserved better.

They are wasting all of us CB

 

[tbones10]

The man is triple 'C', class, commitment and character. A true ornament to our club and the game.

 

[GNR4LIFE]

Has to be one of the toughest players of the modern era. The crap this guy has had to endure would have ended a lot of players careers. If it wasn’t for all that crap, he’d have been captain after Farah. He was being groomed for it. He’ll no doubt retire as the most respected player to ever put on our jersey.

 

[happy_tiger]

One word to describe Rowdy .....tough

Unfortunately he had a lot of tough breaks which set his career back

A class act ...my young bloke loved him after he met him