Tim Grant

[Geo]

Grant: I left Souths to boost my Origin hopes

February 4, 2016 11:55pm
Tim Grant
By Shane de Barra
Published on Feb. 4, 2016

He may well have been pushed out of South Sydney anyway to accommodate the return of Sam Burgess, but Wests Tigers recruit Tim Grant claims he was looking for an exit to boost his hopes of securing a New South Wales jumper.

The 27-year-old prop, who enjoyed seven seasons with Penrith before moving to Redfern last year, is desperate to play more footy after only getting limited minutes at the Rabbitohs.

"I've got this desire to pull that jersey on again," Grant, who played two games for the Blues in 2012, said.

"In saying that, it's one step at a time for me… I play my best footy when I'm playing longer minutes and I need to be doing that to get that kind of recognition and put my name up."

If he's looking for inspiration and guidance, he needn't look any further than fellow front-rower and new Wests team-mate Aaron Woods.

"I think Woodsy is sort of a pillar of the New South Wales team now and he's done a great job... and with opportunity I think he'll always be there.

"But you never know, later on down the track I might a chance to play alongside him (for NSW) which would be awesome.

Grant also revealed Robbie Farah's influence in bringing him to the club. The Tigers have been plagued by bad headlines surrounding Farah's poor relationship with coach Jason Taylor, however, it seems the hooker sees plenty of potential in the joint venture and felt it would be a good fit for Grant.

"I rang Robbie before I made the decision to come here," Grant said. "He was excited about the young guys in the team and where the club's headed as well so it definitely was a bit of an influence."

Wests kick-off their NRL season on Saturday 5 March against the New Zealand Warriors at Campbelltown Stadium.

http://www.sportingnews.com/league-news/4693867-video-tim-grant-i-left-south-sydney-boost-my-origin-hopes-wests-tigers

 

[851]

So Farah played apart in getting Grant, talked the club up not down, interesting, some people would find this very hard to swallow.
Anyway's Grant will hopefully get back to his best and we will have an origin front row, then we will be an attractive proposition for an origin level player to switch clubs, not rifling through the NSW cup players for a bargain like we normally do.

 

[Tigerdon]

So Farah played apart in getting Grant, talked the club up not down, interesting, some people would find this very hard to swallow.
Anyway's Grant will hopefully get back to his best and we will have an origin front row, then we will be an attractive proposition for an origin level player to switch clubs, not rifling through the NSW cup players for a bargain like we normally do.

Yes, there has been criticism directed towards Robbie but no one can doubt his love and devotion to the club. The way he persuaded Teddy to back-flip on his contract with the Raiders is also an example of the way he feels about the WTs. I can see him going for a stint in the UK then coming back in some sort of role in the club

 

[Cultured_Bogan]

Well if he wants to play Origin again, he's got the the right attitude which is a start. I just hope he delivers on it.

 

[gallagher]

So Farah played apart in getting Grant, talked the club up not down, interesting, some people would find this very hard to swallow.
Anyway's Grant will hopefully get back to his best and we will have an origin front row, then we will be an attractive proposition for an origin level player to switch clubs, not rifling through the NSW cup players for a bargain like we normally do.

Lol. Like getting grant to the club wouldn't be in farahs best interests. He's so selfless.

 

[stevetiger]

So Farah played apart in getting Grant, talked the club up not down, interesting, some people would find this very hard to swallow.
Anyway's Grant will hopefully get back to his best and we will have an origin front row, then we will be an attractive proposition for an origin level player to switch clubs, not rifling through the NSW cup players for a bargain like we normally do.

Lol. Like getting grant to the club wouldn't be in farahs best interests. He's so selfless.

If Robbie put in some good words isn't that a good thing ???

 

[gallagher]

So Farah played apart in getting Grant, talked the club up not down, interesting, some people would find this very hard to swallow.
Anyway's Grant will hopefully get back to his best and we will have an origin front row, then we will be an attractive proposition for an origin level player to switch clubs, not rifling through the NSW cup players for a bargain like we normally do.

Lol. Like getting grant to the club wouldn't be in farahs best interests. He's so selfless.

If Robbie put in some good words isn't that a good thing ???

Yep. Same as any player would. No fan would find it hard to swallow.

 

[innsaneink]

Im just glad farah obviously has faith in JT now, they all seem to be on the same page

"He was excited about the young guys in the team and **_where the club's headed_** as well so it definitely was a bit of an influence."

Maybe we all here can do likewise?

 

[innsaneink]

Thats a good thing eh steve?

 

[supercoach]

All the usual preseason stuff, you can set your whatch by it,the day after the last international home cricket game the media start pumping out NRL stuff day after day. Grant came to us because we wanted him and Souths didn't,and for the matter it seems not to many other clubs were after his services.

Grants chances of playing SOO are not much better than mine,but he will be a very good pick up for our mob,he is what we need,a experienced NRL front rower with a very good work ethic and seems a very likeable bloke and should be a great role model

 

[Nelson]

I don't think his release from Souths was directly related to the Burgess signing given it didn't come until after Burgess was already cleared to return. They paid overs for him (and Glenn Stewart) and I imagine they wanted to clear the books because they thought they could get better value out of their cap. Souths have particularly poor depth at prop so they didn't rate him very highly if they were prepared to release him. Hopefully he uses that as some incentive to have a big season for us.

He was also on overs at Penrith (like Lewis, Jennings and McKendry) which is why they wanted to move him on. He hasn't been a player that justified $400K plus for a long time. That doesn't make him a terrible player, but you can't afford too many burdens like that on your books. Just look at what Adam Blair alone did to us…

 

[Tigerdon]

Grant is 27\. Good age for a prop. I'm not saying Grant will never play SOO again because never is a long time and injuries/suspensions happen
Who's ahead of Grant for SOO?
Obviously Woods, James Tamou and Ryan James. But who's the next three months or four ahead of him?

 

[stevetiger]

Thats a good thing eh steve?

Yes.

 

[Cultured_Bogan]

Tamou is sliding, James is on the cusp.

You forgot Klemmer.

 

[Nelson]

Grant is 27\. Good age for a prop. I'm not saying Grant will never play SOO again because never is a long time and injuries/suspensions happen
Who's ahead of Grant for SOO?
Obviously Woods, James Tamou and Ryan James. But who's the next three months or four ahead of him?

Woods, Tamou, Klemmer, Fifita, Vaughn, Snowden, Campbell-Gillard, Trbojevic…I'm sure there are others.

 

[supercoach]

Tamou is sliding, James is on the cusp.

You forgot Klemmer.

Not sure why but Tamou at the back end of 2015 was close to the best prop running around, but he was average for the first half of the season