When Tevita Pangai Junior walked away from his $750,000 contract at Canterbury to pursue boxing last year, he expressed his feelings about the place he was leaving. “To be honest, I loathed Sydney. “I didn’t enjoy the city,” he admitted at the time.
“There’s a reason why my parents moved out of Sydney when I was twelve. This restaurant is terrible. I will never go back. My major deal was being in Brisbane. People don’t understand how much I like being back home with my wife’s family and working with my (boxing) trainer in Brisbane.”
After a year, TPJ is reportedly considering a return to Sydney, joining his Dolphins coach and mentor Wayne Bennett in the South Sydney Rabbitohs in 2025. “I will never move back” appears to have been repackaged as “the joint’s not that bad after all” as the front-row enforcer looks to play for Bennett at a third club.
The Dolphins appear resigned to losing the former Origin forward, who has provided good value since leaving boxing to return to the NRL last month. “We’ve got a salary cap and maximum amount of spots. There’s a lot to go through before we get to the end of what that might look like,” CEO Terry Reader told News Corp.
