Bag out Aaron Woods all you like. It will only make the new Cronulla recruit stronger.
Cliched as it may be, Woods knows life in the NRL is a rollercoaster. Yesterday morning he was swimming laps with his Canterbury teammates. That afternoon, he was training with the Sharks.
For the experienced prop, however, it looks as if this move will bring the best out of the former Australian and New South Wales representative.
The criticism that has followed Woods since his move from the Wests Tigers has been largely unwarranted.
During his time at Canterbury, he averaged 122 running metres, 23.7 tackles and 1.9 offloads from just 56 minutes of play. While certainly at his peak during his stint with the Tigers, his decline has not been as dramatic as made out to be.
Trying to get back to his best has admittedly been a challenge in recent years given the off-field dramas that have plagued both the Tigers and Bulldogs.
Despite being club captain and an accomplished representative forward, Woods left Concord at the end of 2017 to wear the blue and white. His hope was the change would bring much-needed stability to his career.
The front-rower openly admitted that the drama at the club was a key motivator in the move, telling Fox Sports that “it was a hard decision but at the Tigers there are a lot of ups and downs, a lot of instability.”
Unfortunately, he barely had time to settle in at Belmore before he was again troubled by uncertainty over his playing future.
This time Woods, who had signed an $850,000-a-year deal with the Bulldogs, was the victim of Canterbury’s salary cap drama. While coach Dean Pay did not want to lose his new man, he knew that his departure was necessary to fix their financial woes.
(Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)
Woods is believed to have taken a pay cut to join the men from the Shire until 2021. This proves that the move is not motivated by money.
Rather, he looks to be still chasing the stability that has eluded him in recent years. And he will find it in the black, white and blue.
Arriving at Cronulla, Woods is suddenly part of a team that is a premiership hopeful rather than a wooden spoon contender.
He joins a forward pack brimming with representative players such as Andrew Fifita, Matt Prior, Paul Gallen, Luke Lewis and Wade Graham. He may face stiff competition for game time, yet that often brings the best out of players.
It is a very astute purchase by the Sharks given they get Woods at a discounted rate. With regular forwards Lewis and Graham still sidelined by injury, his arrival is a timely one that is sure to bolster Cronulla’s premiership chances.
Canterbury’s decision to offload the front-rower should also provide some relief from the salary cap dramas that have embroiled the club in 2018.
However, the severity of the financial situation at the club means that they still will not be able to make any major changes to their playing roster until 2021.
Having struggled to find any real spark in attack so far, Pay will need to find players within their existing roster if they are to experience any real success in the short-term.
It starts this week, with Lachlan Lewis handed his first-grade debut in place of the struggling Matt Frawley.
Despite a promising start to his career at Canterbury, Frawley appears to have hit a wall. He only has himself to blame, though, poor form alone contributing to his woes.
Woods, however, was a casualty of the club’s own internal instability.
This Friday night signals a new chapter in his career, one that gives him the opportunity to return to his best.
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