WARRINGTON Wolves have swooped to sign Sydney Rabbitohs forward Jason Clark on a two-year deal for the start of next season.
Clark, 28, who was signing on the dotted line for Warrington as they were beating Wigan at the weekend, has been a one-club man of the NRL side since his first-grade debut in the Red and Green in August 2009. He celebrated his 150th club appearance back in April this year.
He was part of the NRL premiership winning team of 2014 when the Rabbitohs defeated Canterbury Bulldogs at the ANZ Stadium in the Grand Final. He also represented City Origin on one occasion in 2015.
Warrington head coach Steve Price said: “Having coached against Jason for a number of years he typifies what we are building here at our club. He’s a grand final winner and understands what a winning culture is. He is selfless; everything is about the team on and off the field. He understands hard work and it’s players like Jason who help to make a team a success. He’s the type of player who players love playing with and Sam Burgess recently classed him as one of his greatest ever team mates. There’s a lot to his game as he has ball-playing ability and an offload in there too. We feel he can bring us something different and he’s a first-class guy to go with it.
“We are very pleased to have signed Jason to our club from next season and he’s going to be a great acquisition.”
Clark added: “I’m glad to have my contract organised with Warrington and I’m looking forward to the next chapter in my career over in England. The past 11 seasons have been a young boy’s dream come true. All I’ve done is wear the red and green, and following discussions with Steve Price, Simon Moran and Karl Fitzpatrick, I’ll be able to extend my career in the primrose and blue of Warrington.
“Warrington is a similar club to Souths. They have a long and rich history which is something that attracted me to the club. Everyone I’ve spoken to says Warrington is a great club. They are very well organised, well coached and have a great playing squad. I’ve been watching them play over the past few months and they are playing an enjoyable style of football. They beat Wigan in the Challenge Cup as I was agreeing to join the club and success like that is a massive positive for me.
“They have veterans such as Ben Westwood as well as former NRL players such as Ben Murdoch-Masila, Tyrone Roberts, Sitaleki Akauola, and my mate Bryson Goodwin. Stefan Ratchford is a world-class fullback and Daryl Clark is a first-class hooker as well. They also have experienced players like Josh Charnley and Ben Pomeroy in the squad so I will have to get over there and prove myself to the team and earn a spot in the side.
“I’ve played against Warrington before when they travelled to Australia and played Souths at Redfern Oval in a pre-season trial match. They had a great following out here which really stuck in my mind and I loved the passion of the fans. It reminded me a lot of the passionate members we have at South Sydney. I played with Matt King that day for the Rabbitohs and he couldn’t speak highly enough of Warrington as a club. I’m looking forward to getting over there next year, but as I said we still have a job to finish here at South Sydney in 2018, and then I will give my all to the Wolves in 2019.”
Jason Clark confirms 2018 will be his final season as a 🐰
The utility forward has agreed to join Warrington @Wolvesrl on a two-year deal.
📝 https://t.co/B5Gca10IZH pic.twitter.com/FeA2bmIO7g
— South Sydney Rabbitohs 🐰 (@SSFCRABBITOHS) June 5, 2018
