LEEDS Rhinos star Blake Austin has revealed why he left the Warrington Wolves ahead of the 2022 Super League season.
Austin had been at the Cheshire club for three seasons, helping Warrington to a Challenge Cup success as well as three successive Super League play-offs.
However, with then Wolves boss Steve Price departing for Australia at the end of 2021, incoming head coach Daryl Powell wanted to move in another direction which took Austin to Leeds.
“I was at a great cub which really looked after me,” Austin said on the Trot the Egg In podcast. “I can’t speak highly enough of my time there.
“I wasn’t looking to leave at the time but it was just something that the new coach coming in wasn’t interested in keeping me.
“I was really sad to leave the club as well as the town and if it wasn’t for them then I wouldn’t have fallen in love with this country.”
As it was, Austin was tasked with leading Leeds into the 2022 Super League season alongside his teammate from the Canberra Raiders, Aidan Sezer.
Unfortunately, things didn’t go their way and the Rhinos won just one of their opening nine games which eventually led to head coach Richard Agar stepping down.
Interim boss Jamie Jones-Buchanan took over before Rohan Smith was appointed on a permanent basis, and, with that appointment came a drastic improvement.
So much so that Leeds made the Grand Final, with Austin hoping for more in 2023.
