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On the eve of the NRL finals series, Cronulla enforcer Royce Hunt has opened up on his impending move to Wests Tigers.
Royce Hunt has promised his Cronulla teammates will wind up in surgery if they try to put a shot on him when he joins Wests Tigers next season.
But the notorious hardman revealed his softer side in preparing to leave the Sharks, saying years starved for NRL opportunities motivated him to help his current teammates avoid the same fate.
Hunt will join the Tigers in 2025 on a three-year deal, though had always hoped to finish his career at Cronulla who handed him a lifeline ahead of the 2020 season.
The prop had played only one NRL game to that point, having been stuck behind Junior Paulo, Joe Tapine, Josh Papalii, Shannon Boyd and others during three seasons at Canberra.
"I just hated it," Hunt told AAP of his time with the Raiders.
"Knowing that I was good enough to play but just not getting an opportunity, it dampened me quite a bit. It got to a point where I wasn't even going to take the Sharks offer up.
"I went away, got married at the end of 2019 and had a bit of a refresher. I sat down with my wife and we pretty much said, 'We may as well go here and give it one last crack'."
The call paid off in spades; Hunt has since cemented himself as a damaging front-row enforcer with 73 NRL appearances to his name.
So when Cronulla coach Craig Fitzgibbon and football boss Darren Mooney advised Hunt the club did not have the funds to extend his contract beyond 2025, those Raiders days came to his mind.
Hunt shudders at the thought him remaining at the Sharks for 2025 could have left a young player losing their faith in a rugby league career.
Tuku Hau Tapuha and Jesse Colquhoun lead a cast of young middle forwards who were behind 29-year-old Hunt in the pecking order at the club this season.
"I don't want to be that guy who stands in the way of these younger boys coming through," said Hunt, released from the final year of his Sharks deal.
"Steel sharpens steel and they've been sharpening us all year. Each and every one of them are ready to take our spot."
But if Cronulla think Hunt's generosity will extend onto the football field next season, the prop has warned they are sorely mistaken.
"There's a bit of banter happening already about who I'm going to run at off the kick-off," he said.
"Ronnie (winger Ronaldo Mulitalo) reckons he's going to shoulder-charge me. If he tries, he'll be in for another shoulder reco.
"Braydon (Trindall, five-eighth) will be hiding on the wing off the kick-off. I might just have to get a quick line out to him and run straight over to him."
Hunt insisted his impending exit would not change his outlook on the Sharks' finals tilt, which begins with a trip to Melbourne to face the Storm in a qualifying final on Saturday.
"The way we approach finals, it's another competition," he said.
"We're going to be playing for a week off and if that doesn't come to fruition, then we've got the week after that to put a pin it."
