Bjorn Borg retirement at 26 ................ another wtf decision.
Bjorn Borg retirement at 26 ................ another wtf decision.
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Forty years on, Wallabies great Simon Poidevin says he ?"still can't forgive" Mark Ella after he shocked Australian sport by retiring from rugby at the age of 25.
Ella's stunning decision came after he made history by scoring a try in all four Tests of Australia's famous 1984 Grand Slam sweep of the United Kingdom and Ireland.?
It remains the only time the Wallabies have achieved the special feat of beating all of the so called 'home nations' of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland on a single tour.
In it, Ella, Poidevin, Andrew Slack and Nick Farr-Jones share their memories of the iconic tour and explore how it changed the landscape of Australian rugby forever.
The documentary dropped on the eve of Australia's latest Grand Slam bid that kicks off on Sunday (AEDT) against England at Twickenham.?
?And the biggest source of intrigue is centred around Ella, the mesmeric No.10 who played just 25 games for the Wallabies yet left his mark on the game forever.
After piloting Australia to Grand Slam glory, Ella worked ?for Rothmans for five months in the UK before calling it quits when he came home.
"I had a job, I needed to work harder," Ella told the documentary.
"I couldn't dictate all my time travelling around the world when earning no money. So I basically sat down, got married a week after I got home and got back to work, just moved on.
"Sport was very much a part of my life and rugby, in particular, and the friends that I had. The years in rugby, at Randwick, NSW, Sydney and with the Wallabies, Australia was just terrific.
"But there was other things to do."
Ella captained the Wallabies 10 times before coach Alan Jones replaced him with Slack ahead of the 1984 tour.?
"It (retiring) wasn't because I was stopped as Australian captain. It wasn't that," he said.
"I just needed to, I guess, start the second part of my life, which was not being a player."
Ella - whose brothers Glen and Gary also played for the Wallabies - was close to switching to league with ?St George in 1985.
"I did ring up Wally Lewis a few times and he was captain of the Kangaroos, captain of Queensland and captain of the Broncos," he revealed.
"So he was probably the biggest profile rugby league player.
"But he was a good mate of mine and I used to ring him and after about five or six weeks, I rang him up and said 'Wally, I've decided I'm not going to play rugby league'."
Poidevin, the hard nosed flanker who was a key cog in Australia's historic 1991 Rugby World Cup win, still can't get his head around it.
"I still can't forgive him for retiring at the end of '84," Poidevin said.
"For a guy who is a legend of Australian rugby, he did come back and play for Randwick and was still as good then.
"He said mixed reasons of why. But this is a guy in any sport that would become the true best player because what he did up to '84 was incredible. He should have kept on going."
Slack was also shocked by the decision that rocked the game.?
"Generally the feeling was: 'oh, Mark, mate, you've got a future here or you've got a future in rugby league. You've just got a big time future from a footy point of view.' But that was Mark's call - an admirable one."
Farr-Jones is simply grateful to have fired passes to one of the all-time greats in his rookie Wallabies season.?
"What a privilege to play my first four Tests with Mark Ella and for him to score tries in all of those tests," he said.