Tigers backrower Chris McQueen was told he wasn’t wanted. Now he’s back in the NRL

Chris McQueen was told he wasn’t wanted at Wests Tigers but now the former Queensland backrower is the exact man the club needs.

• KENT: NRL’s hypocrisy exposed again

• HOME: Manly bring the legends back

Chris McQueen reached out to Michael Maguire long before the pair would be reunited at the Tigers urging his former South Sydney coach to sign him wherever Maguire ended up.

McQueen was told to look elsewhere by then Wests Tigers coach Ivan Cleary after a poor debut season.

As chance would have it, McQueen would not have to follow Maguire anywhere with the premiership wining coach joining McQueen at the Tigers.

“I spoke to Madge when I knew the door was open for me to move on,” McQueen said. “He wasn’t sure what he was doing but I said ‘if you end up at a club give me a call because I’ll be looking for a club’.

“I said to him when he came ‘I know I had a tough year but I’m here and I’m ready to rip in. I know what it takes and what you bring to the club’.

“He said ‘that’s all I want’.”

McQueen had a disastrous first season at the Tigers. He was Jason Taylor’s final recruit as Tigers coach and joined the club off the back of a serious neck operation from the Gold Coast.

McQueen played just three top grade games last year where he struggled to make a dent even in reserve grade.

“After the surgery I thought ‘I’ve done this before I know what I’m doing’,” McQueen said. “It wasn’t the case. I lost so much in terms of fitness and strength in that time off. Even when I came back doing the pre-season I was just jogging laps of the field until Christmas. It was after Christmas that I began stepping it up and started contact.

McQueen has played four games in two seasons for the Tigers.

“By the time the season started I was just so far behind it was so hard to try catch back up. There was one game I was playing centre (in reserve grade). Defensively it’s not as hard as backrow in terms of the work you have to do so I thought I would do more with the ball.

“After my first carry I remember thinking I was gassed.

“It wasn’t until three or four weeks before the end of the season that I felt like I was contributing and not a passenger.

“Halfway through the year I realised I wasn’t going to reach the heights and play the footy I wanted to. I knew it was going to be a write off I set my sights on the pre-season.”

Cleary told McQueen he was free to leave just months into a three year deal. McQueen was a six-time Origin player, a premiership winner and an England international but was now unwanted.

McQueen was part of South Sydney’s premiership team. Picture by Gregg Porteous.

“It rattles you,” McQueen said. “I wasn’t playing good footy so I wasn’t getting an opportunity to play NRL and that was fair. I was frustrated. I know Ivan was in a very similar situation. They signed me to do a job that I wasn’t able to do. There were conversations about me moving on but everything unfolded the way it did.

LISTEN! Matty reveals the biggest lie he ever told coach, the song he can’t get out of his head, an Origin rumour that won’t go away and what it’s like to have a video session under Tommy Raudonikis. Don’t miss this week’s episode of the Matty Johns podcast.

“Knowing what I’ve done in the past and knowing what I can achieve but not being able to get it is really frustrating.”

McQueen returned to the top grade last week starting against the Titans. He was overcome with emotion when Maguire told him he would start just his second game since June 16, 2017.

“By day one and day two of pre-season my testing was already higher than any point last year,” McQueen said. “I was setting personal bests in the gym. It’s weird how I felt (when Maguire told me) because I’ve played plenty of first grade.

“He made mention (of me after the win against Gold Coast). He has known me for a long time. I think he has a soft spot. He used me as an example of how things might not be going the way you want but you can turn it around and get back to where you want to be.”