Ben Hannant weighing up return to football in next year’s Rugby League Gold Coast A grade

THE 2020 Rugby League Gold Coast A grade competition could be boosted with yet another former NRL star, with an Origin and Test representative weighing up a shock comeback.

THE 2020 Rugby League Gold Coast A grade competition could be boosted with yet another former NRL star, with an Origin and Test representative weighing up a shock comeback.

FORMER Queensland and Kangaroos prop Ben Hannant is weighing up a shock comeback in next year’s Rugby League Gold Coast A grade competition.

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A two-time NRL premiership winner with Brisbane and North Queensland, the 34-year-old has not played competitively since making four Intrust Super Cup appearances last year during an injury-disrupted stint with Burleigh.

THE BIG Q&A - BEN HANNANT

However, the footy passion that carried him to 245 NRL games, 12 Origins and six Tests has been hard to shake since retiring at the end of 2016.

While wife Emma is pregnant with the couple’s eighth child, Hannant revealed he could pull on the boots again next season if family commitments allowed.

Ben Hannant in action for Burleigh’s Intrust Super Cup side last year. Picture: Mike Batterham

“I’d like to still keep playing and maybe play in the local footy comp next year but the good thing is I don’t have to. I still love the game so if I have time to do it and it fits in the family schedule then I’d do it,” said Hannant, who juggles NRL commentary on Triple M with work on the Gold Coast Hit breakfast show.

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“I keep track of the Q Cup (ISC) but also I’ve got a few mates that play for Currumbin and a few mates that play for a few of the other different teams in local A grade. It’s just good to see the mates that I played school footy with or club footy with as a junior are still running around having fun and that’s the good thing about our game - it brings a group of men together and it’s a good bonding time.”

Hannant playing NRL for North Queensland in 2016. Picture: Peter Wallis

A Burleigh junior, a return to the Bears seems a natural fit for the Palm Beach Currumbin State High product and would give the newly-crowned A grade premiers a massive boost ahead of their premiership defence.

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Currumbin, who already have former NRL title winner Dan Mortimer in their ranks, would also benefit from Hannant’s experience after falling one game short of this year’s grand final.

Ex-Origin star and former Titan Ashley Harrison also made a brief comeback for Tugun in last year’s RLGC A grade, while Clinton Toopi made a cameo for Ormeau this season.