Oliver Gildart is yet to play an NRL game but the Wests Tigers recruit already has unfinished business to complete for his dad in England. The son of a Wigan backrower, international centre Gildart spent his childhood hearing about his father's great regret at never playing in Australia. A centre-turned-second-rower, Ian Gildart had an offer to play first grade in the NSWRL around the start of the 1990s. But family reasons kept him in the north of England, before a detached retina ended his career prematurely at age 28 and after 221 first-grade games. So when Gildart Jnr started rising through the ranks of the Super League, he always had his eyes on fulfilling one ambition for his father. "He's always told me one of his biggest regrets is not coming out to play here, so it's on me now," 25-year-old Gildart told. "I didn't want to have that regret. "He's always in the big picture and knows what is happening contract-wise. "He knew I'd wanted to come here for a few years now. So when I finally got the contract signed (with Wests Tigers), I'm sure it was a very proud moment for him." A veteran of 144 games for Wigan himself, Gildart has never made any secrets about his desire to play down under. "He told me week in week out, if I wanted to get to the NRL these were the things I needed to do," Gildart said.
No comments:
Post a Comment