Cronulla Sharks veteran Aiden Tolman to retire at end of 2022
Sharks veteran Aiden Tolman has announced that he will be retiring after the 2022 season, ending his 15-season career.
The 33-year-old propsman broke the 300-game mark against Newcastle earlier this year, with most of those appearances coming for the Bulldogs.
Tolman joined Canterbury from The Storm in 2011 and made 222 appearances for the club, including two major finals in 2012 and 2014.
The front rower also played three games for NSW Country between 2011 and 2014.
Tolman joined Cronulla in early 2021 and has been a mainstay of the team ever since. He has made 39 appearances for the club and informed his teammates of his decision on Thursday.
He will play his last home game on Saturday against his former club, the Bulldogs, before a series of finals awaits him and his teammates from the Sharks.
Aiden Tolman has announced that he will retire at the end of the 2022 season, bringing down the curtain on an acclaimed 300+ game NRL career#Up Up
— Cronulla Sharks (@cronullasharks) August 25, 2022
Tolman isn’t the only veteran forward who has confirmed he will leave the Shire. Former Origin star Andrew Fifita announced earlier this week that he was leaving at the end of the season.
The outgoing veteran addressed the media on Friday morning to explain his decision.
“It’s obviously a tough decision when you know the time is up for the game you love,” Tolman said.
“I feel like now is the right time for me to move on. I feel really good physically and mentally, I’ve had a great career in that regard.
“I feel like now is the time to go in a different direction and hopefully I can do that by giving back to the game that has given me so much.
“We still have a job to do – we’re not done yet this season. I can’t wait to hopefully come out of this on a really high note.
“I struggled with the decision for a long time. It’s probably only been the last 48 hours that I’ve definitely had that answer. It’s a tough question and I’m still struggling with it at the moment.
“I’ve been in a system since I came straight out of school at 18, it’s very difficult to understand what’s next.
“I’d like to think that I’m a good person and have built some great relationships in this game.”
Tolman was coached by some of the best in the business in Craig Bellamy and Des Hasler, while his current mentor Craig Fitzgibbon was full of praise, saying all three men found the same key traits in his career.
“We had a discussion yesterday about tols – the way toughness can manifest itself in different ways and how people are seen as tough in different ways,” Fitzgibbon said.
“At Tols he’s incredibly consistent and while he’s not the biggest front rower, definitely not the fastest, he has that level of tenacity that allows him to show up every time he trains and plays and at a certain level too train times he plays.
“To get over 300 games in this style and in this way is a remarkable achievement.
“For his 300thth Game, we had Craig Bellamy and Des Hasler send in a short video and they said the exact same thing.
“As a first-year coach to myself, I’m very helpful that I had him as part of the crew.”