2004 Premiership player Roy Asotasi visited Belmore along with his Warrington Wolves teammates for a combined training session. Roy Asotasi, an ex-Bulldogs rugby league player is a treasured member of the Bulldogs club. Starting out as a prop forward for the Bulldogs in 2000, Roy’s career progressed enormously when receiving the chance to play in the Jersey Flegg team and Premiership games from 2001-2004. Roy’s league opportunities in 2002 were both positive and negative with him becoming a regular member of the NRL Premier League team, playing in the NRL against Canberra as Glenn Hughes was injured and then returning to the Premier League. During the Preliminary Final against Penrith that same year, Asotasi was unfortunately injured and missed the chance to be a part of the Grand Final win. Two years on he was able to redeem the missed opportunities, as being a part of the winning Bulldogs Premiership and playing every game of the season, including the Grand Final game against the Roosters. From 2004-2006, Roy Asotasi was elected to play for New Zealand and successfully participated in 14 test matches representing the New Zealand league team. The 2004 Premiership game is memorable one, as described by Roy in a one on one interview. Now 10 years on and playing for the England side, Warrington Wolves, Roy’s back where his career all started and participating in a training camp alongside old Bulldogs team members such as Reni Maitua and Tony Grimaldi, who has now become a trainer at the Bulldogs. “This is where my NRL career started and it’s exciting to be back. I enjoyed playing with the first grade squad, and was good to get a head up.” Asotasi said. “2004 was my debut year in top grade and I remember the excitement of just getting the ring...there are of good memories that I can definitely take with me.” said Asotasi. Roy also describes his experiences on the current Australian tour, which he has been on for the past three weeks. “The whole part of the tour is getting the NRL experience. We’ve trained with a few other NRL clubs and today we trained with the Bulldogs, so it’s exciting to see what they do and how they operate. Our teams pretty young, so all the lads are relishing the opportunity to take on board a few things.” said Asotasi. Roy and the Warrington Wolves return home Monday, in preparation for their Super League competition back home in England, starting on the third weekend of February, 14th-16th.
