Craig Field announces his retirement

Sydney Airport Jets half-back and captain Craig Field announced his retirement as a Rugby League player, following Sunday's final round VB Premier League match at Brookvale Oval.

Newtown led the Sea Eagles 14-10 at half-time, but a dreadful ten minutes from the Jets early in the second half allowed the Eagles in for four tries. Newtown finished the game all over their opponents, but couldn?t quite make up the deficit, going down by 34-30.

Field had an outstanding game in his swansong, scoring two tries and displaying his customary creativity. Forwards Tommy Gemmell, Wade L?Estrange, James Stosic and Phillip Leuluai all did their best to pull this result out of the fire for Newtown. Jets coach Colin Murphy paid tribute to Field after the game, saying that the classy number seven?s contribution to the Newtown club in the past two seasons had been immense.

Despite the disappointment of narrowly missing the playoffs, this has been a memorable season for the Sydney Airport Jets. In playing performance terms it has been the club?s best season since 2000, when Newtown was linked with the former Auckland Warriors and had the benefit of using fourteen Warriors NRL players in that year. With the recently announced strategic partnership with the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks coming on line in 2005, the Sydney Airport Jets have every reason for optimism as they head towards their Centenary Year in 2008.