Former St George Illawarra Dragons and Penrith Panthers forward Eddie Blacker has announced his retirement from rugby league.
Blacker, a Dragons junior, is just 24 years of age, but has struggled to break through to the top level of the sport, playing just two NRL games during his career, one for each club.
Originally out of the Brisbane Broncos pathways system, Blacker moved to the Dragons where he played for the clubs in under-20s.
Highly rated, it was thought he would come on as one of the emerging forwards for the club, but he struggled to breakthrough, making his debut late in 2020 against the Melbourne Storm, but not making any further appearances for the joint-venture.
He then moved to the Penrith Panthers in mid-2021 in search of further opportunities in what was a player swap with Billy Burns.
Blacker became a prominent part of the Panthers - by that stage becoming wildly successful - reserve grade time, but again struggled to break into first-grade.
He made just a single appearance for Penrith, but was re-signed for 2023, before being released b y the club as he continued to fail to break into first-grade.
2024 saw him look to revitalise his career by moving to Queensland and the QLD Cup with the Norths Devils, but injury ruined his season, limiting him to just eight appearances and he has now elected to hang up the boots, with the club taking to Instagram to confirm the news.
