Former Canberra Raider Terry Campese has finally decided to retire from rugby league as a player for good.
Campese last played professional rugby league in 2016, having left the Canberra Raiders at the end of the 2014 season.
He played 139 games across an injury-ravaged 11 seasons for the Raiders, before shifting to Hull KR, where he played another 26 games in two seasons.
Campese's talent during his time at the Raiders was obvious, playing a match for New South Wales, and another for Australia, although injury continually de-railed his career.
Since he retired with the Hull Kingston Rovers, Campese has been back at his junior club, the Queanbeyan Blues, where he has been the form player of the Canberra Raiders Cup first grade competition this year.
Taking out the Les McIntyre Medal for the competition's best and fairest at the end of the season, the captain-coach of the competition beat out Robert Roberts from West Belconnen and former Raiders' contracted player Darby Medlyn, who plays for the Tuggeranong Bushrangers in the competition.
Campese led the Blues to fourth place on the table with 11 wins from 19 games, which included running up more than 60 points on two occasions during the year, before they got the better of the Tuggeranong Bushrangers last weekend, to progress to a preliminary final against the Woden Valley Rams this weekend.
But the 38-year-old has finally decided enough is enough, with local Canberra journalist and newsreader Brent Ford confirming the news.
Terry Campese has just dropped the bombshell that Sunday's game against Woden could be his last. The McIntyre Medallist will be hanging up the boots at the end of the season.
— Brent Ford (@BrentFord26) September 9, 2022
A much-loved player in the nation's capital, Campese captained the Raiders alongside Alan Tongue in 2010, before taking over as the sole captain.
Campese was named five-eighth of the year during 2008 and played a huge role in the Raiders' first semi-final for a decade during the 2010 campaign.
The Queanbeyan Blues will play their preliminary final on Sunday at the Gungahlin Oval, with kick-of set for 3pm (AEST) with a chance to progress to the grand final on the line, with the West Belconnen Warriors already qualified for next Sunday's decider.
