Jared Waerea-Hargreaves has labelled the Sydney Roosters as his "home" following news the New Zealand international had re-signed for another two seasons on Tuesday.
Noting his genuine excitement about his decision to stay on for another 24 months, Waerea-Hargreaves said while there was interest from other clubs he never really flirted with the idea of leaving.
"It's taken a couple of months [to sort out a new deal] and obviously I've been talking with my managers and they said just worry about getting some hard training done and the rest will look after itself," Waerea-Hargreaves said.
"I got the tap on the shoulder on Monday to sign on the dotted line and now I'm just excited.
"There was a bit of interest from elsewhere but this is home for me. The Roosters is home. I definitely didn't contemplate leaving at all."
With huge matches against North Queensland and South Sydney already played this year and another big showdown against Penrith on Monday night, Waerea-Hargreaves noted the importance of settling on his future early in the season.
Not that it harmed his presence on the field considering his 105 metres and 40 tackles per game so far in 2015.
"[Negotiations do linger] in the back of your mind but I tried not worry about it. You think 'am I going to hang around here?' but that's the good thing about 'Robbo'. He has an open, honest relationship with everyone," Waerea-Hargreaves said.
"I think it's quite important that it's settled now though to be honest with you mate. I think for me to be able to get it out of the way now, I can totally focus on playing footy and concentrate on my role here at the club."
The next logical step for the Tricolours is to re-sign Waerea-Hargreaves' fellow high-profile teammates.
With Daniel Tupou, Blake Ferguson, Shaun Kenny-Dowall, James Maloney and Dylan Napa all off-contract at the end of the year, Waerea-Hargreaves called for his teammates to follow his lead.
"We've been together a lot over these past few years and you sort of get a few players off-contract and the talk starts between one another [about the future] but now I'm done thankfully. It's time for the rest of these boys to re-sign now as well," Waerea-Hargreaves said.
"We don't talk about it with one another but you sort of know when your time is coming up. You just have to keep your head down and backside up and hope to hang around a bit longer."
Video courtesy of Roosters.com.au
