Matt Brady: Bulldogs playmaker has lost his passion for the game

Born four weeks premature but healthy, Oliver is now part of a family that includes his three-year-old brother, Valentine, whom Brady had from a previous relationship.

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With two young children to care for, and a union to nurture after it was sealed when the couple "eloped" to Pokolbin, in the Hunter Valley, last October, the 27-year-old has decided his life is rich and full enough without rugby league.

The lauded playmaker - Group 4's player of the year in 2017 and Gunnedah's player of the year in 2017 and 2019 - resisted persistent attempts by the Bulldogs to lure him back to the fold.

"Life goes on, and other things come up and they're more important," said the Essential Energy crew coordinator of his decision not to play this year.

Oliver was born at Tamworth Base Hospital. He had been "sitting low in her pelvis for a while", Brady said, adding: "I suppose he was in the position, ready to go."

The doting dad continued: "He must have been ready. He was big enough, anyway: still seven pounds."

Rhiannon teaches at Gunnedah High. She was pregnant when the couple decided to have an intimate wedding - their parents and Valentine the only guests - at Bimbadgen Palmers Lane, in Pokolbin, on October 17.

They were meant to have their "big" wedding at Bimbadgen Palmers Lane on the same date, but it was rescheduled because of the pandemic and will now be held in September.

"We had it planned and we still wanted to get married. So we went and did it, which was good," Brady said of the decision to elope.

The father of two displayed a level of commitment to getting married that he could not duplicate in order to play footy this year.

Gunnedah's players' player of the year in 2017 and 2019 said he did not "have the drive to play and be 100 per cent committed".

In fact, he had planned to sit out the 2020 season before it was cancelled due to COVID-19.

"I've lost that little spark for it, I reckon. I'm not keen."

However, he added: "It's not like I'm hanging the boots up for good ... But at the moment, I'm quite happy. I've got my hands full as it is."

Telling the club he was not playing was "hard", he said. And although he had received a number of "silly digs" from his former teammates, such as "I'll see you at training", "they're pretty respectful of my decision" not to play.

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