Rugby league back-rower Greg Bird's NRL career is seemingly over after he was released from the final year of his Gold Coast contract
The Titans forward Greg Bird. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
The Titans met the 32-year-old's request for a release last night, before the 235-game NRL veteran joined the French-based Catalans Dragons in the English Super League on a five-year deal.
Bird played for the Dragons in 2009, after they resurrected his career following his sacking from Cronulla at the end of the 2008 season.
Bird - a former Australian and New South Wales State of Origin representative - said he was pleased to be able to make the move.
"I had always intended to return to the Dragons and promised (Catalans chairman) Bernard (Guasch) I would come back and win a premiership," Bird said.
"They reached out to me and offered me a long-term deal this week which I was only too happy to agreed to."
Bird's exit from the Titans comes after he was believed to have found himself under the eye of NSW Police and the NRL's intergrity unit last month, after an alleged incident at a Brunswick Heads pub where he was denied entry.
He later took to social media to deny any wrongdoing in the matter, where he claimed he ran in to break up a scuffle between a friend and security.
A co-captain with Nate Myles in 2013 and 2014, he was stripped of the position after he was caught urinating near an unmarked police car in late-2014, leaving him on his last chance at the Titans.
He played 129 games for the club on his return from France and helped the Titans to the finals in his first and last seasons there in 2010 and 2016.
- AAP
