MATT Adamson admits he's in two minds about his 'comeback' rugby league game on Saturday for Taree City against Wingham at the Jack Neal Oval.
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This will be part of a charity day organised to assist the Can Assist Manning Valley.
"I can't wait - I'm really looking forward to it,'' Adamson, 40, said from Sydney yesterday. "But I'm also looking forward to it being over,'' he added with a laugh.
Adamson, a former Australian Super League and NSW State of Origin representative, will be playing his first match since 2005 when injury truncated his season with the Canberra Raiders.
His elder brother, Phil, Taree's coach, will also be making a guest appearance and this will be his first game since 2007.
Matt's career started in the Group Three Junior League and took him to Parramatta, Penrith, English Super League club Leeds and finally Canberra. He's still involved with the game as a commentator with Fox Sports and Channel 7.
"In reality this is my swansong - I still had five games to go with the Raiders in '05 and I was weighing up whether or not to play the next year when I was injured. And that was the end of it,'' he explained.
"So this is what it's all about - I'll have the family there and what better place to finish than at the Jack Neal Oval.''
In fact this will be Adamson's first game at the Jack Neal since he captained Taree Old Bar to the Group Three under 16 premiership in 1988 when the group ran the 16s competition.
Back in those days he was a fullback.
"Yeah, I was talking about that game the other day when we were at the ground with the Tooheys Crew,'' he said.
Adamson admits his knees give him grief. But he has been training for tomorrow's encounter, although this has been largely restricted to swimming and bike riding.
"You can't go into any rugby league game without doing some training, it doesn't matter what level,'' he said.
This will be the first time the Adamson brothers have played in the same team since their days at Penrith in 1998, although they were opposed when Phil was at Manly and Matt at Penrith in 2000.
"I asked Phillip if I could start off the bench but he told me I'd be running out there for the kickoff. I was hoping that he might play me at fullback or in the centres but it looks as though we'll be in the second row,'' Adamson said.
He admits he doesn't know how much game time he will have.
"Maybe 20 minutes, I'll just wait and see how my body stands up to it,'' he said.
Adamson didn't realise that Gary Bridge's son, Todd, is Taree's five-eighth.
"Mate, I was a Balmain supporter and Bridgie was my hero as a kid - I had a poster of him on my wall. So Todd's playing - that'll be good.''
Adamson will be be standing for the senate with the Palmer United Party - his first foray into politics.
Clive Palmer will also be at the Neal Oval tomorrow as part of a tour of the Mid North Coast. He has a speaking engagement at the Winning Post Function Centre tomorrow evening, where Adamson will also be in attendance.
"The big fella's looking forward to it - and he's told me he'll give it to me if I don't get player of the match, so I better put in,'' Adamson grinned.