'It turned into the worst job in the world': why Brad Morkos quit the Raiders

A former New South Wales junior State of Origin player, Morkos could well have been in line for an increased role at the Raiders in 2024 following the retirement of club captain and veteran centre Jarrod Croker.

Instead the 21-year-old decided to return home to Wollongong to play in the Group Seven rugby league competition with the Albion Park Oak Flats Eagles.

Morkos spoke to the Mercury about why he decided to give up on his NRL dream and come home to pursue other things that made him happy.

"Rugby league when it gets to that sort of level, it's either something you want to do as a kid and it's the best job in the world or it sort of turns more into a job and it's like a chore and then it becomes the worst job in the world," he said.

"It's not easy. It's definitely not for everyone.

"It turned into the worst job in the world for me.

"i wanted to come home and play footy for fun in a good side back home."

That's why Morkos, who played four Tests for Lebanon at the 2022 Rugby League World Cup as well as made more than 40 appearances for the Canberra NSW Cup outfit in 2023, returned home and joined an Eagles side coached by former top-grade players Jason Hooper and Josh White.

"There were also other things I wanted to do and other sports I wanted to give a try while I was still young," he said.

"There were also other work aspirations I had. I've started a disability support group.

"All this sort of stuff reached out to me more than just playing professional rugby league for the rest of my days."

Morkos also has a real desire to become a professional MMA fighter.

When he is not training or playing for Albion Park, Morkos is trying to learn everything he can about all the different martial arts.

Last week Morkos even signed up to train out of the Freestyle Fighting Gym. This is the same Windang gym Wollongong's UFC champion Alex Volkanovski trains out of.

"I'm doing full-time MMA," he said.

"I'm learning all the different martial arts that there are. The amount of training I was doing in Canberra, I've replaced with MMA training.

"It's like two to three times a day training across all the different martial arts. I actually just signed up to train at the gym where Volk trains out of.

"Hopefully I learn as much as possible and if things go well hopefully end up training with him or something like that. That would be ideal."

Morkos also hopes to be in a position to have his first MMA fight at the end of the year or perhaps before the start of next year's Group Seven rugby league competition.

"Having a fight by year's end was the plan but with rugby league, you play a game on Saturday or Sunday, which means you are sort of cooked until Tuesday or Wednesday, which limits the amount of intense training sessions I can have," he said.

"It's going to depend how much I can learn and what fighting level I can get to which will determine when I have my first fight.

"Ideally that will be at the end of this year or early next year."

Meantime Morkos is loving playing under Josh White at Albion Park.

"Josh is a big reason why I signed up to play for the Eagles," he said.

"I've known Joshy since I was about 14-years-old, so about seven years now. He has coached me before. Even when I was in Canberra he was still calling and checking up on me.

"He is one of those coaches that doesn't have to scream at you or harass his players, or really rip into them to get the best out of them. He has this way of connecting to every single player, no matter what their mood is, what their type is, he just brings out the best in them.

"That's making it fun footy as well. You don't want to come to training and get your coach absolutely ripping into you."