BY DAN

In truly saddening news, Albert Hopoate has been ruled out for 2025 with an ACL injury. It’s disheartening, for Bert and for the team. They needed him for crucial depth. He needed to prove himself for another contract. It’s worse for everyone. What absolutely bullshit.

Let’s acknowledge this injury obviously has ramifications for the Milk, but more important at this stage is the profound impact it may have on Hopoate’s career. He’s currently without a team for 2026 and was trying to win his way back into first grade to prove his worth at the level. It was a spot only vacated because of family commitments, and now it might be gone forever.

While he’s proven himself a useful first grader with an unending motor, this is his third serious knee injury and will test the willingness of clubs to take a punt on him. With a young family and the clear ability to play first grade rugby league, it seems cruel that this may potentially take a dream away he’s worked so hard to earn. He’s come a long way to get here, and now fate is testing him again. It’s even more frustrating given how sprightly he’d looked in the pre-season, seeming to regain a step of pace that had eluded him in recent years.

Man that just sucks.

It’s second order to the human impact, but for the club it removes crucial depth – a safety blanket that could cover all outside back positions and even fullback in a pinch. Hopoate wasn’t the exciting presence of Savage or Tamale on a wing, but represented certainty for Coach Stuart that is now gone. Sure he’s not a tackle breaker, but it’s not often you can bring someone off the pine that will happily eat 150 plus metres of the dirtiest carries without batting an eyelid.

It does reduce Stick’s options for change, should it be forced by further injury or form. Tamale has been immaculate so far, but young players can wear down, particularly over their first season (at least that’s what Stick says happened to Ethan Strange last year). Michael Asomua and Jed Stuart are presumably next cabs of the rank, and to an extent that’s a comfort. Both have been in-and-around first grade for a while. Stuart is (apparently) an elite defender. Asomua is arguably a facsimile of Hopoate, able to take hard yardage carries with a smile. It would be interesting to see who might get a shot should the question be asked.

The question about next in line at centre is a harder one. While it was never Hopoate’s best position, it was one he’d been called on semi-regularly to play, as recently as round 18 last year. Now we turn to Stuart, Manaia Waitere or beyond (is it too soon to get excited by Regan Carr? Nah fuck it, let’s go!). There’s zero first grade experience, and not even a lot of Cup experience, to lean on. If Zac Hosking was healthy he might be asked. Simi Sasagi could also cover if needed, but it feels like a backwards step in the experiment of turning him into a backrower.

The saddest thing is that this could be it for Hopoate in Canberra. It’s not only that he has no deal. There’s not really even space in the top 30 to squeeze him in on a vibe and a hope. Taking a supplemental deal might be the only way to keep him at the club. That feels unfair to him, but also may be his best option given his circumstances. For his sake I hope he finds something more permanent. The timing couldn’t have been worse.

We’ll have to wait and see. We wish Bert nothing but the best.

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