| Personal information | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Tim Paul Moltzen | |||||
| Nickname | Moltz | |||||
| Born | 15 September 1988 Australia |
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| Height | 185 cm (6 ft 1 in) | |||||
| Weight | 85 kg (13 st 5 lb) | |||||
| Playing information | ||||||
| Position | Fullback, Five-eighth, Halfback, Centre | |||||
| Club | ||||||
| Years | Team | Pld | T | G | FG | P |
| 2008– | Wests Tigers | 63 | 24 | 1 | 0 | 98 |
| Representative | ||||||
| Years | Team | Pld | T | G | FG | P |
| 2011 | Country Origin | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| As of 3 October 2011 | ||||||
| Source: League Central RLP | ||||||
Tim Moltzen (born 15 September 1988) is an Australian professional rugby league player for the Wests Tigers in the Australian National Rugby League (NRL) competition. He plays at fullback or halfback.
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Moltzen played junior football with the Terrigal Sharks. He has a metal plate at the back of his skull from an injury that occurred in junior football.[1]
Moltzen made his first grade debut in the first game of the 2008 season. Scoring a try in each of his first two games, he made ten appearances for the season, and was named the club's rookie of the year.[2]
In November 2009, Moltzen signed a contract extension to remain with the Tigers until the end of the 2012 season. At the time, Tigers chief executive Stephen Humphreys described Moltzen as, "a crucial member in Wests Tigers going forward." [3]
Playing against the Cowboys in round 5 of the 2010 season, Moltzen ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. He was ruled out for the rest of the year and required a knee reconstruction.[4]
Before the start of the 2011 season, Ricky Stuart named Moltzen in a "Blues in Waiting" squad, for potential future NSW State of Origin players. He was described as one of the players, "on the cusp of selection."[5]
Moltzen made a slow recovery from injury, starting from the bench in first games of the 2011 season, saying it took time to get back, "into the old ways, getting tackled and not worried about getting up and, you know, my leg's fallen off."[6] By round 8 he had recovered enough to make his representative debut for Country Origin, but was struggling to refind his form from before the injury.[7] By the end of the season, Moltzen's performances were being praised, and he had replaced Wade McKinnon as starting fullback.[8] He played in every game of the 2011 season.
Newspapers were reporting that Moltzen had been given permission to negotiate with other clubs partway through 2011. Moltzen denied he wished to leave the Wests Tigers in May, saying, ""I'm definitely committed to the Tigers and I love the Tigers and all the boys at the club so I'm not looking to go anywhere."[9]
The St George Illawarra Dragons announced the signing of Moltzen to a 3 year contract midway through the 2011 season, commencing from 2012. Controversially, Wests Tigers CEO Stephen Humphreys claimed the club had not yet officially released Moltzen from the last year of his contract, labelling the actions, "arrogant and disrespectful."[10]
On October 7th 2011, it was reported that Moltzen did not want to honour his contract with the Dragons, with the Wests Tigers club stating that Moltzen had never been formally released from his contact. Humphreys said of the contract dispute, ""Tim is contracted to us for 2012. We have the only contract of his that is registered by the NRL."[11] Three days later, Wests Tigers appeared to do a backflip with CEO Humphreys stating "The way that it is likely to play out is that he will be going to the Dragons, We will have a conversation with them in the next few days about it, but we have been working on the assumption that he won't be here next season."[12] Another two days on, St George Dragons referred the matter to the NRL after Wests Tigers announced Moltzen would be staying at the club."[13]
On November 3 it was announced that St.George Illawarra would not be seeking registration of Moltzen's contract due to question marks over his desire to play at the club.
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