Kiwis rugby league legend Benji Marshall has hinted he will consider retirement sooner, rather than later, but won't contemplate that decision until later this season.
The veteran half is experiencing a career resurgence with his old Wests Tigers club, where he began his NRL career as a teenager, spent 10 years and played 200 games, before an unsuccessful switch to rugby union, and then stints with St George Illawarra and Brisbane.
Under coach Ivan Cleary, the Tigers have been among of the surprise performers of the 2018 season so far, winning six of 10 games and sitting in the top four. Among their victims have been reigning premiers Melbourne Storm twice and runners-up North Queensland Cowboys.
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Marshall, 33, has been a big part of that revival, which may provide a fitting swansong - if he decides this season is his last.
"Where we are now, I don't want to say I'll be playing next year and not enjoy now for what it is," he told online interviewer Patrick Stack in The Stack Report.
"That question is going to keep coming up, but I don't think I'll be answering it until somewhere nearer to the end of the season.
"I definitely don't want to play an extra year and regret it. The moment is good now, so I want to enjoy it while it's there and address that question later on, towards the back end of the season
"I'm just enjoying life while it's good."
Marshall admitted balancing his league career with the physical toll and family commitments was becoming more difficult. Zoe gave birth to baby son Fox in March.
"I actually feel better than I have for a long time, but the recovery hurts," he told Stack. "The pre-season hurts a bit - it's getting harder and harder.
"There's a lot of things to throw in, obviously family life - if I can keep putting Zoe and my son through those week-in, week-out things and being away constantly.
"When you play footy, the routine is so set, you don't have a say on when you can and can't have a day off… so all those things."
Once his playing days are done, Marshall is leaning towards a coaching career, although not necessarily in the top job.
"I'm really enjoying doing a bit of coaching with [junior teams], and working with the halves and back rowers and fullbacks, so I feel like I can maybe delve into that.
"I don't know that I'm weird enough to be a head coach. The pressure of being a head coach is more intense that it is being a player.
"I think assistant coach is a lot easier, where you don't have to cop the brunt of how the team goes.
"I don't know that I'd be up for that - I haven't really experienced that - but I definitely feel like I've got a lot to offer in terms of knowledge and teaching people things I've learnt through my career."
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