How Jack de Belin, his teammates and the NRL found out about the verdict

Half of Jack de Belin’s St George Illawarra teammates were in the air when news broke that the NSW representative would not be lining up for the Dragons any time soon.

Greenberg under pressure to stand down players

• VERDICT: De Belin loses decision

• KENT: Verdict should be NRL’s line in the sand

Half of Jack de Belin’s St George Illawarra teammates were in the air when news broke that the NSW representative would not be lining up for the Dragons any time soon.

They landed to the grim verdict in Mudgee Friday afternoon ahead of the Dragons home game against Newcastle Sunday afternoon.

Dragons players had taken separate Fly Pelican flights on Friday.

De Belin was not in court, instead the 28-year-old was in Wollongong when news was relayed to him that his court bid against the NRL had failed.

The Dragons had a welfare officer sitting with their fallen star to help guide him through the process. St George Illawarra staffer Jo Banning was in court to filter the news to the likes of de Belin and coach Paul McGregor who had already landed in Mudgee.

De Belin’s manager Steve Gillis is overseas.

Make no mistake, the Dragons planned to draft de Belin straight back into their side to play Newcastle.

But now they will start planning to find de Belin a purpose away from the training field with no clear path set for his return to the NRL.

The Dragons camp had been quietly confident they would receive the verdict they had hoped for.

While they were left stunned by the decision, the NRL were equally surprised by how quickly news of the verdict came through.

There are fears de Belin could be left bankrupt with the St George Illawarra lock needing to pay almost half a million dollars in court costs and his own legal fees.

De Belin has been ordered to pay the NRL’s legal costs which is understood to be about $300,000 while his own legal fees are in excess of $100,000. The financial burden almost leaves de Belin no option but to pursue damages against the NRL should he be found not guilty in his criminal trial.

De Belin has been training with the Dragons all year. Picture by Brett Costello.

The court ruling should be a final death-kneel warning to poor behaving rugby league players with the power firmly shifting into the hands of head office prompting chairman Peter Beattie to declare players should understand “what the position of the game is”.

It is unclear if de Belin would appeal the federal court ruling but there was an early suggestion late Friday that it would be unlikely.

While de Belin will still be paid his full contract for the rest of this year ($545,000) and next year ($595,000) the hefty court toll could cripple him financially. He will also miss out on the $90,000 bonus he earnt for playing Origin last year and with the 28-year-old off-contract at the end of next year his value significantly dips with his inability to play at the top level.

De Belin reiterated his innocence and said he was “very disappointed” by the court’s decision while St George Illawarra chief executive Brian Johnston said the club was “extremely concerned” for de Belin’s welfare.

The Dragons will now pursue a replacement for de Belin and apply for the NRL’s salary cap dispensation to replace him in their top squad for this year and next.

Beattie and Greenberg were both advocates of the policy. Picture by Damian Shaw.

St George Illawarra had so far held off applying for the cap exemption in the belief de Belin would win his court case with the club now having about $150,000 to spend.

ARLC chairman Peter Beattie, chief executive Todd Greenberg and the rest of the executive team including Nick Weeks, Peter Grimshaw, Andrew Abdo and NRL general counsel Eleni North were sat in a boardroom at the NRL’s headquarters in Moore Park.

They received a group text at 4.03pm by the NRL’s general manager integrity and senior legal counsel Joseph Collins about the news.

Greenberg phoned St George Illawarra boss Brian Johnston a short-time later to offer support to de Belin.

“My first phone call was to the chief executive of the Dragons,” Greenberg said. “To ultimately ensure the player had the right support systems around him. That will be an ongoing exercise to make sure he has the amount of support and welfare attached to him that is needed.

“The Dragons are a bit like us. They understand the process, respect the process.”

There was conjecture if Beattie and Greenberg would front a press conference yesterday as legal advice may have swayed them not to. But the pair came out of the NRL’s building about 45 minutes after the verdict in what was a defining day for Beattie’s leadership.

Originally published as How Jack de Belin, his teammates and the NRL found out about the verdict