Sport Confidential: Rabbitohs fans petition club to re-sign Alex Johnston
South Sydney fans are up in arms about the future of a club favourite. Plus, how two of the Warriors’ biggest stars could be free to exit their contracts next year.
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A leading sports lawyer says the Warriors players may be free to exit their playing contracts early should the club be based in Redcliffe next year.
The Warriors are making contingency plans to again live and play out of Queensland should the borders between New Zealand and Australia remain closed next year.
They have identified Redcliffe as their makeshift base but that has left a host of players considering their future.
Super Rugby outfit Auckland Blues want to sign star fullback Roger Tuivasa-Sheck who is hesitant to commit to another season away from his young family.
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Tim Fuller, a lawyer with more than a decade of legal experience who played first grade for South Sydney and the Gold Coast in the 1990s, said players may be able to challenge their contracts should the Warriors not be based in Auckland again.
“I do think so,” Fuller said. “Through either their employment contract or through the CBA there will be a mechanism they will be able to use to ensure (living away from home) doesn’t happen.
“A lot of things that have happened in this crisis in terms of players accepting restructured contracts and a lot has been done through good faith. To try and have a team such as the Warriors based in Redcliffe against their will could undoubtedly be contested.”
Tohu Harris has also been linked with a move to NRL rivals if the Warriors are unable to base themselves in Auckland. He said he and Tuivasa-Sheck were committed to the club.
“Roge addressed it with the group,” Harris said. “He is fully focused on this year. His family are in Auckland. I feel for him.
“It’s been really hard for him to be away from his family. He is still focusing day by day and bringing energy to the group. He wants everyone to be focusing on the Panthers.”
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STAY OR GO? ELLIOTT’S TOUGH CALL
Adam Elliott had the conversations with his family about moving to New Zealand. He had gotten his head around playing for the Warriors and leaving his beloved Bulldogs as late as last Friday.
“Last week we were saying, we had to have that conversation,” Elliott said. “We were prepared to go. We had to speak about it, we had spoken to our families about it.
“It had become real. It wasn’t a ploy to get more money out of the Bulldogs. It was genuinely an option and we were prepared to go. But we decided to have one last ditch crack with the Bulldogs.”
While incoming coach Trent Barrett played a pivotal role in keeping Elliott at the club it was also a new influential figure at the at Belmore who helped Elliott remain a Bulldog.
“The club has been struggling by playing with a jersey with nothing on it,” Elliott said. “Someone that’s a close friend of mine, is (new sponsor) Arthur Laundy. I’ve got a good relationship with him.
“He is a very successful man and I want to pick his brains and have him as a mentor. For him to come on board shows the right direction the club is heading.
“I’m a massive fan of Trent Barrett. We’ve had conversations about my game and the direction he will take us in. I want to be part of that.”
The Raiders and the Tigers showed initial interest as did the Dragons. But it was left for Elliott to decide between a rich deal at the Warriors or staying in Belmore for the next three years.
“It was always my priority to stay,” Elliott said. “I was able to be selfish and when I say selfish, I mean put loyalty to the side for a bit. That’s the first time I’ve thought about doing that with the Bulldogs. (The Warriors) was a lucrative deal.
“Being able to stay in Sydney is a massive part. The club is going to be different place in the next 12 months and I will be a different player.”
Elliott has now raised almost $10,000 for autism and has since dyed his hair blue.
Adam Elliott explains the story behind his blue hair.#proudtobeabulldog pic.twitter.com/QxZ2C19Uwv
— Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs (@NRL_Bulldogs) August 3, 2020
STARS COLLIDE
Let’s hope John Bateman and Viliame Kikau haven’t played each other for the last time with the pair making a beeline for one another when they clash. It happened again last Saturday night but unless the two play in the finals, it will be the last time they face off in the NRL, with Bateman heading to England next year.
Kikau struggled with a wrist injury during the game which was caused by Bateman.
“Bateman stood up to get to marker and stood on my hand,” Kikau said. “I don’t think it was on purpose. He is a great competitor. I like coming up against him every time we play Canberra.
“He smacked the ball out of my hand the first half and he was right in my ear. I enjoyed it. I stood up and smiled and said ‘let’s do this all night’.”
FANS SHOW SUPPORT FOR JOHNSTON
Alex Johnston isn’t the only one devastated about his impending exit from South Sydney. Rabbitohs fans have been up in arms since the revelation he’ll be forced out because of salary cap pressures, with 2500 signing a petition to try to convince the club to keep him next season.
“He’s a Souths junior so he gets all love and praise he deserves,” says Bunnies fan Zac Wheeler, who set up the change.org petition.
“He’s put in his all for us since his debut in 2014, he’s always consistent whether on the wing or fullback.”
There has been talk the Rabbitohs are keeping cash aside for Joseph Suaalii, who is still to make up his mind between rugby league and union.
“I’ve had mates who have played against him and with him, he’s done things unnatural as a teenager and at 16 he can hold his own against first graders.
“So if that is the reason why and Suaalii does perform it is what it is I guess.”
If Johnston is forced out Wheeler hopes he goes to a club that can bring out his best.
“As much as it would hurt to see him in another jersey I’d pick the Melbourne Storm,” Wheeler said.
ROOKIE’S BIG ACE
Who says being locked away in quarantine is a waste of time? Sydney AFL rookie Chad Warner celebrated his first ever hole-in-one on the private Joondalup golf course the Swans have had cordoned off at their biosecurity resort in Perth.
Born and raised in WA, Warner – still just 19 years of age – used his local knowledge to full advantage on the 114 metre par 3, to earn bragging rights for the rest of the season.
“We saw Olly Florent and Will Goud up on the first tee and walked over … Gouldy put it to within a metre and all the boys were going off,” recounts Warner, who debuted against Richmond back in round 6.
“I thought, no one is going to beat that. Then I’ve stepped up, sand wedge in hand, and put it 10 metres past the hole and it spun back and went in. I couldn’t believe it.”
Warner used to play off a handicap of six but admits he’s become more addicted to the beach since moving to Sydney.
MAGIC MOMENT FOR MOSE
The most important pass might not produce a matchwinning try but it will bring a smile to your face. Just seven months after being told he might not walk again, Hull KR prop Mose Masoe posted a video of himself catching a football, taking a step and then passing as he continues his remarkable rehabilitation from a serious spinal injury.
“Believe you can and you’re halfway thereâ€-Theodore Roosevelt https://t.co/CAxEa3smB1
— Mose Masoe (@MoseMasoe) August 12, 2020
MCCRONE JOINS CHERRYPICKERS
While his teammates Sonny Bill Williams and Ricky Leutele have dominated headlines, their Toronto Wolfpack skipper Josh McCrone is making a low-key return to Australia. The former St George Illawarra and Canberra halfback will play for Young Cherrypickers in group nine.
SMITH NOT ON BRONCOS’ RADAR
Broncos chairman Karl Morris insists he won’t be chasing Cameron Smith amid speculation Brisbane are ready to launch a poaching raid on the Storm champion.
There has been a public push for the Broncos to pursue Smith to lead a rebuild of the embattled Broncos and even the Melbourne Storm have been privately wondering whether Brisbane will have a crack at their masterful hooker.
Smith, who turns 38 next June, is off-contract at season‘s end and there is no certainty Melbourne will offer him a new deal, opening the door for the Broncos to ask the question.
Morris says Broncos hierarchy have no intention of signing Smith for one last hurrah at Red Hill in 2021.
“Cam Smith plays for Melbourne, I’ve never spoken to him and never met him,” Morris said. “There’s been no approach to Cam Smith.”
SEIBOLD SLANDER GOES GLOBAL
The disgraceful and slanderous rumours involving Broncos coach Anthony Seibold have gone global.
The damaging text messages circulating about Seibold and his private life have gone as far as England, with rugby league insiders in Super League calling Australian associates to ask what all the fuss is about.
The global rumour-mongering is another reason why Seibold has contacted Queensland Police to uncover the architects of the social-media speculation.
CUP CHAMPS STEP UP
America’s Cup champions Peter Burling and Blair Tuke will join SailGP starting in the league’s second season as part of the newly formed New Zealand SailGP Team. The New Zealand SailGP Team will be joining the league when the championship returns in April following their completion of the America’s Cup, with the first SailGP grand prix of the season set for San Francisco. Team Australia, Team New Zealand and the six other national teams will compete in some of the most iconic harbours around the globe culminating with a thrilling $1 million winner-takes-all championship race at the grand final. All Grand Prix events will be streamed exclusively Kayo and aired on Fox Sports.
BLAST FROM THE PAST: IAN HERRON
74 games (47 St George, 12 Sydney Tigers, 15 Parramatta) from 1990-98
Before Brian Smith picked Ian Herron in first grade he had to pass a final test. Herron had played one game off the bench for St George in 1990, but he had to appease Smith before he made his run-on debut in 1992.
“I was playing reserve grade and was kicking and playing well,” Herron said.
“The first-grade team lost two or three games through goalkicking. He rang me and said ‘meet me down at Kogarah in half an hour, I want to see how you goalkick’.
“He told me if I kicked seven out of 10 I would be in first grade that week. He laid out the sand and was looking over my shoulder. I got six out of nine and needed the last one to be in. I got it and he said ‘see you down for first-grade training later this afternoon’.”
Herron learnt his unorthodox kicking style having spent his youth playing soccer. “It evolved over time,” Herron said.
“I don’t know how I got to it looking the way it did. It was about getting into a relaxed frame of mind.”
The Belfast-born winger played at James Cook Boys Technology High School and was picked in the Australian Schoolboys team alongside the likes of Brad Fittler and Tim Brasher in 1988. As an avid Dragons fan Herron lived out his childhood dream when he appeared in consecutive grand finals for the club in 1992 and ’93 which resulted in losses to Brisbane.
“They are the fondest times, but you have to carry those losses and heartache for the rest of your life,” he said. “It never goes away, it always comes back especially on grand final day.”
A failed merger attempt with Eastern Suburbs forced Herron to look elsewhere, signing for the Sydney Tigers in 1995.
He was then reunited with Smith at the Eels for two seasons before finishing his career in England.
Originally published as Sport Confidential: Rabbitohs fans petition club to re-sign Alex Johnston