Sacking coach Anthony Griffin will cost Penrith Panthers up to $3 million

SACKING Anthony Griffin could prove a costly move for Penrith with the ousted coach demanding a full payout of his multimillion-dollar contract.

THE shock sacking of coach Anthony Griffin will cost the Penrith Panthers up to $3 million.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal Griffin’s manager Wayne Beavis will be demanding a full payout of $1.6 million for the remainder of this season and the next two years.

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He was on an annual salary of $700,000 before being punted on Monday.

There was no early payout clause in his contract, which was signed less than 12 months ago.

The Panthers would also be forced to pay $1 million per season to convince Ivan Cleary to leave the Wests Tigers and coach his son Nathan at the Panthers.

LISTEN! Buzz Rothfield grills Phil Gould on the reasons behind the sacking of Penrith coach Anthony Griffin.

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Then the Wests Tigers would want compensation of around $400,000 to release Cleary.

All up it would cost the Panthers $3 million, a huge strain on a football club that already lost more than $4 million last year.

The financial strain puts pressure on both general manager Phil Gould and chief executive Brian Fletcher considering they made the decision to extend Griffin’s contract last November at a time when he was already under contract for this season and no-one else was interested in him.

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Originally published as Sacking coach Anthony Griffin will cost Penrith Panthers up to $3 million