Wendell Sailor: ‘Nobody can keep a secret in rugby league’

IN HIS weekly news.com.au column, Wendell Sailor laments the fact people talk in rugby league — and they talk too much.

Wendell Sailor during his visit to Brisbane. Pic Peter Wallis

I REMEMBER when I was playing with Wayne Bennett as a youngster at the Broncos in 1995. I was earning next to nothing, but I was lucky enough to play for Australia.

The problem I had was Willie Carne and Mick Hancock were in front of me at the Broncos.

A guy named Peter Mulhollhand then offered me an opportunity to go to the Western Reds, which would have meant both more money for me and more of a run in first grade. But when my manager at the time asked for a release from my contract, Bennett knocked it on the head.

He said: “You’re not going anywhere, mate. You’ve signed here for two years.”

That’s changed now. Coaches are happy to let players go.

The system’s got to be changed. Every year we hear the same complaints about players signing with other teams a year before their contract is over, but having to play out the season with their current team.

Unless we have a trade window, or all clubs agree not to undergo contract negotiations until the end of the season, we’re always going to have this problem.

The main reason we need to have a trade window is because no one can keep these deals quiet.

Big Dell and Wayne Bennett.

The Buddy Franklin move in the AFL was kept under wraps, but that wouldn’t happen in league because people talk. And they talk more than they should.

Unfortunately, no one can keep a secret so it’s out there for everyone to see.

There needs to be a solution because we are the only sport in the world that does it like this and it’s not fair on the fans.

I don’t blame Daly Cherry-Evans or his management. That’s the system we have to work in.

I feel for the fans but they need to know, too, that both Cherry-Evans and Kieran Foran — two of the best players in the team — should not both be coming off contract at the same time.

This is a monumental mistake from the Manly administration.

Glenn Stewart and Anthony Watmough have moved on as well and Manly is going to miss out now.

Daly Cherry-Evans is not to blame, Sailor writes.

The club’s done all the ground work, bringing those guys through the system, and the Titans and Parramatta especially are going to reap the rewards because Cherry-Evans and Foran have their best years ahead of them.

In all the dealings I’ve had with Cherry-Evans, he’s always been a polite young man and he’s a cleanskin.

If people are going to hang him out to dry for making a decision that is the best for him and his family, it’s disappointing because we all make decisions in life that benefit ourselves.

It’s the system that’s the problem. That’s rugby league for you. Unless the hierarchy fix it, every year we’re going to have the same problem and fans are going to be disgruntled.

Originally published as Wendell Sailor: ‘Nobody can keep a secret in rugby league’