Bunnies blow-up: Did Shane Richardson get a payout?
It was the bombshell announcement that rocked the Rabbitohs, and now Shane Richardson’s departure from South Sydney has come further under the spotlight.
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A huge blow up has erupted over Shane Richardson’s departure from South Sydney, with Fox League expert Braith Anatsa questioning whether Richardson received a pay out as part of his resignation package.
Anasta said if that was the case “it kind of contradicts” the former Rabbitohs general manager of football’s heavy criticism of the NRL.
On Fox League Mornings Live Rabbitohs champion and current club employee Sam Burgess also queried the timing of Richardson’s resignation this week, saying he thought he could have helped the Rabbitohs recover from the coronavirus crisis.
Richardson said in a text “I have said all I want to. I am now a free man.”
Told that Anasta had questioned if he got a payout, Richardson responded: “Why does that not surprise me”.
Anasta is the nephew of South Sydney legend George Piggins.
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Meanwhile, South Sydney chief executive Blake Solly would not reveal if Richardson received a pay out: “To be honest with you it is confidential. I can’t say anything. That is part of the agreement between Richo and the club.”
Told that sounded like he did get a payout, Solly added: “I can’t comment.”
Richardson told The Daily Telegraph on Thursday after making his shock announcement that if he could leave behind one piece of advice it would be this simple: “Stop the greed. You have to make decisions to keep the game going for the next 100 years.
“They have to now make those decisions. They are very obvious. They are very easy to make. But people don’t want to make them and they don’t want to make them for all the wrong reasons.”
But Anasta was not sold as he sat and read through The Daily Telegraph’s story live on air.
“The Shane Richardson one is an interesting one for me because Shane has done an amazing job at Souths, he really has,” Anasta said.
“They won the premiership there when he was at the helm.
“But I live in the eastern suburbs. My family obviously is associated with Souths for a long period of time.
“So I know a lot of people inside the club.
“I am not going to get Sammy (Burgess) involved (Burgess was sitting right beside Anasta). But before Christmas I heard that Richo was on the outer there.
“I heard that he pretty much wasn’t going to return after Christmas and he did.
“So I was surprised he was even there at the start of the season after the rumours that I had been hearing coming out of the camp.
“Which is very interesting to see now that he has stood down effective immediately and he is saying he is doing it, you know, ‘stop the greed, you’ll end the bleed’.
“I am just wondering if he took a pay out to leave Souths? There was no mention of that?
“He has been very opinionated with the current situation of the game … so what he is saying is that he tried to stop this when he was in the position however many years ago … all of a sudden now he is leaving Souths and they are asking if he will return to the NRL and he is saying I don’t want to comment … well, if you weren’t going to go back there you’d say no.
“It is an interesting one because he has come out pretty staunch and critical of the leaders of our game and about saving money and for the betterment of the game continuing over the next 100 years but there are a few grey areas.”
Burgess looked reluctant to get involved but conceded the timing surprised him.
“It is a little bit hard for me to comment,” Burgess said.
“I don’t know exactly the ins and outs of it because on Tuesday morning Shane addressed the whole football department.
“I know he was the GM of football there so that was his role. However, we spoke about what the next six months, four weeks, eight weeks, three months might look like and sacrifices we might have to make, myself included, of standing down without pay, and two days later a bit of a change (of direction).”
He said there was “no inkling” Richardson’s resignation would come the following day.
Burgess said “obviously Shane is a very sharp operator”. Burgess thought he could have been “dominant” in helping the Rabbitohs survive the coronavirus.
“It is funny, who knows what is going on. I will stay out of it,” Burgess said.
But Anasta didn’t let it go: “No mention of whether he took a pay out or not.
“But there is a lot of talk about ‘I’m leaving for the best interests of Souths and the game’, which if he didn’t take the payout that is honourable and it is spot on. But if he has taken a pay out then it kind of contradicts the whole point in my opinion. But I suppose we might find out about that, we may not.”
Earlier, Richardson had said that he had not decided what his next career step would be but did not rule out potentially working for another NRL club or even the game’s governing body.
Richardson has already stated he thinks the competition should be cut back from 16 teams.
Four years back Richardson was employed at the NRL and produced a blueprint on what direction the game should head in but his plan was shot down before the last player collective bargaining agreement.
He maintains his plan was the right direction but self-interest ruled.
“We gave all the money to the clubs, 130 per cent,” he said.
“We put ourselves in bankruptcy from the word go.
“What business in the world goes into a new deal and has to borrow $49 million just to pay the bills?
“No one is going to be able to take the hit that we have now (as a result of the coronavirus) but it didn’t put us in a strong enough position.
“But the beauty of it is that we are in a position now where we can recalibrate and do the right thing.
“It is up to the leaders of the game to do that. Do the right thing.”
Asked if he would consider a return to the NRL, he added: “I don’t want to make comments about that.
“As I said, I spent 12 months of my life putting together a plan to try and change the way people viewed the game.
“It was a plan based on finances … but at the end of the day they didn’t want to implement it.
“You have to make tough decisions to get the game back on its feet and I hope there are some people who can make them.”
Richardson conceded he had made up his mind to walk away from Souths when he did an emotional interview on NRL 360 on Tuesday night.
But he said he didn’t tell South Sydney chief executive Blake Solly, the board or owner Russell Crowe until Wednesday. He then told coach Wayne Bennett on Thursday and the staff.
“My career is not over,” Richardson said.
“I will just move on to something different now. It is just that my career is over at Souths.
“I have got a lot of desires, I am not burnt out or anything like that.”
He said going through the heartbreaking process of letting staff go brought him to his own realisation it was time to go.
“When I sat down and looked at the numbers it didn’t take me long to work out we were going to have to make some changes and the first change would be me,” he said.
Richardson has had one of the most successful careers of any administrator in the modern era.
After coaching and playing in Queensland, he formed a strong alliance with Johnny Lang at Brisbane Easts before they took charge of Cronulla in the early 1990s.
They took the Sharks to a grand final in the 1997 Super League season, won a comp together at Penrith in 2003 and then revitalised South Sydney before Lang left and Michael Maguire secured the drought-breaking premiership in 2014.
“I have had a wonderful drink out of rugby league. I have loved every minute of it,” Richardson said.
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