Barry Russell’s resignation shows honesty is no longer the best policy, writes Paul Kent

Rugby league’s one honest man has quit the game. Barry Russell’s resignation from Cronulla could not be more poorly timed for a game fighting desperately for reputation, writes Paul Kent.

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Rugby league’s one honest man has quit the game.

Barry Russell’s resignation from Cronulla could not be more poorly timed for a game fighting desperately for reputation.

Perception is reality in the NRL at the moment. So is falsehood.

It was no better shown than in Mark Geyer’s aggressive defence of his daughter on Tuesday after a hurtful, dishonest and grotesquely wrong post on social media.

Cronulla CEO Barry Russell resigned from the club on Monday. (AAP Image/Craig Golding)

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When the author of NRL Memes was informed in a private text the young woman he tagged was actually not Geyer’s daughter, as claimed in his post to his 300,000 followers, his response was stunning for its lack of care or responsibility: “Oh well, it looks like her.”

So she is not Geyer’s daughter. But she remains somebody’s daughter.

But in this world, just another corpse to step over.

It is an example of the hole rugby league finds itself in. Festering anger amid a game fighting to maintain control.

Russell was the antidote.

A man so honest last year he reported financial irregularities at his own club, damn the consequences.

The move comes just days before Cronulla secured a major sponsor. Picture: Tracey Nearmy

“Barry displayed a high level of personal integrity,” NRL boss Todd Greenberg said of him last week when he announced the $50,000 discrepancy had grown into a $750,000 fine and $350,000 salary cap penalty for the next two seasons, with the coach deregistered as well.

Russell’s moment of honesty had a devastating effect on the club.

“When I made the decision to self-report a salary cap discrepancy last year with the full approval of the board, I most certainly did not foresee all the issues that were to follow,” he said yesterday.

He quit hours before Tyrone May got charged on two counts of recording intimate image without consent and two counts of disseminate image without consent.

Russell goes as the poster child of NRL administrators after he self-reported Cronulla’s salary cap cheating last year.

NRL CEO Todd Greenberg recently praised Russell’s integrity. Picture: Tara Croser.

After Russell opened the gate the NRL had little option but go in and be as thorough as necessary.

In hindsight, it showed the naivety of Russell’s decision. The fox was let inside the henhouse.

Since then a secondary narrative has been circulating.

It went that Russell had become ostracised within the club. He was asked to leave board meetings at certain points, for instance, no longer to be trusted.

Few know the toll it took on Russell. Angry Cronulla fans attacked him and also his family on social media. He questioned how much more he needed to endure.

He resigned from Cronulla for the first time last November.

It came as the consequences of the NRL investigation began to be unveiled and the attacks intensified.

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Russell was talked into staying. Encouraged to find clear air.

He promised to see the job through until the NRL investigation was completed.

But he resigned again in January, when coach Shane Flanagan was stood down and looking unlikely to get back and again the vitriol intensified.

Again, he got talked in to staying.

Rumours circulated, venom spilled, false claims were circulated as facts.

Truth is Russell was asked to leave a Cronulla board meeting, but only once. That happened after a board member protested Russell’s position on a subcommittee to appoint the new coach given he had already indicated his intention to resign.

Russell was asked to leave so the board member could be told a few plain truths. The one criticism that could not be levelled at Russell, the club knew, was that he had Cronulla’s best interests at heart. He was staying as part of the committee to appoint the coach.

Russell gave no explanation yesterday why or where he might end up next. That in itself was telling of his need to exit as quickly as possible.

The one certainty left behind is that no club will self-report in the future. Russell’s farewell statement was almost an acknowledgment of that, from the game’s one honest man.

Short odds are being given that he will end up inside the NRL, most likely working alongside the new head of football Graham Annesley.

In truth, there are many honest men in rugby league. And many good men.

Russell leaves the club as one of them, an administrator leaving Cronulla with much the same reputation as when he left as a player.

He was tough and honest and committed.

It is a tough sell in the current market, but he leaves with a reputation that sparkles.