Wests Tigers’ social media leak that blew up Lachlan Galvin drama
The story behind a leaked social media post and the Wests Tigers’ true feelings towards Lachlan Galvin have now come to light.
Lachlan Galvin’s bitter public feud with the Wests Tigers has taken another twist.
Galvin has been the talk of the NRL world this week after his decision to reject a massive $6 million contract extension at the Tigers and his subsequent dumping to the NSW Cup this weekend.
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Rumours and innuendo have roared around at some pace about the reasons behind it all, including Galvin’s reported issues with Marshall’s coaching style and some pointed social media posts from his teammates.
There has reportedly been “tension” between Galvin and star Tigers recruit Jarome Luai for some time, with the joint venture club’s senior players frustrated over a perceived “sense of entitlement” from the 19-year-old.
Watch some of the new Lachlan Galvin revelations in the video player above
Much of that talk has come from footy reporter Michael Chammas, who aired huge chunks of apparent dirty Leichhardt laundry on Triple M podcast The Journos.
Fanning the flames of apparent discontent was an Instagram post from Tigers winger Sunia Turuva that gave Galvin a clip and was never intended to become public knowledge.
Turuva, a two-time premiership winner with the Panthers before joining the Tigers this season, posted a photo of Galvin’s locker along with former WWE wrestler Shane McMahon’s theme song, Here Comes The Money.
“Turuva had no intention of it ever becoming public,” Chammas explained on the podcast.
“Sunia Turuva’s taken a photo of Lachie Galvin’s locker at training (and) posted it on Instagram to ‘close friends’.
“You can actually control who sees that.
“That’s gone out, I don’t know if it’s to 10 people, 30 people or a hundred people, but it made its way onto social media.
“That’s a story every day of the week.
“The photo was accompanied by (the McMahon) song. To me that then starts to reflect poorly on the leadership of the club … it started to get into bullying territory and that reflects poorly on the club.”
Luai also posted a photo with a caption of “Team First” this week and the social media moves helped shift the story from an analysis of Galvin’s conduct over his future in the NRL to a discussion over potential bullying.
Chammas believes the suggestion of bullying plays perfectly into the hands of Galvin’s manager Isaac Moses as he reportedly works to extricate the playmaker from a contract that expires at the end of next season and orchestrate a move to the club of his choice.
The Bulldogs and Eels are said to be fighting for Galvin’s signature, with some reports Parramatta already has some sort of agreement with the halfback.
Asked if there is now evidence of bullying towards Galvin, Chammas said: “I think it’s going to go down that path. This has played into the hands of Isaac Moses perfectly.
“If I’m Isaac Moses, and whatever you may think of him, they’ve just given him the ‘out’ to go to the Wests Tigers and say we’ll go to the RLPA (Rugby League Players’ Association) and say ‘this kid can’t stay in this environment, he’s getting bullied’.”
At a tense press conference on Thursday, Marshall strongly refuted any allegations of bullying towards the five-eighth.
“I don’t think he’s being bullied by the other players,” Marshall snapped.
“I think emotional responses to things happening might seem like it, but there’s been no sense of bullying at our club and we don’t stand for bullying.
“I talked to the team about it this morning. That’s not us. We’re not bullies. Our players are not bullies.
“They had emotional reactions to one of their teammates, but it’s not bullying. I can guarantee you that.”
Speaking alongside Marshall, Luai said the posts were “about throwing support behind the coach and the club” and added Turuva’s post was meant to remain private, suggesting his teammate “should stay off social media for a bit”.
Chammas believes Turuva’s post was intended as “a laugh among his mates” before explaining the issue between Galvin and Luai is very real and dates back months.
“There is definitely tension there,” he said. “Jarome Luai and Lachie Galvin are not seeing eye-to-eye, to the point where Jarome Luai made a comment to him after round one, I believe, to say ‘team first’.
“The reason there is tension there is Lachie Galvin was given the keys to the castle last year by Benji Marshall and they played football around the style that he wanted to play.
“He was a revelation, but the reality is the Tigers won the wooden spoon.”
Chammas understands the club’s recruitment of Luai, a four-time premiership winner at Penrith, led to Galvin feeling “ostracised” and gave him a belief Marshall was shifting his focus towards the likes of senior players Luai and Api Koroisau.
“If you’re Lachie Galvin and you feel the coach has got your back and is building a game around you, when that gets taken away, naturally you’re going to start to feel ostracised,” Chammas said.
“That is what’s happened over the last six months since Jarome came there. Slowly Lachie Galvin has started to feel like this isn’t his team.
“And the players around him, the core group, they feel – Jarome Luai and these other senior players there – that this kid has a sense of entitlement.
“They can sense that he’s not comfortable at that club anymore. He’s starting to feel on edge around those players.”
Chammas added the social media posts clearly demonstrate how members of the playing group, who apparently lobbied for Galvin to be dropped this week, feel about the teenager.
“If it was one of their close mates, would they be doing this on social media? No they wouldn’t,” he said.
“The reason they’re doing it, which comes to the core of the situation right now, is that fundamentally they do not like Lachlan Galvin.
“They think he’s entitled. They don’t like him and right or wrong, that’s why they’ve gone to the coach and said we don’t want him to play this week.”
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