Paul Crawley: Ben Hunt making a mockery of NRL contracts, Phil Gould must own Bulldogs failure

The NRL cannot sit back and watch Ben Hunt squirm his way out of St George Illawarra, writes Paul Crawley. It is time for the game to stand up for something.

Ben Hunt wants an early release from his Dragons contract. Picture: Getty

The NRL talks about ethics and integrity. But they don’t live it.

At the sniff of bad off-field news, they stand down players for poor behaviour. Even before they’ve been found guilty of any offence, or even if that offence falls short of the declared benchmark of being subject to a jail term of 11 years or more.

For the NRL it’s obviously all about image, and being politically correct when it comes to anything the NRL feels might give it a public relations black eye.

Yet, right under their eyes, and their own rule, they do little to address what so many fans have long viewed as a black mark on the sport – players breaking contracts mid-season or midterm.

The NRL needs to take a firm stance on Ben Hunt and his contract demands. Picture: Getty

Throw as many darts as you like at St George Illawarra right now if you think the Dragons are a club in a mess.

And certainly target Ben Hunt because what he is trying to do, via his old-school manager Col Davis, is disgraceful.

But also take a little time before doing either to ask how the NRL can again sit back and let player power (or do we make that player agent power?) sully the game’s image, even when players who may or may not be proven guilty of other charges, are stood down by the game.

‘WE’LL ADDRESS THE HARD ISSUES’

What Hunt and his management are doing right now is surely bringing the game that handsomely feeds Hunt into disrepute.

Yet we haven’t heard a peep out of the governing body this week about what it plans to do to investigate what led to Hunt demanding a release during the middle of a State of Origin series.

Surely it’s time for the NRL to put some honour back into the player contract system, while repairing the credibility of the salary cap that has become the laughing stock of the game.

Actually, it’s beyond time if you look back at a statement from Peter V’landys in December 2020, just over a year after becoming the ARL Commission chairman.

Now few would argue V’landys hasn’t been great for the game, with some outstanding changes/developments on his watch.

But he said at the time that the NRL would “address the hard issues” relating to this unwanted blot on the game only a couple of months after a series of broken contracts had fans howling.

“There has to be negotiations with the RLPA but it’s a concern we have and it’s an area where fans are very much aggravated about it,” V’landys said in 2020. “It comes back to what aggravates the fans, and it’s been an aggravation for quite a while … We’ll address the hard issues.”

Well, they don’t appear to have addressed it at all.

Certainly not with the relish the NRL throws behind its integrity unit, while the complete lack of faith by fans in the contract system remains a stain on the game.

WHO RUNS THE GAME?

In order to pacify the strong arm of the RLPA, they continue to allow players – and their representatives (agents) – to become too powerful because the NRL won’t introduce strict rules to avoid players attempting to hold a club to ransom.

This is at a time when we still can’t get an agreement on a CBA between the Commission and the RLPA, which leaves fans to wonder just who is running the sport.

But no matter what Hunt’s complaints, it’s downright dishonourable that he floats the immediate release right now _ when he’s hidden away in Queensland’s Origin camp.

I can’t see how this was not intentionally designed to try and force the Dragons into a decision where they had no option but to release Hunt due to the fact fans will quite rightly find it almost impossible to ever forgive him, whether he runs out against the Warriors on Friday night or beyond.

And I concede one of Hunt’s beefs is that a coach he was close to was able to be marched by his club mid-season, but what’s new about that?

Anthony Griffin still got paid out, and it was only half a season before his contract was not going to be renewed anyway.

Yet Hunt is the Dragons’ captain, reigning player of the year and highest-paid and most credentialed player. But that seems to count for little in his mind, despite having two-and-a-half seasons to run on his deal.

Peter V'landys must work out whether the Australian Rugby League Commission runs the game or the players do. Picture: Getty Images

WHY HUNT SHOULD BE STOOD DOWN

If the NRL is fair dinkum about creating a positive public image Hunt should be stood down from playing altogether if he refuses to buckle on his demands.

And it could come on the grounds that he has shamelessly brought the club and the game into disrepute, with the potential of doing irreversible damage if he is granted an immediate release.

Because if an NRL captain can get away with this in the middle of an Origin series, what hope is there of any player, or club for that matter, honouring the integrity of a contract into the future?

If the Dragons stand their ground, the NRL should be backing them to the hilt by making it crystal clear that any future contract will not be registered for the duration of Hunt’s existing deal that extends until the end of the 2025 season.

This should be backed up with a thorough investigation of all phone and email records of Hunt and his management to determine if there has been any contact with rival clubs, specifically relating to a potential move prior to the end of Hunt’s current deal.

At least that might have a few clubs already linked to Hunt feeling more than a little nervous.

Yet the only murmur out of NRL HQ so far was that it was left to the head of the NRL player agent accreditation scheme Paul Massey to make contact with Hunt’s agent in recent days to remind him of the game’s contracting rules, which forbids clubs inducing players or their agents to break existing contracts.

It makes you shake your head with frustration at the way everyone is tiptoeing around what appears a blatant abuse of the contracting system.

And while it is not just the players at fault (clubs often disregard the honour of a contract too), you also need to remember Hunt is now 33 and being paid more than $1 million a season.

So where’s his integrity given he only signed his most recent contract last October, knowing full well Griffin was living on borrowed time?

There was talk Hunt requested a clause in that contract to give him an exit if Griffin was axed but that was denied. Yet he signed regardless.

Now, eight months later, he is demanding a release.

DID WE LEARN ANYTHING FROM SUPER LEAGUE?

Full marks to the Dragons for digging their heels in.

And no matter what you think of their administration, it’s no coincidence they are the same club who refused Gorden Tallis’ request to play for the Super League-aligned Broncos in 1996, leading to Tallis sitting out the season after that standoff ended up in the courts.

The reason the Dragons stood so firm back then was because of the threat other players would follow if Tallis was allowed to walk. And nothing has changed on that front.

If Hunt is granted a release here, watch the conga line form behind him.

When the Tallis standoff exploded nearly 30 years ago, the game, its contracts/agreements at player and club level, put rugby league through its greatest shame.

You’d think we would have learned a fair bit since then.

Apparently not.

TIME GUS WAS PUT UNDER THE BLOWTORCH

It’s approaching two years since Phil Gould returned to Canterbury vowing to put the proud old club back on the road to success.

So when does the blowtorch get applied to the Bulldogs general manager of football like it was to previous coaches Trent Barrett and Dean Pay?

Even allowing for this being Cameron Ciraldo’s first season (and, yes, Ciraldo has had to deal with what has been at times a pretty brutal injury toll, but what club hasn’t?), it is still hard to understand why the man who sells himself as a rugby league guru continues to escape any significant criticism.

Life’s a walk in the park for Gus Gould. Art: Boo Bailey

Yet look at the pressure applied to Wests Tigers veteran coach Tim Sheens pretty much since Sheens walked back through the door, or Anthony Griffin at St George Illawarra before he was punted.

But what no one can ignore is that the Bulldogs head into their round 17 bye sitting second last on the ladder with 407 points conceded against them this season by far the NRL’s worst defence.

And their attack isn’t much better, having scored 253 points, the third worst in the league behind the Roosters and Tigers.

While there’s no question on paper the club’s roster is in a far stronger position than it has been for some years, the results simply don’t aim up to anywhere near what long suffering fans had been hoping to see on Gould’s watch.