Gould notified the NRL on Friday morning that he had decided against pushing ahead with his application to join the ranks of player management.
Instead, he appears focused on a consultancy position with the Warriors, an announcement expected over the weekend.
Gould has been a man in demand. As well as the Warriors, he has been in discussions with ARL Commission fair Peter V’landys over an ongoing role with the governing body. He was inundated with interest. Ultimately, he has chosen a return to club ranks over the internecine world of player management because he could not do both.
The Warriors role, which was first revealed by The Australian, precluded him becoming a player manager. Appendix one to the accreditation rules details the player agent code of conduct. Section 2.4 leaves no room ambiguity.
“Accredited Agents must not be employed, contracted or otherwise engaged to provide coaching, management, consultancy, advisory or administration services to any club or any rugby league team other than a school team for which the accredited agent is a member of staff or a team competing at district junior level,” it reads.
Funnily enough, there is ambiguity around whether Gould could be employed as a consultant by head office. There is no reference in the rules to the NRL when it comes to conflict of interest. That oversight could be corrected down the track.
The upshot is that Gould has been forced to choose between player management and the Warriors – and he chose the Warriors. Above all else, it says something about Gould’s belief in the club’s potential.
While his son Jack was originally a shareholder in Limitless Management, his shares along with those of Gould were eventually transferred to another company called Six Tackles Pty Ltd.
Gould is the only shareholder in that company. Weekend Read understands that Jack has not applied for accreditation, meaning it was Gould or bust for the company. The dream is over for the time being.
While he has turned his back on player management, Weekend Read understands two relatives of coach whisperer Joe Wehbe have applied. Wehbe’s nephew Jonathan and his cousin Jason have submitted applications to become accredited agents with Ignite Sports Pty Ltd.
Like every other agent who has applied, they will be forced to undergo an exacting process before they are given the green light by the accreditation body.
As well as an orientation day and examination, they face an interview before an NRL board comprising some heavy hitting legal figures.
The board is chaired by Andrew Coleman, who was retained by the Rugby League Players Association to provide advice to Cronulla players during the peptide scandal a few years back.
NRL legal counsel Eleni North is also on the panel along with former Warriors chief executive Jim Doyle.
Provided they make it through, one or both of Wehbe’s relatives could be charged with negotiating one of the most lucrative contracts in rugby league history.
Sydney Roosters star James Tedesco has become one of Wehbe’s clients. He is currently on about $1 million a year but is expected to receive a pay rise when he negotiates his next contract with the premiers.
Anasta sees red
Braith Anasta was seething. Furious at a whisper campaign that he was responsible for South Sydney coach Wayne Bennett being sidelined by the NRL for breaching biosecurity guidelines.
Anasta was at Grappa restaurant on Wednesday, sitting across the room from Bennett. Nothing wrong with that. Anasta isn’t covered by the biosecurity guidelines.
As a result though, some at the Rabbitohs are privately questioning whether he was the whistleblower. There was a time when Anasta was one of the Rabbitohs’ favourite sons, a local junior and nephew of club legend George Piggins. That changed when he moved to the Sydney Roosters. Yet he still has close ties to the club through his management of Rabbitohs assistant coach Sam Burgess and promising playmaker Lachlan Ilias.
Anasta rightly points out what would he have to achieve by reporting Bennett and potentially putting his clients under immense pressure. It is understood Anasta called Souths to warn them that the story was about to break. It appears he should have saved his breath.
Blake’s seven
Blake Green isn’t looking at his sojourn in Newcastle as a final fling. Far from it in fact. Green is keen to go around again in 2021 and wants to use his next move as a springboard into coaching.
A hot rumour doing the rounds during the week was that Green would be Brisbane-bound at the end of the year, where he could join forces with Anthony Seibold and help mentor some of the club’s younger players, among them Tom Dearden.
Green insists there have been no talks with the Broncos, but you get the sense it would appeal to him. He is about to turn out for his seventh NRL club and it has given him the opportunity to work with and alongside some of the best coaches and players in the game.
“I would love to be a footy coach one day,” Green said.
Asked specifically about working with Seibold again, Green admitted it appealed to him. His relationship with Seibold and Newcastle coach Adam O’Brien stretches back to Melbourne and when he first arrived at the Storm.
“Those two guys helped me out immensely,” Green said.
CVC says count us out
Private equity has become one of the buzzwords in rugby league in recent months. It stems from a bid to convince NRL clubs and state bodies that selling off a stake might ease some of the financial concerns around the code.
At the same time, it would potentially provide the ARL Commission with a pot of gold to invest in the game’s future as well as provide them with significant leverage in their talks with the Nine Network and other commercial broadcasters.
With as much as $300 million in their back pocket, they would be less reliant on the broadcasters and able to negotiate from a position of power.
Among the private equity firms linked with rugby league has been CVC Capital Partners, the company that has made a habit of acquiring stakes in sports in recent years. However, it appears they won’t be chasing a share of the NRL. Weekend Read reached out to CVC managing partner Nick Clarry this week amid whispers they were eyeing off rugby league.
According to the company’s website, Clarry oversees their private equity activities in the sports, media and entertainment industries. He distanced CVC from the NRL.
“This story is not true – definitively,” he wrote. “Good luck with your work!”
Case closed it would seem.
Warriors on the prowl
The Warriors finally have a coach, have held further talks with Adam Elliott this week and appear to be closing in on Parramatta prop Kane Evans.
Evans is off contract at the end of the year and the Warriors have held discussions over a move across the Tasman. He would give them the starch they have been missing in the middle of the field.
Storm in backs hunt
St George Illawarra centre Euan Aitken is also attracting interest from the Warriors, although the Melbourne Storm may yet have something to say about that.
At the moment, the price is too steep. The Storm have been in the market for outside backs as they prepare for the departure of Josh Addo-Carr and potentially Suli Vunival u at the end of the season.
For the time being, they are preparing for a testing end to the year. After they play Canterbury this weekend, the Storm go into serious lockdown due to the game’s agreement with the Queensland government.
That means from next week, they are confined to barracks at Twin Waters on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. No beach. No cafe, No restaurants.
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Phil Gould’s plan to become a player agent lasted one week. Seven days to be precise. It appears Limitless Management Pty Ltd quickly reached its limit.