Provocation, get-out clauses, zoom call: Inside the ugly two-year stalemate that sealed Ben Hunt’s Dragons exit

Ben Hunt’s interview with this masthead 11 days ago was viewed by the Dragons board as the halfback’s latest attempt to poke the bear. DAVID RICCIO and MICHAEL CARAYANNIS detail the two-year timeline leading to Hunt’s exit.

Ben Hunt’s New Zealand holiday was interrupted with a Zoom call that ended his time at the Dragons.

With the November 1 deadline for off-contract players fast-approaching, the Dragons board had run out of time - and patience.

A career-defining and club-altering call on not only their captain but the highest paid player in the club’s history needed to be made.

On Wednesday morning, Dragons chief executive Ryan Webb, Dragons GM of football Ben Haran dialled into a zoom meeting with Hunt’s agent Steve Gillis and Hunt.

Hunt had stayed in New Zealand with his wife and two sons after the Kangaroos squad broke camp following their win against the Kiwis on Sunday.

It didn’t take long to thrash out with Hunt’s management made aware of the likely outcome in recent days.

Ben Hunt.

In the space of an hour, the two parties signed out of the meeting and ended two years of angst between the halfback and the club by agreeing to a mutual termination of his 2025 contract.

unt won’t be paid anything by the Dragons with his contract worth about $950,000 next year. There was no crisis board meeting to get this done as it was a scenario that had been spoken about by club officials in recent weeks.

The Dragons undertook a similar stance with Zac Lomax earlier this year.

The meeting was called in the wake of a provocative interview that Hunt had conducted with this masthead 11 days ago.

“The Dragons said they were keen to extend me around April and then they said they’d wait until after Origin,’’ Hunt said from inside the Australian Test team camp.

“Now they want to see how I’m playing next year. It’s all gone quiet and they don’t want to do anything. Doesn’t sound like they are overly keen to keep me.

“It may be in Queensland or somewhere else. I’ll just wait and see.’’

Hunt also suggested that the Dragons should sign Eels captain Clint Gutherson and play him at five-eighth, a comment that was either incredibly naive or strategically planted given Kyle Flanagan - the son of head coach Shane Flanagan - wore the no.6 jersey in 2024.

Either way, the candid interview was viewed by the Dragons hierarchy as Hunt’s latest attempt to poke the bear - a tactic he’s used more than once before.

However, if you pushed both parties to be honest, they would both concede this marriage has been strained for two years, possibly even longer, and it was never the same since the sacking of former coach Anthony Griffin.

Hunt ruffled the feathers of Dragons administration when halfway through the 2022 season reports emerged of the halfback’s ambition to have a get-out clause tied to the future of Griffin.

Hunt and Griffin shared a tight coach-player relationship that dated back to their journey together at the Broncos.

The board ultimately rejected the clause.

Then from Queensland State of Origin camp in 2023 - just eight months after he had extended his future with the club through until 2025 - Hunt requested a release after Griffin was sacked.

Shane Flanagan and the Dragons’ board turned Hunt down, and the halfback eventually came around to staying with the club.

“If I could take the time back, I would do it differently,’’ Hunt said earlier this year.

“The conversations I’ve had with him (Flanagan), [2024] is going to be a team built on hard work and discipline and competing right to the final whistle.

“We’ve got a lot of hard work to do to get to that point, but it’s exciting.”

Having joined the club in 2018, Hunt made the finals just once in his time at the club.

His career has ended at Saints just three games short of 150 appearances in the Red-V.

It is ridiculous to suggest he is to blame for the Dragons’ repeated shortcomings.

At times, he was their only hope of remaining competitive.

However, turning 35 in March, the Dragons have merely fast-tracked the inevitably of life without Hunt.

He was never going to be at the club in 2026, so why bother playing happy families in 2025?

As of 12.01 am Friday, the Dragons have $1 million to spend on the open market.

Flanagan and his staff can chase a halfback that wants to be at the club as opposed to one that has spent the best part of two years trying to leave.

Originally published as Provocation, get-out clauses, zoom call: Inside the ugly two-year stalemate that sealed Ben Hunt’s Dragons exit