dogslife
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It's his own fault.
He should've run someone over in his car after buying his 8-ball if he wanted more leniency.
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It's his own fault.
Nick Politis wanted to sack Victor Radley. He decided to swallow his pride
By Michael Chammas
September 18, 2025 — 7.48pm
Sydney Roosters coach Trent Robinson and general manager Mitchell Aubusson fronted a board meeting inside Allianz Stadium on Thursday afternoon, armed with the support of their senior players, and pleaded with club powerbrokers to rethink their plans to part ways with Victor Radley.
They got their way.
A day earlier, powerful club chairman Nick Politis had phoned long-time friend and Radley’s agent, Sam Ayoub, to advise him it would be in his client’s best interests to begin exploring potential options at rival clubs in the NRL and Super League.
Ayoub didn’t have to make many calls. His phone was already ringing hot, despite the publication in this masthead of text messages Queensland Police claimed were evidence Radley had arranged and collected a delivery of cocaine from a Sunshine Coast drug dealer through a contact provided by former teammate Brandon Smith.
When he spoke to Ayoub, Politis was in Los Angeles on a one-night stopover on his way back from Canada, where he had been the past week on a business trip.
He knew criticism would await him back home if he did not follow through on his comments earlier in the year, when he declared a zero tolerance policy on drug use at the club.
So for the next 14 hours, presumably in the comfort of his first-class seat, Politis wrestled with the knowledge that his own reputation and that of the club would be harmed if they did not sever ties with Radley.
How could he look into the eyes of the parents of any prospective teenage talent and promise them that the Sydney Roosters would look after their son or daughter if he couldn’t follow through on his own promise?
Politis managed to slip past the media scrum waiting for him at Sydney airport on Thursday morning by securing a private passage out of the terminal before heading to a meeting with Robinson.
“Sucked in, you didn’t get me,” Politis told this columnist in the early hours of Thursday morning.
Sources with knowledge of the situation talking on the condition of anonymity told this masthead Robinson was privately disappointed when his chairman announced his hard line on drugs in an interview with the Daily Telegraph in January, feeling he had made a rod for his own back.
To complicate matters further, Politis had also involved his coach.
“We are very strong on it [the club’s anti-drugs stance],” Politis said “Trent [Robinson] is very strong on it.
At the time, those close to Politis knew what it was – an attack on rivals South Sydney for the way they had handled the emergence of a photo showing Latrell Mitchell standing over a white substance at the end of last year.
What they didn’t know was how soon it would come back to bite them. Or how Politis’ own words would potentially spell the end for one of his favourite players.
Radley, whose name had been dragged into the Smith case three weeks earlier, apologised to Politis for embarassing the club at the time while on an away trip to Melbourne.
That apology was still ringing in the ears of the chairman this week as he began to question the story Radley had told the club, which appeared to have been contradicted by the police evidence.
As Politis wrestled with his conscience, the Roosters’ football department felt that Radley shouldn’t pay the price for the chairman’s animosity towards the Rabbitohs.
And on Thursday evening, the club announced Radley’s fate. He would not be sacked, but instead banned for 10 games without pay and told to donate $30,000 to St Vincents Hospital. All up, the financial penalty amounted to around $150,000, which the club described in a statement as “the heaviest sanction ever imposed on a player in the Club’s history”.
Not that Politis would do things differently if he had his time again.
“No, not really,” Politis told this masthead on Sunday night when asked if he regretted his comments.
“I think if the grounds were there for us to rip up his contract, we would have. But we didn’t have that. He wasn’t charged with anything, so there were no grounds to terminate his contract.
“Could we have gone down the path of sacking him for bringing the club into disrepute? Maybe, but we would have left ourselves open to a wrongful dismissal [case].
“We took the most severe course of action available to us. Tell me, which other club would have imposed the sanctions that we did? If you look at the definition of zero tolerance, it’s the harshest punishment you can impose on a person that is available to you. I can’t remember the last time anyone has ever been suspended without pay. Players have tested positive for drugs and have got minimal suspension and still got paid for it.”
By no means was Robinson happy with Radley’s actions, but at the same time he thought it would be unfair for Radley to be sacked or moved on when players at other clubs had been given lighter punishments due to an absence of proof of wrongdoing.
The same goes with this situation. Radley hasn’t been charged and there is no proof he actually took delivery of the substance, let alone consumed it, according to the Queensland Police evidence briefing obtained by this masthead.
The same concerns Robinson and Aubusson raised by to the board were privately echoed by the club’s senior players, who did not want to lose a teammate widely considered a Rooster to his core.
Politis touched down in Sydney with every intention of moving on from Radley. He had organised to meet with Ayoub on Monday and rival clubs were already circling. The Cowboys even wanted the Roosters to consider a loan deal for 2026 that would allow Radley to the Tricolours return in 2027.
Politis had been in touch with the NRL and lawyers about the options available to him, and how parting ways with Radley would impact on the club’s salary cap, given he was on a deal worth around $700,000 a season for the next two years.
What became clear was that sacking Radley was going to be too difficult from a legal point of view. And the negative impact it would have on the coaching staff and playing group may have been just as harmful.
On Thursday, Robinson pleaded his case. By the end of the meeting, he had convinced the chairman and his directors that a 10-week suspension, without pay, and a $30,000 fine to be donated to charity was sufficient to demonstrate the club’s hard line when it came to drugs. It’s a $150,000 hit to the pocket.
The Rugby League Players’ Association might not like that, but Radley has already agreed to sign a document when he meets with Politis on Monday, waiving his rights to any action against the Roosters.
Did Politis follow through on his promise? No. Now he will have to live with claims of hypocrisy.
But in swallowing his pride and putting his ego to one side, Politis did what he has done throughout his entire adult life. He put the Sydney Roosters first.
Boo Radley?
Lol, what a shill
Same golfing buddy would also like to know if you can confirm if he is definately starting or on the bench.
C'mon! You could think of a better line than something from the 80s.
Better band than the player...........
