Raft of grievances: The real reason Matterson walked out on Tigers
A disagreement over how he should be treated for a concussion was a key reason behind Parramatta star Ryan Matterson’s decision to call it quits at the Wests Tigers.
As the back-rower prepares to face the club he walked out on when the Eels face the Tigers at Bankwest Stadium on Thursday night, sources with knowledge of his acrimonious exit say he presented officials with a dossier of grievances on his iPad at the end of last year during a series of meetings.
The sources say the grievances included:
- A disagreement over the way the club treated his recovery from a concussion
- A belief he was pressured into playing a game just two days after being in hospital on a drip and indicating he wasn’t up for it
- Taking exception to coach Michael Maguire questioning his toughness
- Training sessions running over time, one of which ran 11 minutes past the scheduled finish time
- A belief the Tigers weren’t looking after his body the way the Roosters did, forcing him to play underdone and fatigued.
Despite Matterson’s complaints, the Tigers are still unsure as to why he packed up and walked out just one year into a three-year deal.
It wasn’t until a month out from the end of the season that the Tigers even realised something wasn’t right with their star recruit when the club received a phone call from the press, telling them ‘‘Matterson doesn’t like the coach’’. That was the first they’d heard of it.
The suggestion was that Matterson had taken exception to Maguire questioning his toughness after an incident at training. His angst towards Maguire from that moment became apparent to the playing group, although Matterson never raised the issue with the coach.
Concerned at the talk, especially given Maguire’s reputation as a tough taskmaster, Tigers officials called a meeting with Matterson and his manager. They were unsure whether the gripes were genuine or whether Matterson was trying to force an exit to pursue a deal that would be more lucrative than the three-year, $450,000-a-season contract he’d signed with the Tigers just 12 months earlier.
The club attempted to address his concerns. So much so that a few days out from the Tigers’ biggest game of the year – a final-round clash against Cronulla at Leichhardt to make the finals – an exhausted Matterson asked for a day off to get himself right.
Maguire, aware of rumblings around Matterson, obliged and granted him a leave of absence from training, much to the dismay of the club’s senior players.
The Tigers lost the game. That was also the last time they would see Matterson. He was a no-show when Maguire ordered his troops back for a month of extra training while the top sides competed in the finals.
While his departure from the club was being played out, the Tigers kicked up a stink. Privately, they were happy to see the back of him and knew it had become untenable for him to remain. He was granted leave, the official term used by the club to describe his refusal to show up.
Tigers players were also disappointed with the way Matterson handled his exit, especially when he didn’t attend a bowls day with teammates to celebrate the season.
https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/ra...son-walked-out-on-tigers-20200720-p55dss.html
An interesting read.
When your season is coming to an end, you want your best players on the field, surely he saw that at the Chooks, surely he saw what Cronk did, what Farah did, the elite players do. Happy to read ^ that Madge was and is tough, haven’t heard of any other Tiger who has been around in the ‘soft years’ wanting out. But, imagine an employee bitching about a meeting, training session, etc, etc going over by 11 minutes. Perhaps if you were going to miss your train home or flight back home but that wasn’t the case. 11 minutes FFS.
It’s a surprising read, I mean the guy is a good player, but really hasn’t done anything of note to date.
To mention a training session going over by 11 mins when they are paying you $450k per season is incredible.
I wonder how Parra do things?
Anyway, his efforts didn’t achieve anything for us, except make him look like a wanker. Still think we should have forced him to stay.
Though I’m sure he thinks he is reason the Eels are travelling so well this year.
