Yesterday, a contrite Zappia, who left the Sharks with four weeks' pay and some bonuses, gave a brief statement after meeting Gallop for half an hour in which he apologised to Hall. Zappia acknowledged his errors in human-resources issues as he seeks to resurrect his reputation and salvage his league career with a possible position at his old club, Parramatta.
"I'm sorry, and I hope she gets on with her life," Zappia said of Hall.
Cronulla will look to appoint an interim football manager amid a review of the structural organisation of the leagues and football clubs and transition of board chairman Barry Pierce, who will leave at the end of the month.
Zappia, the former Sharks chief executive, resigned on Thursday after listening to tape of a conversation between himself and Hall, recorded several days after the accidental punch that left her with a severely injured eye. In the tape, shown on Channel Seven, Zappia suggests to Hall that her eye was caused by hitting a wall, asks if she should spank him, shows her pornographic photos on his work computer and denies her request for sick leave.
In the months after that punch, Hall filed a sexual harassment complaint, including claims that Zappia had called her a stripper, had made a sexual reference to her about "a handy" and made comments about her bottom being exposed when she bent over. But she was most upset when Zappia left her exposed to threats of physical violence when she was inadvertently caught in the middle of a player negotiation.
At the time, Zappia denied to Hall that he breached any confidence. Yesterday, he said he could have handled things differently.
"I'm not the person that some people have portrayed me to be, but I also accept in hindsight that I could have dealt with things in a different manner," he said. "It's unfortunate the way this incident has been portrayed. There's no point in going over the detail except to say that I've never deliberately hurt anyone, and I wish I'd handled it differently."
Hall left the Sharks with a $20,000 payout, most of it comprising work entitlements.
Gallop said it was pleasing that Zappia accepted his errors and mistakes, and it was a first step in terms of his future in the code.
"I felt the meeting was very productive," said Gallop, who had called for Zappia's resignation immediately after the airing of the tape last Sunday night.
