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From www.smh.com.au
Dogs star's goals may lie elsewhere as El Masri puts family first
By Steve Mascord
June 19, 2004
To the average Bulldogs fan, the thought of Hazem El Masri playing for another club borders on the sacrilegious.
But for the prolific goalkicking winger - and perhaps the club as well - it is a prospect that looms larger and larger as the June 30 anti-tampering deadline approaches. It's a date the Australia and Lebanon international admits will almost certainly pass without him having re-signed at Belmore.
"It is very hard but I've been at the club for a while, and the thing is, I've got a young family now," El Masri said yesterday as he prepared for this evening's game against Canberra in Gosford.
"In the end, it won't be just my decision, it will be a family decision. I've already got a year-and-a-half old girl and I've got another baby due in about two weeks. You've got to deal with issues off the field and, when you're on the field, perform. We'll be going to June 30, anyway."
Coach Steve Folkes accepts that a large proportion of Dogs supporters who go to games are of Lebanese extraction and they are fans who may waver if El Masri is let go.
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"Hazem has given the club great service and he is a great bloke to have around with all his enthusiasm, and he knows how to sniff out a try," Folkes said.
"A fair few of our supporters have the same ethnic origins as Haz and he is role model for them, as he is for all our fans. But we have a salary cap to satisfy and players who have risen to representative status and who need to be recognised as such."
Asked how a club factored the popularity of a player among fans into contract negotiations, Folkes said: "It's extremely difficult. You look at Penrith last year, how they had to release Scott Sattler, and the Roosters are talking about releasing Luke Ricketson.
"It's an unfortunate fact of life under the constraints of the cap but hopefully we will find a way to retain Hazem."
El Masri's year started poorly off the field when he was forced to attend police interviews even though he was not accused of any involvement in the Coffs Harbour rape allegations.
At one stage he refused to give a DNA sample, describing the police request as "an insult".
Since then, things have improved and he goes into tonight's game second on the NRL's pointscoring chart, with 120. His goalkicking percentage is top of the league at 88 per cent.
"The game against the Roosters, we got a lot of confidence out of that," he said. "It has been a pretty rocky year, up and down. We've played good in matches then dropped our form. Credit to the boys, we're sitting on second place and it's halfway through the year. To be able to sit on second place with all the dramas that are going on, it's pretty pleasing."
Tonight was a danger game, he said, because of the number of players who had been away on Origin duty.
The club has also given up its homeground advantage to play in Gosford because of damage to the field at Sydney Showground.
And those contract talks, he admitted, were "a bit of a distraction but I always try to block it out and hopefully do what I do best, and those things will take care of themselves off the field."
And as for a decision on his future, El Masri will ask his wife and daughter for guidance.
A devoted family man, he may pull out of playing for Lebanon in the end-of-season Mediterranean Cup - which he has starred in for the past two years - to look after the newest addition to the clan.
"At the moment, I don't know - there's a 50-50 chance, I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to make that trip this year," he said.
The newest El Masri, however, may be too young for a vote on dad's next move.
Dogs star's goals may lie elsewhere as El Masri puts family first
By Steve Mascord
June 19, 2004
To the average Bulldogs fan, the thought of Hazem El Masri playing for another club borders on the sacrilegious.
But for the prolific goalkicking winger - and perhaps the club as well - it is a prospect that looms larger and larger as the June 30 anti-tampering deadline approaches. It's a date the Australia and Lebanon international admits will almost certainly pass without him having re-signed at Belmore.
"It is very hard but I've been at the club for a while, and the thing is, I've got a young family now," El Masri said yesterday as he prepared for this evening's game against Canberra in Gosford.
"In the end, it won't be just my decision, it will be a family decision. I've already got a year-and-a-half old girl and I've got another baby due in about two weeks. You've got to deal with issues off the field and, when you're on the field, perform. We'll be going to June 30, anyway."
Coach Steve Folkes accepts that a large proportion of Dogs supporters who go to games are of Lebanese extraction and they are fans who may waver if El Masri is let go.
Advertisement
Advertisement
"Hazem has given the club great service and he is a great bloke to have around with all his enthusiasm, and he knows how to sniff out a try," Folkes said.
"A fair few of our supporters have the same ethnic origins as Haz and he is role model for them, as he is for all our fans. But we have a salary cap to satisfy and players who have risen to representative status and who need to be recognised as such."
Asked how a club factored the popularity of a player among fans into contract negotiations, Folkes said: "It's extremely difficult. You look at Penrith last year, how they had to release Scott Sattler, and the Roosters are talking about releasing Luke Ricketson.
"It's an unfortunate fact of life under the constraints of the cap but hopefully we will find a way to retain Hazem."
El Masri's year started poorly off the field when he was forced to attend police interviews even though he was not accused of any involvement in the Coffs Harbour rape allegations.
At one stage he refused to give a DNA sample, describing the police request as "an insult".
Since then, things have improved and he goes into tonight's game second on the NRL's pointscoring chart, with 120. His goalkicking percentage is top of the league at 88 per cent.
"The game against the Roosters, we got a lot of confidence out of that," he said. "It has been a pretty rocky year, up and down. We've played good in matches then dropped our form. Credit to the boys, we're sitting on second place and it's halfway through the year. To be able to sit on second place with all the dramas that are going on, it's pretty pleasing."
Tonight was a danger game, he said, because of the number of players who had been away on Origin duty.
The club has also given up its homeground advantage to play in Gosford because of damage to the field at Sydney Showground.
And those contract talks, he admitted, were "a bit of a distraction but I always try to block it out and hopefully do what I do best, and those things will take care of themselves off the field."
And as for a decision on his future, El Masri will ask his wife and daughter for guidance.
A devoted family man, he may pull out of playing for Lebanon in the end-of-season Mediterranean Cup - which he has starred in for the past two years - to look after the newest addition to the clan.
"At the moment, I don't know - there's a 50-50 chance, I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to make that trip this year," he said.
The newest El Masri, however, may be too young for a vote on dad's next move.
