NRL blocks Greg Inglis' Rabbitoh move
Key signing ... Greg Inglis attends a South Sydney training session at Redfern Oval.
Source: Getty Images
Surgery ... Greg Inglis.
Source: The Courier-Mail
THE NRL will not sanction Greg Inglis' $1.8 million move to the South Sydney Rabbitohs in another stunning twist in his ugly contract saga.
The Daily Telegraph has learned NRL auditor Ian Schubert is set to prevent the realisation of Souths' contract with Inglis, penned after his shock walkout on the Brisbane Broncos earlier this month, and the Rabbitohs may have their own Hollywood star and owner Russell Crowe to blame.
It is now highly unlikely Inglis will play for the Rabbitohs in 2011 with Schubert resolved to voiding the foundation club's proposed three-year deal for the injured centre, who still remains contracted to his original club, the Melbourne Storm.
The boast of Crowe on Jay Leno's Tonight Show in the US has helped skittle the deal with the NRL's alarm bells ringing after the Souths owner revealed Inglis had been secured for three years on a deal worth "roughly about $1.8 million".
The $600,000-a-season figure Crowe alluded to ridicules Souths' attempt to have Inglis squeezed under next year's salary cap on a base salary of just $190,000. It was to be topped up by numerous third-party deals that will now be ruled as obligatory under the salary cap.
The sobering reality of Inglis being lost to the NRL altogether is now the most likely outcome of his manager Allan Gainey's protracted hunt to find his star client a club with French rugby union left as his likely suitor.
"It must be frustrating for him [Inglis] but he has got an agent and frankly, that's what agents are for," NRL boss David Gallop said last night.
"I hope for Greg's sake it gets sorted out pretty quickly because we certainly want to see him be able to settle down and concentrate on his footy."
The Rabbitohs would have to shed a number of their blue-ribbon stars, headlined by club skipper Roy Asotasi, and Maroons Origin forward Dave Taylor to keep Inglis in their burrow in 2011. It remains unclear if the club is willing to do so.
"It's frustrating Souths paraded him in their colours when it's not resolved," Gallop said.
"It's true that Greg's contract position is not resolved.
"Everyone involved has known for some time he is under contract with Melbourne Storm and needs both a release from that contract and the approval of the salary cap auditor."
The ineligible Rabbitohs deal shapes as another huge blow to Inglis who will undergo hip surgery today after earlier reconstructive surgery on both shoulders ruled him out of the Four Nations. His weight has already ballooned to 118kg.
Just weeks ago, Inglis had appeared to finally find a new club after his shock walkout on a written agreement to join the Broncos from the Storm on "compassionate grounds".
If forced out the door at Souths in wake of the NRL's stance Inglis may opt to accept offers from overseas with neither the Broncos or Storm willing or able to take him back.
