DS, Mate, I have to disagree with you on this one.
The facts are that the NRL is an uneven competition in terms of how each club is treated. If Cronulla was afforded the same leniency as the Broncos and Roosters, I would agree with you - but we are not.
Barry has taken the correct approach by bringing it to the NRL's attention - what the media do with that information is out of the Club's control.
It is absolutely astonishing that this is breaking news one week away from the Semi Finals when the initial discovery was made and reported 5 months ago.
I could put a very strong argument together suggesting that this is the work of Rothfield seeking revenge on recent events, or someone at the NRL doesn't like our Club and is seeking to derail our season.
I simply cannot believe that the media were unaware of this story - my view is that they have sat on this until they could get maximum exposure which of course is Semi Finals time.
Again, I say, we are not treated with the same level of respect as the Broncos and Roosters - we never will be - which is why I believe we have done the right thing.
Barry has made the right call by reporting when he did.
Fiz, I’ve always respected your opinions on this forum and I respect your opinion on this issue too. I’m not for one minute doubting that the “editor at large” didn’t perfectly drop this story to get maximum impact.
Yes full marks for Barry being honest. But I bet he had no idea what happened next was going to happen. I reckon he was naive in thinking that the NRL would say oh thanks for that. It’s not a huge payment and from a previous management no worries can you make sure it doesn’t happen on your watch in the future.
If he knew what would go down after that would he have been as honest?
See the thing is the NRL never find out about these things unless there is a whistle blower. They just don’t. But we know all the Clubs cheat in some way. History has shown that Melbourne, Warriors, Manly, Bulldogs, Parramatta who have been caught in recent times.
So in my opinion he should have kept quiet about that discretion in 2015 and just make sure that no shyte he didn’t like went down on his watch. Because a lot of people’s hard work for that Premiership just got tarnished. Right or wrong it will always be brought up now. And it’s not f**king fair to them even though all the Clubs do cheat in some form. But the ones not caught are seen as model Clubs. And we all know that’s not true. They just haven’t been found out by a whistle blower.
