Russell Crowe and Anthony Mundine hatch plan to lure Greg Inglis to South Sydney Rabbitohs
Russell Crowe and Anthony Mundine are trying to persuade NRL superstar Greg Inglis to sign a contract with the South Sydney Rabbitohs this weekend.
The Hollywood superstar and boxing champ have been secretly planning to lure Inglis to Redfern for several weeks.
The Daily Telegraph reports the deal would involve Mundine paying up to $100,000 of Inglis' outstanding legal bills at Melbourne Storm, which have prevented him from getting a release to sign with Brisbane Broncos. The NRL insists it would still have to be included in Souths' cap.
It would be a similar gesture to when Mundine personally paid Sonny Bill Williams' release fee from the Bulldogs to play rugby union in France in return for him appearing in two fights on his boxing cards.
Crowe could not be contacted because he is overseas promoting his next movie but he has been hammering CEO Shane Richardson with daily emails, phone calls and text messages trying to get the deal over the line.
Richardson is normally happy to discuss anything about the Rabbitohs but not in this case. "I have no comment to make," he says to the first three questions before we challenge him about the difficulty of fitting the Maroons and Test centre under the salary cap.
"I always leave a bit of room to manoeuvre," he says, although not sounding overly convincing.
Surely the Rabbitohs could not possibly fit a $500,000-a-year player under the cap without having to shed one of their biggest names - possibly even skipper and prop Roy Asotasi, who has been rumoured to be on the outer.
Crowe has been trying to get Inglis to Souths for a while. They had spoken on several occasions long before the Melbourne Storm salary cap crisis.
Mundine is also regularly in contact with Inglis and was advising him when Andrew Johns referred to him as a "black c ... " in a Blues bonding session.
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Inglis' manager Alan Gainey was also reluctant to comment when asked about the prospect of his blue-ribbon player wearing the red and green jersey.
"I suppose you could say it's 50-50 at the moment," Gainey said.
"He admires Anthony Mundine, he's been speaking to him a lot, and Souths have seen a loophole because of the problems of getting a release from Storm."
The decision by Inglis to even consider playing for the Rabbitohs will stun rugby league followers who were of the understanding he had moved to the Broncos to be with his fiancee Sally Robinson, who was transferred from Melbourne to Brisbane by her employers mid-year.
In August, when he agreed to terms with the Broncos, Gainey told this newspaper: "He wants to buy a house in Brisbane with his girlfriend and settle down properly for the first time in his life.
"If his fiancee hadn't moved to Brisbane, he'd still be with her and playing for Melbourne next year."
Suddenly, the situation has changed since Crowe, Mundine and Mundine's own agent Khoder Nasser have become involved behind the scenes.
Nasser's involvement and his relationship with eccentric Toulon owner Mourad Boudjellal has fuelled speculation that French rugby union is both a lucrative and realistic option should the Souths or Broncos deals fall over.
NRL boss David Gallop spent much of Friday trying to resolve the issue between the Broncos and the Storm over $113,000 of outstanding legal fees.
Both clubs are refusing to pay because it would be included as part of their 2011 salary caps. Storm CEO Ron Gauci says he is happy to release Inglis to Souths.
"We released him on compassionate grounds to go to Brisbane but Souths is fine by us as long as the legal bill gets paid," he said.
