How Tim Simona was caught gambling on NRL matches
CHRISTIAN NICOLUSSI, Rugby League, The Daily Telegraph
March 11, 2017 5:00am
IT was midway through last season when Wests Tigers officials first noticed a disturbing Facebook post involving Tim Simona.
There were suggestions of gambling and excessive partying, which prompted club officials to contact the NRL integrity unit.
Mark O’Neill, the club’s football manager at the time, had a quiet word to Simona. So too did chief executive Justin Pascoe.
Simona denied most of the allegations.
“He put it down to nothing more than a scorned ex-lover,’’ one Tigers source told The Saturday Telegraph.
Simona was interviewed at League Central and later cleared.
Thinking the matter was over, Tigers officials returned for training in the new year, only to be told by the integrity unit on the quiet that Simona was again in their sights.
Simona played down the allegations when confronted.
The Facebook messages advertising the auction.
On February 15, the same day the Tigers were due to play a trial against North Queensland at Campbelltown Sports Stadium, integrity unit officials told the club they were ready to deregister Simona.
They had some damning evidence.
This would include around 50 bets, including small wagers on opposition players scoring and opposition teams winning.
He had also sold more than 15 jerseys via auction and not passed on the full proceeds to charities, including Camp Quality.
The Saturday Telegraph obtained Facebook messages sent by Simona, advertising jersey auctions dating back to the start of 2015.
Simona was also “untruthful’’ during the investigations.
The centre has not been sighted at the club’s Concord training base since the February 15 trial against the Cowboys.
His contract with the Tigers is expected to be officially terminated by Monday at the latest.
Simona was earning around $350,000 a year, and collected a quarter of that amount given contracts begin annually on November 1.
The money freed up, believed to be around $200,000, will help the club become cap compliant for this season, but also allow the Tigers to bring forward any payments for the Big Four — James Tedesco, Aaron Woods, Mitch Moses and Luke Brooks — should they ink contract extensions.
Whenever there were updates on the Simona case, club officials would pull the players together.
Not once did a player publicly express their anger or disappointment.
Winger David Nofoaluma, one of Simona’s closest mates, said earlier this week: “I’ve tried to contact him, but he’s been a bit hard to reach. He’s a bit down with everything that’s going on.
“One good thing about the team this year is we try not to let anything distract us. The boys don’t want to talk about it too much because we know it’s not a positive thing, we try to block out anything that will distract us.’’
“We want to focus on winning games, we’re focused on the Panthers.’’
NRL boss Todd Greenberg on Friday stopped short of handing Simona a life ban. “Based on the evidence we’ve identified, it’s very hard to imagine Tim Simona will be registered with the NRL at any time in the future.’’
Greenberg was confident Simona acted alone, and players gambling on games was not an issue in the NRL.
He added Simona’s bets “weren’t very successful’’.
Integrity unit boss Nick Weeks said Simona did not have a good reason for betting. “He understood exactly what he was doing, he knew it was wrong and he knew the consequences,’’ he said.
“Unfortunately it has cost him very significantly.’’
The bets dated back a couple of seasons. The NRL integrity unit “received some information’’, believed to be from an ex-girlfriend, which Weeks and his team pursued.
Balmain great Steve Roach said he would find it tough to play alongside someone who had been found guilty of backing the opposition, even if they had been cleared to return.
Tigers boss Pascoe said: “We will not allow the actions of an individual player to jeopardise what this club stands for and represents.’’
