http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/...-storm-is-the-club-for-him-20091229-lit4.html
I guess that dream has now ended.
I guess that dream has now ended.
Mason decides Bellamy's Storm is the club for him
WILLIE MASON is set to resurrect his NRL playing career with Melbourne next season after agreeing to a two-year deal with the premiers yesterday. The move will enable the 29-year-old international to become only the second player in NRL history after Scott Prince in 2001 to feature in a World Club Challenge after finishing the previous season with the wooden spoon.
The Herald was told the ''unwanted'' Roosters forward turned down approaches from Manly, St George Illawarra and Cronulla to play at the Storm under the coaching of NSW Origin mentor Craig Bellamy, who last month publicly declared he was a fan of the former representative star.
Mason must now finalise a release from the Roosters before an official announcement on his move to Melbourne is made, but that is unlikely to pose a problem. The club has made it clear he was not part of its plans under new coach Brian Smith by giving him leave from off-season training to secure a deal elsewhere.
However, Roosters officials, who yesterday appeared to be unaware of Mason's deal with the Storm, indicated they would not be prepared to massively subsidise his contract with another club - suggesting the move could cost him financially.
Mason believes Melbourne offer him his best chance to win a second premiership ring after being a member of the Bulldogs team that beat the Roosters in the 2004 grand final.
He also enjoys a close relationship with Bellamy, who coached him in the 2008 Origin series, and believes the dual premiership-winning coach can help him return to his damaging best.
Despite being linked to Japanese rugby union and a number of English clubs, Mason did not want to leave the NRL and feels he still has much to offer after a 2009 season in which his form was affected by a knee injury sustained in the previous year's finals series.
After undergoing a knee reconstruction in September 2008, Mason made a remarkable effort to return to the playing field in April but his early comeback might have cost him as he also appears to have fallen from grace with the representative selectors following his omission from the Blues team this year and the Kangaroos squad that played in the Four Nations.
He is still held in high regard by Bellamy, who praised Mason's efforts in last year's Origin series.
Mason is also a long-time friend of Melbourne five-eighth Brett Finch, who has publicly urged the Kiwi-born front-rower to consider joining him at the Storm. Finch was discarded by Parramatta last season only to help the Storm beat his former club in the grand final after joining Melbourne on a vastly reduced contract.
Mason has told friends he hopes to emulate Finch and Clint Newton, who played in the Storm's 2007 premiership-winning team after being cut loose by Smith at Newcastle.
After initially being given leave by Roosters chief executive Steve Noyce on November 2, Mason was due to commence pre-season training with the club on January 11 but instead he will do so in Melbourne after the Storm organised temporary accommodation and transport for him to make the transition easier.
The move ends a rollercoaster two years for Mason at the Roosters after he walked out on the Bulldogs at the end of the 2007 season following a bitter falling out with coach Steve Folkes and CEO Malcolm Noad.
Despite signing a three-year, $400,000-per-season deal with the Roosters and helping them to the finals for the first time in three seasons in 2008, talk of the club wanting to cut him loose started coming out of Bondi Junction in March - just two days before he and Nate Myles were stood down for breaching the club's strict alcohol policy by having a quiet beer at home on their day off.
Club officials viewed him as a bad influence on younger players, even though he managed to keep himself out of the headlines.
League HQ
Newcastle's Willie Mason rumour is wonky
NEWCASTLE plan to buy a front-row replacement for Danny Wicks early next year - but the Knights won't be upgrading to a Big Willie.
Quite a few Novocastrians reached that very understandable conclusion after Willie Mason's unmistakable frame was spotted in the Hunter over Christmas.
The Knights, after all, are short up front and have plenty of cash to splurge on a new front-rower after terminating Wicks's contract.
And Mason won't budge from the final year of his Roosters deal without a decent pay day.
What's more, Mason was hanging with his 18-year-old brother Rodney, who has just earned himself a Toyota Cup contract with the Knights.
But alas, Newcastle recruitment boss Keith Onslow yesterday poured cold water on an NRL homecoming for the Toronto junior. Onslow said the club wasn't interested in Mason, and assumed the 28-year-old was merely back in the Hunter visiting family for Christmas.
He added that a replacement for Wicks - who spent Christmas reporting to police as part of his bail requirements - would be found in the New Year.
"We'll let things calm down a bit and then have a look at it when everyone goes back to work,'' Onslow said.
Daily Telegraph
You have to laugh at the salary cap.. saying its evening out the comp
Slater, inglis, cronk, smith, mason, blair, lima
You cant tell me they are under the cap....
Seems like most teams have superstars in them but Newcastle..
Storm refute claims they've signed Mason
MELBOURNE Storm chief executive Brian Waldron says the club has not and will not sign out-of-favour Sydney Roosters forward Willie Mason for the 2010 NRL season.
Fairfax media reported today that Mason had agreed to a two-year deal to join the NRL premiers, but Waldron has quickly denied the story. In a statement released by the Storm, the club was emphatic in their inability to sign the former Test forward.
"I personally communicated to Willie Mason over a fortnight ago that we were not and would not be in a position to offer him a contract for 2010,'' Waldron said in the statement. "That message was also communicated to his manager.
"We wish Willie all the best for the future but unattributed reports that we have signed him for next year and 2011 are completely false.''
Mason remains on the outer at the Roosters, with new coach Brian Smith offering the second rower extended leave to pursue opportunities elsewhere.
The Daily Telegraph reported last month that Mason had been in talks with Melbourne, but Waldron insisted then that the premiers didn't have enough room under their salary cap to accommodate the former international.
Mason is good friends with Storm five-eight Brett Finch - both palyers were Newcastle juniors.
Daily Telegraph
For f**k's sake.
Melbourne lose a tonne of players every year because of the cap. This year it was Johnson, Tomane, Turner, Scott Anderson, Matt Cross, Koopu and Chambers.
The year before it was Geyer, Crocker, Folau, Aitken, Jeremy Smith, Antonio Kaufusi and Tagataese.
In 2007 it was Cross, Matt King, Newton, Aubusson, Crossman and Donnelly.
Who did we lose this year? No one. That's why we aren't signing new players.
So your telling me Inglis, Slater, Smith , Blair, Lima, Cronk etc etc ..that they would all fit in the salary cap?????? Bullsh*t!
They have kept the same superstars year in and out...
They are definitely over the cap
YA crazy Yoshy! Your enthusiasm is always amusing. So guys which Front rower can we spend between 150 and 200 K on. Lima would be ace.You know what? Call me crazy but if we had both Finch and Mason sign for us next year I'd say our team would a top 4 team easy.
Good to hear Mason still hasn't signed and I hope he does sign with us even though that other article said he was here to see his brother and not to sign his own contract!