what a Bunch of amateurs we have at our club
n January 3, the St George Illawarra media department issued a statement on the club’s official website spruiking the signing of Warriors playmaker Ronald Volkman. After failing to land a notable signing all summer, following the deregistration of five-eighth Junior Amone, it was a significant kill.
“Ronald is a valuable pick-up for us at this stage of the pre-season,” coach Shane Flanagan said.
On Friday, though, the media release had mysteriously vanished from the internet like he never existed.
“Oops. We Cannot Find That Page” the webpage said. Any reference to Volkman on the club’s social media had also been deleted.
It won’t be so easy for the Dragons, the Warriors nor Volkman’s management to sidestep the questions that must be answered about how the 21-year-old has been left in no man’s land without a contract.
Dragons officials told Volkman on Wednesday they would not register his one-year deal after scans revealed he requires season-ending shoulder surgery – the same shoulder that required a reconstruction in 2022.
Ronald Volkman playing for the Warriors.© NRL Photos
The problem for Volkman is his manager, Mario Tartak, signed a deed of release with the Warriors on Christmas Eve, meaning he can’t return to his former club and is unwanted by the one with whom he had signed.
Consequently, the fingers of blame are being pointed in all directions about how this fiasco could happen. There have been so many mistakes in this process it’s difficult to know where to begin.
The Dragons believe the Warriors’ medical report on January 2 – which this masthead has seen – was misleading. It says Volkman was suffering “shoulder irritation” and had non-contact team training for a week but “otherwise completed all pre-Christmas training”.
In conclusion, it says, “medical-wise he is managing chronic sinus inflammation and has been doing well with his current regime.”
When Volkman attended Dragons training on January 4, he took the field wearing a yellow shirt, which is a sign to other players that he can’t be tackled. The Dragons’ medical staff knew instantly that there was a problem because he struggled to pass the ball. When the physiotherapist felt his right shoulder, it “felt like chocolate”, according to one official.
Volkman underwent scans on January 5 and when the results were returned on Monday it revealed two screws in his right shoulder had been displaced. The report – which this masthead has also seen – states that Volkman suffered a “contact injury” on December 12 last year.
Warriors chief executive Cameron George slammed the suggestion his club or medical staff had hidden the injury from the Dragons.
“That’s due diligence I would’ve thought a club would take before agreeing to sign someone,” he said. “We agreed with Ronald’s management that he’d be released immediately. We contributed financially to his release and it was up to his management to negotiate a contract with another club.
“Whatever the conditions were for him to go to another club is irrelevant to us. Since that release, it was noted that he trained with them.”
It’s also been noted by the Rugby League Players Association, which fought hard during last year’s Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations about ensuring unregistered players did not train – to protect them.
Under NRL rules, clubs have five days after announcing a signing before they have to register the contract.
Well-run clubs, however, will ensure a player passes a medical before announcing the new deal. Even clubs that haven’t been so well run in the past do it.
Take the Wests Tigers, who are now being run by interim chief executive Shane Richardson after the Dragons knocked him back as their head of football last year. On Friday, the Tigers announced they had signed Storm centre Justin Olam in a player swap with back-rower Shawn Blore, but the contracts were only registered after both players had undergone medicals the day before.
Last year, Canterbury agreed to terms with Sio Taukeiaho, who had secured a release from Super League club Catalans Dragons, only for the contract to be pulled after he failed the medical because of a foot injury. The Bulldogs hadn’t announced the deal publicly like the Dragons had.
Several clubs to whom I spoke made it clear the buck stops with the club that’s signing the player. The medical report from his previous club is a guide, not a rule, to be followed. Buyer beware, in other words.
Flanagan did not want to comment but Dragons chief executive Ryan Webb defended the club’s actions and the decision to allow Volkman to train with the squad.
“As part of the medical assessment, he participated in restricted training,” he said. “He presented on the Thursday, the medical team assessed him, he did some modified training, which was a continuation of that medical assessment, and the red flags got stronger.”
Yet the danger of letting an unregistered player take the field at all was there for everyone at the Dragons to see on Thursday after another off-season signing, Corey Allan, suffered a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament. If Allan hadn’t been registered, he wouldn’t have been covered by insurance.
RLPA chief executive Clint Newton urged the NRL to look into the Dragons’ actions.
“One of the many obligations of a club is that no player is to train without a registered contract,” he said. “We know that training still carries significant risk, none more so than what we saw with Corey.”
The NRL’s response? “The NRL will liaise with the relevant parties to understand the circumstances,” a spokesman said.
Head office might want to ask how Volkman’s management signed a “deed of termination” on December 24 before the contract had been registered with the NRL.
Again, several clubs spoken to said the accepted practice is to lodge the deed of release and the new contract within minutes of each other. As one head of football said: “If you were joining another company, would you not make sure you’d signed the contract before you resigned?”
Tartak declined to comment when contacted on Friday, although he is working hard behind the scenes to find a solution. It’s been suggested the deal being done over Christmas when the NRL was shut down was the reason for the delay.
Nevertheless, a young footballer who faces major shoulder surgery finds himself without a job. He’ll receive some money from the Warriors, who paid out a considerable part of the final two years of his contract with the Dragons topping up the rest, but his future is uncertain.
“Our care factor for Ronald is the same as if he was still at the club,” George said. “Our welfare officers have already reached out to him.”
