7th Tackle - with Josh Massoud and Liam Cox

RLPA boss caught in betting sting

Clint Newton was yesterday appointed to take-up the newly created role of Player Relations manager of the Rugby League Players Association (RLPA).

Newton has been at the pointy end of the organization since 2013; and was elected to lead the board as chairman last year. But in between those two prestigious appointments, Newton was caught out by a widespread NRL investigation into players betting on rugby league.

In mid-2014 the NRL announced sanctions against six players who wagered on games; with ex-Manly cult hero David ‘Wolfman’ Williams suspended for the rest of that season. But go back and read the fine print of that press release and you’ll find a further 12 players were also issued with warnings.

We can reveal one of those was Newton, who had rejoined the Newcastle Knights after a stint in the UK Super League. The NRL has confirmed an audit of Newton’s betting accounts found evidence of him placing bets on Super League games.

There was no evidence he’d bet on NRL matches; or games that he’d participated in – as Williams had done. That saved Newton and the 11 other ‘milder’ cases from being identified. The NRL also admitted the prohibitions against gambling on competitions that didn’t involve the player were grey, at the time.

But the big question is whether the RLPA owed a duty to inform its members of this development. It remained silent; and has done so ever since.

While Newton’s actions were much closer to silliness than scandalous; they aren’t in line with the squeaky clean behaviour that’s expected of the RLPA’s top brass. Remember, this is a not-for-profit organization that survives on a $1.5 million hand-out provided indirectly from NRL club grants. Under such a model, transparency must be paramount.

The RLPA should have fessed up; not least of all because of the potential conflict of interest that would have been created had the game been engulfed in another betting or match-fixing episode over the past 18 months. Despite being moved to a fulltime paid position, Newton intends to remain as president until next year’s AGM.

Reni puts his neck on the line

Reni Maitua has been named as one of a handful of former and current Eels who may have received third party payments that were illegitimately constructed. We spoke to Maitua this week – and we’ll get to his response shortly.

What’s more intriguing than another trawl through Parramatta’s sordid filing cabinet is Maitua’s approach to life after football. The 33-year-old has started treatment on having two neck tattoos removed, in the hope of maximising his chances of work in the media. Both ink jobs relate to youth in Maroubra, where he grew up as a member of the Bra Boys.

Now on the verge of finishing-up his footy in the UK, Maitua has matured greatly since then and realized how he can best be set up for life after rugby league. And in his mind at least, visible tattoos aren’t part of that vision. Think about the flock of recently retired NRL players who are forging careers on television.

Absolutely none appear on screen with their tats exposed. That’s going to somewhat limit the available talent pool in coming years; given how many current players are covered in ink these days. It’s already cost one very high profile player a promotional gig; because the sponsor – associated with the State of Origin series – demanded on clean-cut poster boy.

The Eel deal on Parramatta

It’s likely none of the players caught up in the latest headlines had any idea where their money was coming from; or how it was being juggled about to make the salary cap work behind the scenes. That’s certainly Maitua’s story.

Eels co-captain in 2013, Maitua had a falling-out with coach Ricky Stuart midway through that season and the pair agreed it was best he played-out the final year of his contract elsewhere. That turned out to be Canterbury in 2014.

The Bulldogs paid Maitua a fairly modest salary, with Parramatta paying him the rest to ensure his contract was fully honoured. Maitua received all money owing to him from the Eels; and thought nothing of it until this week, when he read about a $25,000 third-party payment that was allegedly covered by the club.

Maitua tells us he didn’t know of any third-party arrangements that sat alongside his contract with Parramatta. Interesting. He was just one of a dozen players shown the door by Stuart and then-CEO Ken Edwards in 2013. Many of the outcasts had further years to run on their contracts.

Parramatta had to carry the value of those contracts in their salary cap going forward; even though the players had moved on. That put the Eels at a massive disadvantage – perhaps upwards of $500,000. To compete on level terms with the other 15 clubs the club had to find a way of squirrelling some of that money outside the cap, by disguising it as third-party deals.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is what triggered the desperate spiral that now threatens to rob the Eels of competition points.