The Daily Telegraph claims it has proof that the Canterbury Bulldogs were negotiating with Des Hasler to leave the Many Sea Eagles with a year left to run on his contract, and that the club was willing to pay for any legal costs an early exit from the club would leave him with.
Why any of that matters, and why it is being brought up now is really anyone’s guess. It seems to me that there is a pattern of these sort of stories that come up from time to time regarding Todd Greenberg’s public actions and the actions he has taken privately.
Why that is I don’t know. It must be said that on a number of occasions the NRL has looked into these allegations and have subsequently clear Greenberg of any wrong doing every single time.
Back in late 2011 there was a lot of speculation surrounding Des Hasler’s future at the Manly Sea Eagles. The general feeling was that Hasler wanted a contract that was financially more rewarding and that was long enough to give him long term stability. The Sea Eagles didn’t want to come to the party and the Canterbury Bulldogs swooped in with an offer that was just what Hasler was after,
It all happened very quickly, and at the time the Bulldogs said they had signed Hasler for the 2013 season. Manly ended up sacking Hasler in late 2011 allowing him to join the Bulldogs a year early.
The Daily Telegraph is alleging that the Bulldogs planned to sign contract for the 2012 season all along, which flies in the face of a number of public comments made by Todd Greenberg at the time.
Here is the thing though…
Todd Greenberg and the Canterbury Bulldogs would have known that there were issues at the time between the Sea Eagles and Hasler. Hasler’s management would have no doubt wanted to make sure that if Hasler was sacked his wouldn’t have to sit out an entire year before he had a new contract in place.
As the CEO of the Canterbury Bulldogs, it was up to Todd Greenberg to be prepared for every situation. He knew he had Hasler for 2013 and beyond, but if Hasler become available before then the Bulldogs needed to be ready to offer Hasler a contract for 2012 as well….which it turns out ended up happening.
That is the role of a CEO, to be prepared for every eventuality. Sometimes things don’t go to plan, and you want the person running a club to be ready for that.
What type of CEO would sign a coach a year ahead of time, then find out they could get him straight away, and not be prepared to offer him a contract that allows him to join the club immediately? A bad CEO.
Todd Greenberg did the right thing, he got the coach the club wanted and locked him up to a long term deal. what Todd Greenberg then says publicly doesn’t matter one bit. By the time Greenberg was being asked questions about timelines regarding the signing of Des Hasler, Hasler was already coaching the team.
I personally don’t believe any of the above happens had the Manly Sea Eagles re-signed Des Hasler to the contract he was obviously after.
I question who would leak the information printed by the Daily Telegraph today. It seems to me it serves no real purpose other than to try an discredit Todd Greenberg for simply doing his job back in 2011 and 2012.
It is not ideal at all for Greenberg to be having to fight these sort of claims. The position he holds at the NRL is a very important one that requires him to maintain his integrity in the face of a lot of people who are trying to apply their own self interests to rule changes and salary cap amendments. It’s not an easy job at all.
The Manly Sea Eagles were not happy at all with the way Des Hasler left the club, but they quickly moved on. Des Hasler started his contract a year early at the Cantebury Bulldogs, and he quickly moved on.
Personally, I don’t really see what all the fuss is about. Pretty much every party involved in this move won at the end of the day.
Maybe there is someone else out there that should move on too…
