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Josh Addo-Carr’s time at the Bulldogs could be over by the end of the week with the former Kangaroos winger to front the NRL Integrity Unit over his roadside cocaine positive test.
Phil Gould had said previously that he would not tolerate adverse behaviour like this at his club when asked to comment about the Latrell Mitchell situation last month with South Sydney.
Speaking on 100% Footy on Nine on Monday night, he said it was “too early to say” whether Addo-Carr would be at the club or not in 2025.
“At the moment there’s a process to go through, not the least of which is he has to front the NRL Integrity Unit this week.
“They rang today and asked for a Zoom meeting with him so we’ve passed that on to his manager who’s organising that meeting for him.
“The players this week have their final medicals to see how they’re all going at the moment – he has got a little injury, then they go through some exit interviews and assess their season.
“At the end of the day what’ll happen is that I’ll come up with a decision on what I think the future of Josh Addo-Carr and the club should be as a partnership and I’ll take that to the board and discuss it with the people that count. They may or may not take my recommendation, they may have another point of view.
“We’ll sit down and discuss it. But at the end of the day we’ll do what we think is in the best long-term interest of the club, it’s as simple as that and all the players understand that – club first, team second and individual third.”
Addo-Carr is protesting his innocence but Gould said “it’s in his system when he takes the drug test on Friday night”.
“How it got there, he needs to work that out and explain that to the people that count sooner or later,” he said.
“It was certainly bad timing from the club’s perspective.”
Wayne Bennett has wasted no time in delivering a few home truths to South Sydney’s under-performing players in his second stint as coach.
According to a NewsCorp report, he “didn’t f— around” as he told the players they had let their club down with their 2024 campaign which led to Jason Demetriou getting the sack mid-season and the team finishing second last with a 7-17 record.
Three days after he oversaw his final match as Dolphins coach, Bennett was back at the Bunnies to let them know that he will not be accepting poor training habits or any kind of a lack of commitment during his tenure.
Interim coach Ben Hornby did an impressive job to salvage the season after Souths looked certainties for the wooden spoon halfway through the season.
The saga over Latrell Mitchell’s “white powder” ban will carry over into Round 1 next year when Bennett begins his rebuild of the club on the field.
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Mitchell has not played since injuring his foot against Penrith on July 4. The Rabbitohs said last month he would not play again this season.
After he was hit with a one-game ban for a photo that showed him with white powder, Souths then pushed for Mitchell to be considered fit and eligible to serve the ban.
However, the NRL stepped in to end the long-running argument with the league not satisfied that Mitchell was fit to play in the final round despite Souths providing three doctors reports to the contrary.
Players are traditionally able to serve bans while injured, with Canterbury lock Jaeman Salmon and Parramatta second-rower Kelma Tuilagi doing so this year.
But the NRL argued that Mitchell’s case is different, given he was already out injured when he was accused of bringing the game into disrepute.
St George Illawarra chief executive Ryan Webb will step down as the NRL club begins its fightback from another season out of the finals.
The Dragons will now undertake a search for a replacement, with Webb to depart in April.
The call looms as crucial as the Dragons look to build on improvements made during Shane Flanagan’s first season at the helm, which ended just short of a first finals berth since 2018.
Webb helped the Dragons navigate the tumultuous COVID-19 period after taking charge in April 2020, the club’s infamous biosecurity barbecue breach at the house of player Paul Vaughan proving a high-profile challenge for the club.
Under Webb’s leadership, the club talked captain Ben Hunt down from his release request following the axing of coach Anthony Griffin.
He will have to manage another saga involving the star halfback before he departs, with reports that the club is again in a contract standoff with Hunt and reports that the end-of-season review didn’t go well.
The Maroons star wants to extend beyond his current contract until the end of 2026, but Flanagan is not quite ready to lock it in.
“What we’re dealing with now is Ben Hunt wants to extend beyond 2025. Flanagan has said to him ‘I’m not ready to extend beyond ‘25. Let’s wait, do a good pre-season, see how you go the first four, five weeks next year and then talk,” Phil Rothfield said on NRL360.
The problem will be if he engages in negotiations with another club after November 1, who are prepared to offer a contract for 2026, but also want him to leave in 2025, he will have to file another release request that could get messy.
But Webb also helped oversee the recruitment of incoming players Valentine Holmes and Damien Cook.
“Ryan is a great person and has been a strong leader for club,” chairman Andrew Lancaster said.
“He took on the role during a testing time as COVID impacted the NRL, bringing in much-needed reforms and guiding us through a period of significant change over recent years.
“Ryan’s efforts have set us up for continued growth.
“He has worked closely with the Board, players, staff and fans to ensure that the Dragons will continue building into the future.”
Webb had previously served as Wests Tigers’ chief operating officer for three-and-a-half years and as a marketing and commercial manager at AFL Victoria prior to that.
There was reports that South Sydney CEO Blake Solly was approached for the role, but he’s since said he’s committed to working with Wayne Bennett at the Rabbitohs next year.
with AAP
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