Sharks football club CEO Barry Russell has fired a shot at past management of the club that oversaw the issues that have led to Cronulla’s massive $800,000 fine and coach Shane Flanagan’s deregistration from the NRL.
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Russell and Sharks captain Paul Gallen fronted the media on Wednesday afternoon after the NRL handed down their penalties for Flanagan’s flouting of strict directions not to contact the club during his 12-month ban in 2014 for his role in Cronulla’s infamous peptides scandal.
Russell, a former Sharks player, said Cronulla would appeal the severity of the fine imposed by the NRL. Cronulla were fined $400,000 for Flanagan’s breach and a further $400,000 which was suspended from the Sharks’ original $1million fine for the peptides scandal.
Russell said it would be up to Flanagan whether or not he would appeal his deregistration, but indicated there was an “enormous” amount of communication uncovered between Flanagan and Sharks staff in 2014.
“This is a very disappointing day for our club. This morning I learned that our head coach had been issued with an intention to de-register him as an official. He has been suspended effective immediately,” Russell said.
“My thoughts go out to Shane and his family. From my point of view it’s paramount that we provide him with the well-being for him and his family to give him that support. Because I’ve spoken to Shane and as you can imagine he is extremely upset and disappointed.
“The club itself has been breached for its part in this 2014 issue. We have been fined $800,000. That is subject to an appeal which will be undertaken over the next few weeks and we have until January 31st to lodge an appeal. It’s a substantial amount and we will be appealing that.”
Russell said assistant coaches John Morris and Jim Dymock would take over as interim coaches as he attacked the prior leaders who oversaw the club at the time.
“I’m very disappointed because of the actions of past leadership, club officials and staff at this club. I’ve been informed that there has been an enormous amount of communication between our head coach and those people throughout the 12-month suspension that Shane was under. And as CEO of the club we have to accept responsibility that we broke the rules. If you break the rules there are consequences. And we are paying for those right now,” he said.
“It is sad for our fans, our players that we are dealing with this. From my point of view I’m going to do whatever it takes to get through this matter and clear us. The integrity of this club, our governance needs to be first class.
“It’s a proud club and our fans and members don’t deserve this. We have an exceptional playing roster and in the interim we have John Morris and Jim Dymock who will oversee the coaching.
Cronulla have received letters summarising the alleged correspondence between Flanagan and the club. Russell said the Sharks would receive more files of evidence in the next few days to review.
Flanagan was facing allegations of contacting Sharks officials about player recruitment during his year-long suspension in 2014 for his role in the peptides scandal.
He was also under heavy scrutiny for salary cap discrepancies that have surfaced since he returned to the club.
Russell self-reported an undeclared third-party player payment, a relatively minor indiscretion believed to be worth about $50,000, to the NRL in June.
But, as part of the NRL’s ongoing salary cap probe, emails scanned from the Sharks’ internet server were reportedly found showing Flanagan had communicated with the club during his 2014 suspension.
Flanagan was originally suspended for 12 months with three months suspended.
NRL CEO Todd Greenberg said during a press conference on Wednesday he had “no choice” but to make the decisions he had made.
But Russell said he would do the same thing again if given the opportunity.
“No, I don’t [regret it]. I had to self report. If you haven’t got your integrity you haven’t got anything. And I would do that same thing again,” he said.
“If you’ve done the wrong thing you have to suffer the consequences. No one is bigger than the game, no one is bigger than the club. And I am determined that this club I want to make it something that everyone is proud of.
“Absolutely not at all [did I think the NRL would investigate 2014 emails]. That was brought to light a couple of weeks ago. I had no idea at all that there was an issue there.
“Obviously part of that [fine] is a suspended sentence. We have come in here, I self declared a financial issue some time ago. It’s been a ongoing investigation. Unfortunately it has led down a path to this 2014 issue as well as other salary cap issues.
“I think the fact that we self reported, we are working with the NRL doing whatever we can to rectify the situation and I feel if we cooperate then we have solid grounds to reduce that.”
