V’landys’ secret mission to save Haas signing with rebels

Rugby league supremo Peter V’landys has been talking tough when it comes to the now-delayed R360, but it’s his work behind the scenes that should be applauded.

The threats of 10-year bans for players who negotiate with or sign with the rebels are headline-grabbing and signs of both strong leadership and a concern about the unknown.

What wasn’t public until now is V’landys’ trip to Brisbane during the week to meet with the rebel competition’s prime target Payne Haas.

The reported $3 million-a-year offer to Haas is a huge concern to the NRL as Haas is a generational front-rower. It’s why PVL met him face-to-face to present reasons why he should stay in the NRL and explain to him the risks associated with the rugby competition.

V’landys wasn’t thrilled that we were aware of the meeting and refused to divulge exactly what was said regarding Haas and his intentions. The feeling leading up to the meeting was Haas had had a rethink about leaving the NRL, but the temptation of setting his family up for life was what he was wrestling with when the pair met on Tuesday.

“All I will say is that I went into the meeting thinking that Payne was an impressive person – the only thing I got wrong was just how impressive he is,” V’landys told me.

“He really blew me away with his level of maturity and care for his loved ones. He is a beautiful human being. We’ve been fortunate to have him in rugby league and naturally I don’t want him going anywhere because his playing ability and character are essential to this game.

“As I’ve said to all the players publicly, they need to be very careful about entering into any kind of deal to go to an unsanctioned competition, which is promising the world, but may deliver a trip to Victoria.”

New role for Lawrence

Nine rugby league host Emma Lawrence is aiming to break ground by becoming the NRL’s first female play-by-play caller. Instead of relaxing in the off-season, she is doing practice calls at Triple M radio station’s studio in preparation for making her debut next season.

The station has brilliant callers in Dan Ginnane and the hilarious Anthony Maroon, but Lawrence would provide a different take. Ever since Debbie Spillane blazed a trail as a sideline reporter, the rise of females in the electronic media has been huge, and with the likes of Danika Mason showing the way for the next generation, the media is moving in the right direction.

It was an eye-opener to spend time recently on tour with the Kangaroos in the UK, where the league media is heavily male-dominated. It felt like the way the game was covered in the 1980s in Sydney.

Seven on hunt for talent

While on commentators, it appears the Seven Network will need to rely on existing callers for its coverage of the World Cup next year. Seven won’t be able to touch the Nine talent so it may need to dip into Fox. Andrew Voss is one name being mentioned on a loan arrangement. The face of league at Seven is Willie Mason. It would be a surprise if he is not involved.

NSW delay Bellamy call

The NSWRL is treading warily when it comes to Craig Bellamy’s involvement for the Blues in next year’s State of Origin series. They want him involved and game two in Melbourne makes it logistically more attractive. Bellamy is dealing with the Eli Katoa brain injury incident that has ruled him out of the 2026 NRL season, plus the departures of Ryan Papenhuyzen, Jonah Pezet and Nelson Asofa-Solomona. The NSWRL wants to wait until Bellamy, who was a consultant in Blues camp this year, is through that Katoa situation before tackling his NSW role again.

Radley back in Roosters’ good books

Victor Radley remains a favourite son in Roosters land, despite his Sunshine Coast antics that very nearly resulted in his sacking. While he has been banished for a few games without pay after police evidence alleged Radley requested cocaine from ex-teammate Brandon Smith, the 27-year-old will still have a prominent role at the Roosters next season and has already appeared in the club’s slick promotional clip that announces their partnership with sportswear adidas.

There is no question Radley thought Roosters boss Nick Politis was going to sack him, and he shed plenty of tears while grappling with that idea. On the night when Radley’s name was brought into the Smith investigation into allegations of drug supply and providing insider information for betting purposes, it looked like Politis would dismiss him on principle and to back up his strong anti-drugs stance. In the end Radley was never charged by police, but the Roosters still hit him hard with a 10-game ban and a docking of his pay. The suspension has since been softened by the reduction of three Test matches for England that the Roosters assumed Radley would have played in against Australia, plus two pre-season trials.

Radley donated $30,000 to charity and what hasn’t been considered was the match fees he would get from playing for England and any extra money he would’ve got for living allowances and the like in the UK. That may have been another $15,000 or so on top of an already significant punishment.

Smith’s case has been adjourned until December 4 for mention. Radley will be free to return to the NRL in round six.

Latrell: Future golf pro?

Sports stars playing golf on the side has been a topic of interest given Usman Khawaja’s back injury after three days straight of golf in the lead-up to the Perth Test.

This columnist has seen plenty of keen golfers in the rugby league fraternity – the best was Braith Anasta. Mat Rogers hits a beautiful ball and Phil Gould could really play – but few dedicate more time to hitting the little white ball than Latrell Mitchell.

During Origin this year, there were whispers in the Blues camp that Latrell had a secret desire to one day give golf a proper crack. We’ve been told he was telling teammates as much, but we could never confirm his true interest because of his self-imposed media ban. He was posting a lot of golf videos during camp and was the keenest among the Blues on the golf course. Even on freezing days in Leura, Mitchell would head out for a hit after training and recovery sessions and wouldn’t mind if he was doing it on his own.

He has a sweet swing and a lovely short game, and given his level of sporting talent, you would never rule anything out when it came to a sporting career.

Sharks’ stadium win

The fact Cronulla was able to secure a naming rights sponsor for Shark Park is hard to comprehend. More to the point, the marketing and sponsorship team at the Sharks deserve huge credit for getting anyone to associate their name with a stadium that really needs a complete renovation. Credit to the sponsor, Ocean Protect, for supporting the Sharks in that way and pouring money into rugby league and a local club.

Ferguson’s take on Kingscliff drama

A few weeks back we told you the Blues were looking to move on from Leura as a home base. It will be confirmed in coming days. The Blues loved their time there, but after this year’s series loss a change of scenery is being sought. It seems there will be three bases: one closer to Sydney for the opening match at Accor, perhaps the Central Coast; there could be an earlier shift to Melbourne before Origin II at the MCG; and Kingscliff, just south of the Tweed River in far northern NSW, before of Origin III at Suncorp Stadium.

The key is finding suitable and available opposition for the opposed sessions. Kingscliff is a favoured location for the Blues and was the venue for a legendary Blues drama which media figures still refer to, when Blake Ferguson and Josh Dugan spent a day drinking at the Lennox Head Hotel before the 2017 Origin decider.

It’s often brought up on Laurie Daley’s Big Sports Breakfast radio show and was this week, with Daley playing it down. Ferguson told his version of events to a trusted source two years after the fact, and it makes for interesting reading.

Ferguson maintains he and Dugan were never out of control, but drank for most of the afternoon and into the night and spent time on the pokies. The reason they ended up in Lennox Head on a Blues day off was because Dugan had a mate whose son was competing in a grommet surfing contest there.

Early in the afternoon it was hosing down with rain so they abandoned the beach and headed to the pub for a feed. The problem was, after that, they never headed back to the beach.

A meal and drinks turned into a few more, then a slap on the pokies. Ferguson had also bought tickets in the Friday evening “joker draw” at the pub. A joker draw is where you buy tickets and hope to be drawn out for a chance to come forward and win the major jackpot by drawing the “joker” from a full deck of cards. They can carry a big jackpot.

Ferguson explained he was alive in the draw, and had won the chance at the major prize.
The only problem was, the draw was happening at full-time in the 6pm Friday night NRL match, meaning he and Dugan had to hang around until about 8pm so he could have his chance at winning several thousand in cash. He didn’t and the Blues didn’t win game three and the pair ended up as part of Origin folklore – not for the right reasons.

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