Souths board to discuss Taylor’s future

Embattled South Sydney coach Jason Taylor is set to learn his fate when the NRL club’s board meets on Thursday in the wake of the weekend altercation with forward David Fa’alogo.

The Rabbitohs were on Wednesday expected to wind up their investigation of the incident, in which Taylor was reportedly knocked out by a punch from Fa’alogo at an inner Sydney hotel on Sunday night.

Chief executive Shane Richardson met Fa’alogo and the player’s manager Gavin Orr on Wednesday, but Taylor’s agent Wayne Beavis said he and his client were yet to put their side of the story.

“I don’t know anything until Souths complete their investigation,” Beavis told AAP.

“If they ask us to we’ll meet with them.”

A Souths official said Richardson was likely to make a recommendation to the board on Thursday.

The developments came with speculation rife Taylor was on thin ice at the club.

He is off contract after the 2010 season but the Rabbitohs have failed to make the finals in the past two years after he took them to the playoffs in his first year at the helm.

Souths co-owner Russell Crowe publicly backed Taylor late last month, but whether the Hollywood star’s support will extend to end-of-season drinking sessions with players is yet to be seen.

“I don’t know how they’re going to sack anyone without having all the information and sitting down and the parties having their say,” Beavis said.

Taylor previously attracted controversy as Souths’ mentor when he and his Parramatta successor Michael Hagan exchanged insults after a match at Parramatta Stadium in 2007.

Rabbitohs director Peter Holmes a Court said he was happy with the progress of the investigation.

“The club has spoken very clearly, it’s acted very seriously,” Holmes a Court told Fox Sports News.

“The CEO Shane Richardson and the chairman Nick Pappas are going through a process, they’ll make an appropriate recommendation to the board and I’m very comfortable with the process the club is going through.

“I’m a director but my job is to support management to do their job, to be thorough. No one’s got a hot head. Shane’s doing a careful investigation of every part of every fact.”

Richardson and Pappas on Tuesday viewed CCTV footage of the incident, which has variously been reported as high-jinks gone wrong and a long-running feud following a dressing down of Fa’alogo for punching the Sydney Roosters’ Braith Anasta two years ago.

The criticism in front of Fa’alogo’s teammates was captured in the fly-on-the-wall documentary South Side Story.

“David, it’s selfish mate,” Taylor says in the dressing room scene.

“I don’t want to be the coach of a team that has people punching players in the mouth.

“I can’t see how he’s going to be playing with us next week.”

Beset by off-field crises in 2009, the NRL have said they are monitoring the situation.