St George Illawarra coach Wayne Bennett declared the return of Mark Gasnier to be a victory for the NRL and says he’s confident the former Test and Origin star will recapture his brilliant best despite 18 months in French rugby.
After losing him in 2008 when third-party deals fell through, the Dragons on Monday announced Gasnier would rejoin them on a new four and a half year deal.
Bennett said the nephew of immortal Reg couldn’t have done anything to stop the Dragons meek exit from last year’s finals had he been on board then, but said he has the x-factor to set alight the team’s 2010 crusade.
“He just brings a class that most players wish they had a little bit of,” said Bennett, who cheekily promised Gasnier he wouldn’t play him at five-eighth or fullback — options which failed for the Dragons in the past.
“I think we all saw enough of him, none of us forgot how he used to play and I’m sure he’ll have the opportunity to display that again in the near future.
“You’ve just got to look at the others who have all come back.
“Lote (Tuqiri) played here (Kogarah) on Friday night against us and I thought he was absolutely outstanding.
“We all know what Wendell (Sailor) did and they were out of league a lot longer than what Mark was.
“I’ve got no doubt about that … I’m quite confident his skill level will not have diminished.”
While plenty of players have left rugby league to chase bigger dollars, Bennett said Gasnier’s return showed the true worth of the NRL.
” I think it says a lot about the product and about the people that are in it,” Bennett said.
“You’ve got Lote back, you’ve had Wendell come back, Matty Rogers come back, Timana Tahu has come back so it says a lot about what rugby league has done for them about what it gives to them.
“When they’ve done their time in another code I think what Mark’s alluding to, is the grass isn’t always greener on the other side, and fortunately they’re all young enough men to be able to come back.
“I’ve got to say rugby league’s been great the way we’ve welcomed them back and I think that shows the quality of the people that are in our game as well.
“Their grounding is in rugby league, Mark played all his football in rugby league and the game attracts you, the game gets you.”
Dragons CEO Peter Doust revealed the process in getting Gasnier’s deal finalised was made difficult because of its mid-season timing.
“The real drama for us in the complexity was this year because it came to us late in the piece and that’s not easy to deal with,” Doust said.
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Jeff said | June 29th 2010 @ 11:27am | Report comment
Gasnier has only returned because he can see that the addition of Wayne Bennett and the fact that Storm are not in the comp will be his one chance of getting his premiership medal. (I hope if this happens that the Dragons will not be found to be ‘over the cap” and have their dream taken away). But then again , I don’t think that Sydney clubs are as far under the microscope as Interstaters.
rugbyfuture said | June 29th 2010 @ 11:37am | Report comment
i have no doubts about gasniers decision to go back to league. He was brought up on the game and is a gentleman and needed to be closer to his family. however, using tahu, tuqiri, sailor and rogers as other examples is fairly off. consider that sailor was kicked coz of drugs from rugby, tuqiri because of the unknown incident, tahu left coz he was up himself and rogers kept breaking, unlike gasnier they didnt really make a decision to go back to the NRL but rather had no choice but to leave rugby.
Ken said | June 29th 2010 @ 1:28pm | Report comment
Come on RF your bias is showing…’tahu left coz he was up himself and rogers kept breaking’. This is pretty weak reasoning. Don’t worry that they’ve all turned their backs on RU, remember they turned their backs on RL too at one point – if we were keeping score on these guys we’d say it was all tied up!
Gasnier has come out and said that it wasn’t about family but he just wanted to come back to his first choice sport and win a premiership with the Dragons. I don’t think he’s made any enemies on either side of the fence and he’s been respectful in his references to Rugby so surely it’s OK for him to honestly say that he just prefers RL.
rugbyfuture said | June 29th 2010 @ 10:14pm | Report comment
its true. Tahu left because he wasnt good enough and kept getting pissed he wasnt selected for anything. rogers perhaps was slightly different with the “family tragedies” he cited when leaving rugby. though he did respect rugby in his statements.
i was highlighting the point though that gasnier put it all in in both codes and returned to league in a gentlemanly way. i also highlighted his love for that game. the fact i was pointing out the most though, is that the way he did it cannot be compared in any way to tuqiri, sailor, tahu and rogers like the article did.
Go_the_Wannabe's said | June 29th 2010 @ 5:34pm | Report comment
Gasnier a gentleman???? “Fire up bitch, there’s 3 horny guys down here waiting for you!”
Wasn’t that the Gaz’s less-than-gentlemanly phone message to a certain lady after an origin team bonding session?
Isn’t that why Roy and HG named him “Fire up bitch!”????
Yeah, he’s a gentleman alright……leauge can have him.
rugbyfuture said | June 29th 2010 @ 10:08pm | Report comment
just trying to further highlight the difference between gasniers return and the others. meaning he was gentlemanly in his return to the NRL and rugby league.
Jim Wilson said | June 29th 2010 @ 12:02pm | Report comment
With SBW wanting to come back also, I just wonder if the money had dried up in union in France.
Commonsense would dictate that a competition that can barely get 2 million paying customers through the gate in a season (i.e. the Super 14 in France) can hardly sustain a dozen or so million dollar player payments that allegedly have been paid.
kovana said | June 29th 2010 @ 12:35pm | Report comment
SBW wanting to come back? Then why is he going to play in the ITM NPC RU comp in NZ.. And then the super 15 comp for Canterbury??
Jim Wilson said | June 29th 2010 @ 1:25pm | Report comment
He can’t play in the NRL as he has been banned for another 2 years.
Would yo be willing to bet he won’t return?
Ken said | June 29th 2010 @ 1:46pm | Report comment
Why would he take up the contract to play RU in NZ rather than take the bigger money in France or play NRL in Australia…um, I’m thinking there’s a rugby world cup next year? Playing in that will allow his manager to claim for him the title of greatest All Black of all time. Don’t laugh, in League over the course of an off-season media campaign by his manager he went from being recognised as a promising rookie to the greatest player in the game (without playing a game in the mean-time!). The big problem he has is that he has the same manager of Mundine who they claim to be the greatest athlete of all time – so I’m not sure what they’re going to claim for SBW after he becomes the greatest RU and RL player.
Once the WC is over he could easily end up back in the NRL, he said as much in a recent interview. I would like to think that no-one would sign the dope but I know that’s not the case.
ilikedahoodoogurusingha said | June 29th 2010 @ 12:27pm | Report comment
“With SBW wanting to come back also”
Not sure where you are getting this thought from; if you read what he said thoroughly he said that coming back to league was an option (after the 2011 RU World Cup). Other options are becoming a professional boxer and going back to RU in Europe. He goes on to say that one thing he has learnt as a professional sportsman is to keep other options up your sleeve.
Jim Wilson said | June 29th 2010 @ 1:28pm | Report comment
& he takes his advice from Mundine.
Do you really think union in France is all that flush with funds at the moment?
Even Luke Rooney has returned to Australia.
Dan said | June 30th 2010 @ 12:00am | Report comment
I really doubt SBW will go back to League… the only way it could happen would be if he failed massively in NZ with the Crusaders and that’s pretty unlikely.
ilikedahoodoogurusingha said | June 30th 2010 @ 8:51am | Report comment
Rooney has returned because the club he was going to join were relegated. Not sure about the money aspect, but never the less Europe will always be able to offer more money, in any code, just due to the population size.
Jeff said | June 29th 2010 @ 5:21pm | Report comment
Probably getting the info from the story tellers in Daily Telegraph, they seem to be churning out misquotes and unlikely probabilities to create good stories.
kovana said | June 29th 2010 @ 12:38pm | Report comment
” I think it says a lot about the product and about the people that are in it,” Bennett said.
“When they’ve done their time in another code I think what Mark’s alluding to, is the grass isn’t always greener on the other side, and fortunately they’re all young enough men to be able to come back.
Again.. Alluding to the opinion that League is the greatest product since sliced cheese in quite egotistic if you ask me..
Good on Mark Gasnier for going back to the Dragons.
Ken Bailey's Probation Officer said | June 29th 2010 @ 5:46pm | Report comment
Surely the bare truth is that Gasnier cane back to League because he wasn’t much chop in Union?
Dan said | June 30th 2010 @ 12:01am | Report comment
Not even remotely close to true. Most reports had highlighted Gaz as one of the best players in the French comp. He was absolutely carving it up over there… he probably just got tired of wearing the pinkk jersey lol
Scott Adams said | June 30th 2010 @ 8:48am | Report comment
I think Ken’s on the money. I watched a lot of the Top 14 on Eurosport this season and I don’t remember Gasnier ‘carving it up’ at all. In fact he looked pretty ordinary.
chuck said | June 30th 2010 @ 2:19pm | Report comment
which paper ???? Telegraph
Akazie said | June 29th 2010 @ 10:41pm | Report comment
Maybe you should read a few French Union forums then and see what the fans thought of him, I can you now that I came across threads with well over 2,000 posts in it talking him up non stop, but don’t let your union bias get in the way of a goos story.
BTW, if you want the links to the sites, just ask
Oh and one other thing, wasn’t he leading the try scorers list formost of the season, I think you’ll find he was.
Col the Pom said | June 30th 2010 @ 8:02am | Report comment
The bottom line in this is : do Gaz’s earnings from French Rugby count in his salary cap for St George this year, If not, Why not????. What’s to stop Slater playing Off season for $800k then returning to Storm and playing for match payments??. This salary cap situation is getting funnier each day.
Ken said | June 30th 2010 @ 3:04pm | Report comment
I’m not sure of the point you’re trying to make. Of course his earnings from Union aren’t included in the NRL salary cap – neither would any property investments that he has or any other source of income outside his contract with the Dragons. The only thing stopping Slater doing that is his contract with the Storm which says he won’t, if both parties wanted it to happen then there’s nothing stopping it.
I’m bemused by the outcry over Gasnier’s contract. This method of back-ending is common in the NRL and no favours have been done here. It’s not a free pass by any stretch, it’s effectively borrowing from the future years caps – he’s going to be taking a significant slice of the pie in a couple of years – what I wonder is how many players will Saints lose to pay for him when it starts to bite.
ilikedahoodoogurusingha said | June 30th 2010 @ 5:05pm | Report comment
As I understand it in Tahu’s and Tuqiri’s case a portion of their Rugby salary was included on a pro rata basis…ie the number of games Rugby they had played in that year. If that is the case then a similar arrangement should exist with Gasnier. I am sure it has all been checked and double checked, as I am sure St George and the NRL want nothing to go wrong…….mind you seeing as they were supposedly close to the cap, it doesn’t give the best of impressions does it, with the Melbourne Saga still dragging on?
Col the Pom said | July 2nd 2010 @ 8:01am | Report comment
So, If a player earns any money doing promo work or even part time sales /advertising, he must declare it for the salary cap, If he earns it playing Rugby in France it does not count.. yeah a good system hey!!. I don’t personally care whether Gasnier plays with St George or not I admired him as a very good centre, I just want to see a fair deal where all clubs can keep their teams together. In this case it seems that the rules are being bent. This is Just my opinion and I’m sure that a lot will disagree.
Crosscoder said | June 30th 2010 @ 1:51pm | Report comment
Gasnier made one mistake in the past.A current Wallaby appears to have made multi[ple ones.Please cut the pomposity and holier than thou attitude.Every code has its dirty washing,some kept in house.
Gasnier left the NRL due to 3rd party deals falling through or not honoured.He has stated he openly missed rugby league,had few handling opportunities in France with Stade.
According to Greg Alexander a close friend of Craig Gower,he found less involvement re defense in French ru,but enjoyed the south of France..He had the opportunity to represent Italy.
One can argue the reasons behind Sailor,Tuqiri and Rogers coming back(the latter intended to come back anyway at some stage he was born into the game.Suffice to say rugby league is a foregiving code,people regardless of their station in life stuff up.RL does not look at one’s past as a prerequisite to play the game.How many poeple pollies,cops,teachers et al have been slugged for DUI,or speeding and kept their jobs.
SBW has signed only a 2 year deal,and has intimated the possibility of returning to theNRL.One of the reasons he left the Dogs apart from money offered elseweher was conflict with one or two officials there I understand.
Even Berrick Barnes has indicated he wouldn’t mind a go again at rugby league.
Timana Tahu may well have been upset at not being chosen at times.He also got fed up with the constant travelling.The days of travelling here there and everywhere are not the novelty factors ,they used to be ,but a drudgery.Cheap airfares have made regular travel possible ..
The Phantom said | June 30th 2010 @ 3:59pm | Report comment
Isn’t he getting more guaranteed $$$$$ from St George that was on offer in Melbourne with the Rebels and ARU.
He could make more $$$ in RU but would have to make it to the highest level – no guarantees.
He is just taking the safe option
Col the Pom said | July 2nd 2010 @ 8:06am | Report comment
What Gasnier is being paid is up to St George. as long as they legally stay under the stupid salary cap, I for one will be glad to see him back in league