Jason Taylor says he’d sensed something was wrong with Tim Simona’s life away from the NRL field, long before he was deregistered for betting on matches.
Taylor said he had regularly questioned Simona about his private life in an attempt to support the 25-year-old, but he never hinted at his drug or gambling problems.
“We had numerous conversations about life off the field, and Tim has told me every time that ‘life off the field is fine, it’s under control and things were good’,” Taylor told Fox Sports.
While Simona never admitted his ongoing issues to Taylor, the Tigers coach said he could see in his performances that something wasn’t quite right.
But he never imagined it would be as bad as has been revealed in the past week.
Simona was deregistered from the NRL last Friday after he admitted to placing bets on more than 60 games last season, ranging from wagers on himself to opposition teams and players.
He has also since revealed he had a cocaine addiction which had developed in his time at the club, and admitted to auctioning jerseys for charity but keeping some of the proceeds for himself.
“I had no idea of the extent of the things that were going on behind the scenes,” Taylor said.
“I just hadn’t been comfortable for a long period just about Tim’s process as a player.
“He’s an enormously talented player and I think everybody who watches the game closely would know that his performances were really inconsistent.
“Often that comes back to what your life is like off the field.”
Taylor accepted that perhaps Simona found it hard to confide in him as a coach over the matters, but believed the club had the welfare structures in place to support the disgraced centre.
During Taylor’s – and chief executive Justin Pascoe’s – time at the club, the franchise has gone from being ranked 16th by the NRL in welfare management to second.
“I’m so confident that we would have got Tim out the other side of this had we known what was going on,” Taylor said.
“To be able to hold down a first-grade position, it just shows the talent of Tim.
“It’s really sad.”
Taylor also reiterated Pascoe’s stance that the club did not have a culture problem, and that Simona’s story was an isolated one.
The Barry
Roar Guru
Yep - Simona was talking about his introduction to the devils dandruff being in a mad Monday harbour cruise. Even if we accept that no other player was involved, the people that were are close enough to the Tigers inner sanctum to be invited to an end of season club function. Either way a potential problem for the Tigers and certainly shouldn't be treated with the 'nothing to see here' broom...
eels47
Roar Rookie
Obviously the Tigers have improved their welfare programs, as evident by their rise in the rankings by the NRL, however I can't understand how no one knew about this. Surely with all of the staff and players someone saw something, and if Taylor was so concerned, did he raise anything with the welfare staff? I also don't like the blanket comment from the Tigers that the comment by Simona about the drugs was a one off and that "he didn't say they were teammates". I honestly hope that they are actually investigating this, not just assuming that no other players were involved.
The Barry
Roar Guru
Tigers may be right that this is isolated but they seem to be taking a lot at face value. Hopefully more is going on behind the scenes. Simona must be accountable for his actions and banned but the longer this goes the more sorry I feel for him. To be so unhappy and desperate to think that these horrible things were some sort of solution is a terrible place for any young man to be in. This story still has scope to turn worse.