Banned former Cronulla coach Shane Flanagan has denied having any knowledge of salary cap rorting during his time at the embattled NRL club.
Flanagan, who has been deregistered for breaching the conditions around his 2014 suspension from the Sharks’ supplements saga, has told The Daily Telegraph he wasn’t aware of any unapproved third-party agreements to players.
This is despite almost $1 million of third-party agreements, including cash payments, being found on a spreadsheet Flanagan sent from his personal email account to his work account.
This was uncovered during the investigation by the NRL’s integrity unit that led to Flanagan’s resignation.
“I’ll cop my penalty for communicating with the club when I was under suspension,” Flanagan said.
“But I had nothing to do with the salary cap. Nothing whatsoever.”
“To my knowledge, all the third parties were registered with the NRL.
“I asked specifically each time a contract was done if they were NRL approved.
“I don’t do contract negotiations and I wouldn’t think any NRL coach would.”
Flanagan said he sent the email because he was unaware of any improper payments.
“Why would I try to hide it?” he said.
“Everything was above board as far as I knew.”
souvalis
Roar Rookie
Sure,the e mail happened..it’s the interpretation,the embellishments from Rothfield that cause doubts. Why would Luke Lewis break silence and come out so vehemently ? He claims contrarily to Rothfield he has never had a 3rd party in his life..never ever received a cash payment.. Not sure if Lewis would publicly perjure himself without cause..
Emcie
Roar Guru
"I had nothing to do with the salary cap" - has lists of player payments on personal email. - gives being on the player retention committee as reason. What he's really saying when he says "nothing whatsoever" is that he wasn't specifically involved in player negotiations. The board members that set up the seperate business to illegally source third party deals could probably claim the same thing.
Emcie
Roar Guru
No one is denying the email is real
john
Guest
He could well be telling the truth when he said “But I had nothing to do with the salary cap. Nothing whatsoever.” TPA's aren't part of the salary cap after all.
AE47
Roar Rookie
All pointless as the NRL won’t and can’t do anymore that what’s been done! That said this exercise is simply mud slinging
Paul
Roar Guru
The problem is Flanagan has been so ambiguous with the truth, it's now impossible to know what's true & correct when words come out his mouth. That's a pretty ordinary reputation to have.
souvalis
Roar Rookie
According to the Daily Telegraph who even as we speak have a front page online apology to Lachlan Lewis for falsely reporting his drunken involvement at a function he didn’t even attend..
Emcie
Roar Guru
Bellamy wasn't caught sending emails to himself from external sources containing undisclosed payments.
Peter Piper
Guest
The "I didn't know" defence worked for Bellamy, despite being a control freak who knows every little detail about his club and players.
Big Daddy
Guest
He didn't know anything about the doping scandal either. This guy is in complete denial of his actions. There are some people that don't belong in the sport.
Nat
Roar Guru
Sending an email with the spreadsheet from a personal account to work is so blatant/dumb it could nearly be a stitch up. If Flanagan had any credibility he could deny it but...
souvalis
Roar Rookie
“But I had nothing to do with the salary cap. Nothing whatsoever.” How more unambiguous can he be ?
BA Sports
Roar Guru
There were multiple CEO's over the time period. but yes how Lyall Gorman who has multiple question marks against him and his character seems to constantly avoid any sanctions despite drama happening around him..
Emcie
Roar Guru
There's a lot of question marks around this that need more than an "I didn't know, I thought they were OK" to explain away.
Sam
Guest
How is Lyall Gorman, who was CEO of the Sharks at the time, still allowed to be a CEO of a NRL club? The CEO is accountable for everything that happens at a club.