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Former NRL star Blake Ferguson has had his contract shockingly terminated by the Kurri Kurri Bulldogs effective immediately, having played just one game for the club.
The 34-year old, who played 250 NRL matches between 2009 and 2021 and represented NSW in State of Origin nine times, was announced as a marquee signing by the Newcastle Rugby League semi-pro team in October last year.
However, according to the Daily Telegraph, amid rumours teammates are unhappy with Ferguson over a series of off-field allegations, the Bulldogs informed the veteran he was no longer welcome.
“Blake was signed by Kurri but the club has released him from his obligations,” Newcastle Rugby League general manager Adam Devcich said in a statement.
“His contract has been terminated by mutual agreement. That is all that we or the club will say.
“Neither party will make any further comment.”
The axing is the latest off-field drama to hit Ferguson’s career, having been charged and found guilty of indecent assault while playing for the Raiders in 2013, before being imprisoned in Japan for assault and drug possession just months after signing for Japan Rugby Union club NEC Green Rockets.
(Photo by Matt Blyth/Getty Images)
Benji Marshall has hailed Shane Richardson’s long-term commitment to Wests Tigers as “big news” for the rebuilding NRL side, who have tied their chief executive to a new four-year deal.
After last December’s highly publicised boardroom clean-out, the Tigers installed former Penrith, Cronulla and South Sydney boss Richardson to Justin Pascoe’s old CEO role on an interim basis.
The back-to-back wooden spooners have since shown on-field improvement, winning two of their first six games under rookie coach Benji Marshall after managing only four victories from 24 matches last season.
The emergence of rookie five-eighth Lachie Galvin has been a particular highlight.
After the Tigers’ previous struggles to attract top-tier talent, Richardson’s administration has overseen the signing of marquee recruits Jarome Luai and Sunia Turuva, who will both join the club from reigning premiers Penrith in 2025.
Turuva has already informed his Panthers teammates he would be leaving at the season’s end, but Marshall was tight-lipped when quizzed about the acquisition on Friday.
“Nothing’s been agreed. We’ll talk about that if it gets done,” he said.
“I don’t talk about recruitment publicly, I think I’ve made that pretty clear.”
Richardson’s new four-year deal commences on July 2.
The Tigers are hopeful the Queenslander can inspire the same kind of resurgence he oversaw at the Panthers and Rabbitohs, who respectively won the 2003 and 2014 premierships under his stewardship.
“It’s big news for our club that he’s committed long-term,” Marshall said.
“To me, it means he sees a future and a vision for the future of our club.
“What I love about ‘Richo’ is there’s just no nonsense about what he does.
“There’s complete transparency and honesty, and he’s brought an experience to the club where he’s had success in the past at turning around unsuccessful clubs.
“I love working with him.”
Interim chairman Barry O’Farrell, who also joined the club late last year, described Richardson’s permanent appointment as a “no-brainer”.
“No club can afford to let champions go, whether on the field or in the front office,” he said.
Richardson’s new deal comes ahead of the Tigers’ clash against Brisbane on Saturday, when Marshall’s side will aim to snap a three-game losing streak.
The Broncos have named star quartet Adam Reynolds, Payne Haas, Deine Mariner and Brendan Piakura to return from their respective injuries.
“The Broncos are probably the best team in the competition at the moment,” Marshall said of last year’s runners-up.
“We know it’s going to be a tough assignment, but let’s just get through 80 minutes of process and see where we get.”
Both Trent Robinson and Shane Flanagan have weighed into the debate on concussions and kick-offs after Mosese Suli’s horror knockout in the first play of the Anzac Day match between St George Illawarra and the Sydney Roosters on Thursday.
Suli was sparked by a head-on-head collision with Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, in isolation an accident but a scene seen regularly this year as players return restarts with venom and gangs of tacklers attempt to engage an upright opponent.
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“It’s a really hard one because I love kick-offs because they set a statement to how we wanted to play today,” said Easts boss Robinson.
“But we don’t want to see that for Mosese.
“I think we can see that we’re getting to the point where it needs to shift. I think they tried to do it through the short kick-offs, but it’s not enough.
“Field position is still a really big part of the game, so you need to get down there. I think we’re getting closer to a change soon.”
Dragons counterpart Flanagan lamented the effect on his side as well but questioned how the league could counteract it without changing the fabric of the sport.
“It’s a terrible way to start a game, and we did miss him because he’s powerful from the back of the field,” he said.
“We couldn’t win that battle from the back of the field and we were always kicking from inside our 40.
“We want to play this really tough gladiator sport, and we want to get down there – especially off kick-offs – and have really good contact with front-rowers.
“But we see it too often. I don’t know the answer, but we see it too often.
“When it happens to one of your players, it’s not nice to see. I don’t know how we stop it, unless we start with a play the ball, and that’s not something I’d like to see.
“In the modern game, we can’t have these concussions. We need to look after the players.
“The short dropouts and all that have probably changed it a little bit, but I don’t know the answer.”
Shane Flanagan. (Photo by Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images)
Flanagan later fanned the flames ahead of his reunion with Cronulla, declaring the Sharks are a side he is “really interested in beating”.
And he didn’t stop there, clipping the Sharks for their failure to win an NRL premiership since the club’s first and only title was delivered back when he was head coach in 2016.
Flanagan had the perfect smokescreen after St George Illawarra were pumped 60-18 by the Sydney Roosters on Thursday as the focus quickly turned to his return to Shark Park on Sunday week.
The 58-year-old coach was deregistered and moved on as Cronulla coach on the eve of the 2019 season after it emerged he had breached the terms of an NRL ban handed out in 2014.
John Morris and current coach Craig Fitzgibbon have followed in his footsteps, with neither mentor able to move the Sharks beyond the second week of finals.
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But rather than downplay his return to Cronulla’s home ground, Flanagan leaned into the occasion as the Dragons were reeling from their Anzac Day annihilation at the hands of the Roosters.
“It (the Sharks game) has been marked in the calendar for a while,” he said.
“It won’t be an emotional week, no, I won a comp there. I don’t think they’ve won one since, have they?
“My job is to get these boys up, whether we’re playing the Sharks, I need to get the boys up to where we were a few weeks ago.
“It’s not about me, I don’t care about me and I don’t want it to be about me, I want it to be about the team and the club.”
Flanagan insisted he had moved on with his life and he will need his Dragons side to regroup, too, after an encouraging run of form was brought to an abrupt end by the Roosters.
The Dolphins have mixed news on four of their injured representative stars, with return-to-play timelines on prop Thomas Flegler and centre Herbie Farnworth day-by-day propositions.
Dolphins head of performance Jeremy Hickmans told AAP second-rower Felise Kaufusi (grade two hamstring) was on track for a round 10 or 11 return.
Fullback Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, also recovering from a grade two hamstring injury, should be back before the Queensland team play NSW in the State of Origin opener on June 5.
Maroons prop Flegler (shoulder) has not played since the round-five win over Wests Tigers.
“Flegs had some nerve damage. It sounds dramatic, but essentially it is like a burner to his shoulder, but a bad burner,” Hickmans told AAP.
“We just have to take time to get his strength back. It is a little bit of a day-by-day or week-by-week proposition. It could come good straight away or take a bit longer, but it’s going in the right direction.
“We will slowly reintroduce him to skills and keep working on his strength in the gym, which is getting better and better.”
(Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
England international Farnworth suffered a grade-three AC joint sprain against the Tigers. “Herbie is a bit like Flegs,” Hickmans said.
“With him at the moment it is about settling it down, getting his strength back and slowly seeing what he can cope with. We did a little bit of contact in a looser sense on Tuesday and he is still a bit sore.
“We will introduce him to skills and see how he is feeling because essentially now it is not about risk of further injury. It is a pain management thing.
“We don’t want to be jabbing him (with needles) for the rest of the year. An AC joint is one where you can do, but that can cause further problems. We have got the boys who can do the job in the (centres) in the meantime, so let’s not rush him.”
Hickmans said Tongan international Kaufusi, another casualty against Wests, was “going well” in recovery. “In the next couple of weeks we should have an idea of where he will be. He could be back next week, but we are probably looking at round 10 or 11,” he said.
Maroons star Tabuai-Fidow, injured in round six against Brisbane, is further away from a return.
“The challenge with Hammer is him, because he is so fast and explosive,” Hickmans said.
“Getting him to that final (stage of recovery) is where we have to be careful with him. He was a grade two, but (the strain was) in a better place than Fus. His was more of a standard strain, whereas Fus was more tendon related.
“I imagine, and I touch wood when I say this, that Hammer will be back before Origin, but it’s just a matter of when.
“All four are all on track. Two – Herbie and Flegs – are a little bit open-ended. Fus is getting closer and Hammer is ticking along.”
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