7/30/2019 Mal's Titans Appeal

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92 THURSDAY, MARCH 22, 2012 // THETELEGRAPH.COM.AU

LEAGUECENTRAL

Tigers say no to WillieLarrikin forward almost out of options for a return to the NRLDEAN RITCHIE

VOTEWould you like to seeWillie Mason back in

the NRL?

Willie Mason this week

WESTS Tigers will today walkaway from contract talks withWillie Mason — possiblyending the former Testforward’s career.

After a week of negotiations with the club’s stakeholders,it’s understood that the WestsTigers’ interest in Mason hasreluctantly ended.

Tigers chief executive Ste-phen Humphreys was ex-pected to inform Mason’smanager, Sam Ayoub, of theclub’s decision last night.

Only 48 hours ago, the deal was just about done with an

announcement expectedsometime yesterday.

However, several directorson the Wests Tigers board

 were not overly keen onsigning Mason.

With Wests Tigers to ceasetalks, Mason’s planned come-

 back to rugby league has nowfallen flat given the Tigers

 were the only c lub genuine insigning the player.

Penrith are still said to haveremote interest althoughNewcastle have denied anylink to the 32-year-old formerBulldogs, Roosters and Cow-

 boys forward.The Daily Telegraph has

 been told Wests T igers coachTim Sheens was keen to signMason to bolster his club’sdepth up-front.

Humphreys was left to

make the final call but, afterdays of debate, opted againstpursuing Mason.

Mason and Wests Tigers

held a series of discussions

 with the two parties almostready to announce a two-year deal.

Eventually though, Wests

Tigers management felt theclub’s squeaky-clean image

 wasn’t worth jeopardising bysigning Mason.

Mason was not asking for big money — the deal said to be minimal.

But Sheens has also main-tained his club is right on theNRL ’s salary cap and also hasno room to move in theTigers’ second-tier salary cap.

Some Balmain greats werealso against signing Mason.

Since Sheens took over atConcord back in 2003, WestsTigers have built a relativelyclean image.

The club last year off-loaded Robert Lui, who was

yesterday placed on a two-year good behaviour bond andfined $2000 after admitting toassaulting his girlfriend.

Former Magpies halfbackTom Raudonikis was out-spoken during the week andquestioned why Wests Tigers

 would want Mason.‘‘I don’t think (the Tigers)

are that silly. Surely. They’ vegot more sense than that,’’Raudonikis said.

Mason has returned to Aus-t rali a aft er a s ho rt andunsuccessful stint in Frenchrugby union.

 W H Y WA S N ’ T T - R E X ’ S TA C K L E A S E N D - O F F

Tony Williams finds it hard tosmile during a team photo session

yesterday. Picture Mark Evans

DEAN RITCHIE

NRL referees coach Bill Harrigan lastnight claim ed he wo ul d have‘‘applauded’’ had Manly forward

Tony Williams been sent off for adangerous throw on Monday night.

Williams yesterday pleaded guilty tothe dangerous tackle on Cronullahooker Isaac De Gois and will missseven NRL games.

The suspension all but ends Wil-liams’ hopes of playing Origin I forNSW and will damage Manly’schances of winning back-to-back titles.

Williams issued a statement yester-day saying: ‘‘I’m extremely disap-pointed. There was no malice or intentin the tackle.’’

Harrigan yesterday saidhe supportedthe decision by referees Ben Cumminsand Gerard Sutton to penalise Williams

and place him on report — but wouldalso have agreed with a send-off.

‘‘I told the two referees in our weekly debrief that I hadn’t seen atackle like that in a long, long time,’’Harrigan said.

‘‘I would have applauded them if they had sent Williams off. I’m happy

 with the reporting system and the useof it by the referees (on Monday night).

But if they had sent him off, I wouldn ’thave had any problem whatsoever.

‘‘It wasn’t a pretty tackle and, at aminimum, they should have penalisedhim and put him on report. But a send-off was certainly an option.’’

Williams’ suspension comes asManly attempt to overcome the loss

through injury of Test players GlennStewart and Steve Matai.

Sea Eagles coach Geoff Tooveyyesterday questioned the grade fourcharge issued to Williams.

‘‘I’m shocked by the severity of thecharge,’’ Toovey said. ‘‘No, it’s not theloading, just the grading of the wholeincident.I think it’s way overthemark,

 but that’s only my opinion.

‘‘Personally, the penalty is very, very severe and way over-balanced forthe incident.’’

Manly co-skipper Jason King said:‘‘The tackle was an accident and heisn’t a malicious player.’’

NSW coach Ricky Stuart could not be pinned down about whether Wil-liams would be picked for Origin I. The

giant forward returns just one game before the side is selected.

‘‘It’s a long time from now to theOrigin,’’ Stuart said. ‘‘It depends whattypeof traininghe doesor how fit heis,so it’s very hard to answer that.’’

Blues skipper Paul Gallen supportedWilliams. ‘‘He’s just a big, strongblokeand is just starting to realise who hecan be,’’ Gallen said.

Mal Meninga yesterday

Mal’sTitansappealJASHVINA SHAH

QUEENSLAND coach MalMeninga has implored theNRL commission to step inand save the Gold Coast as

concern over the strugglingclub’s future intensifies.

The Titans face problemsregarding their multi-million-dollar debt and theirproperty arm battling law-suits in federal court.

The Titans are strugglingto attract the NRL ’s atten-tion because of the league’sfocus onthe battle in westernSydney and the presence of Gold Coast’s AFL team,the Suns.

While Meninga said hedoes not know if the NRL isignoring the Titans’ plight

 because of concerns with western Sydney, he hopedthe commission would inter-

 vene on the Titans’ behalf.‘‘I’m pretty sure they

(commission) will be in thetrenches with the Titans when it’s crunch time, so I would imagine they don’t want them to not succeed,’’Meninga said at the State of Origin’s ticket sale launchyesterday. ‘‘That supportfrom the game itself might

 be a natural occurrence andthe ARCL will get behindthe Titans and make surethey survive in th eircompetition.’’

Meninga also said theTitans are important forrugby league’s survival inQueensland. ‘‘We needQueensland clubs doing wellin the competition and pro-

 viding more opportunitiesfor kids to play rugby league

and stay in Queensland.‘‘It gets really importantto our whole program, mak-ing sure that we still main-tain the strength that wehave at the moment up here

 with a lot of participation.‘‘So the Titans are really

essential,or a third andfourthteam are really essential toQueensland rugby league.’’

TICKET SALE

FOR ORIGIN II

TICKETS to the State of Origin series second game atANZ Stadium go on saletoday at 10am.

Tickets for the match on

 June 13 are open to thegeneral public and can bepurchased through Ticketek.

The first match of theState of Origin series will beheld at Melbourne’s EtihadStadium on May 23 and thelast match will be played atBrisbane’s Suncorp Stadiumon July 4.