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Angus Crichton has abandoned his Australian rugby union dream, placing further pressure on the Roosters and their already bulging salary cap.<\/p>\n
Crichton\u2019s management in the end found dealing with Rugby Australia to be too difficult with another well-known agent, Isaac Moses, working in the background trying to make a deal happen, even though Crichton is managed by David Rawlings, who has nothing to do with Moses.<\/p>\n
The relationship between Crichton\u2019s agent and the Rugby Australia hierarchy was so sour that Rawlings engaged a proxy agent, David Shand, to deal with RA chairman Hamish McLennan and head of contracting Toby Duncan directly, while discussions continued with the Western Force.<\/p>\n
The appetite for a code switch has since waned and, at this point, Crichton is set to remain at the Roosters for 2024.<\/p>\n
It has been a torrid year for Australian rugby with Dave Rennie sacked as coach, Eddie Jones appointed and the shock of an early exit at the World Cup. This masthead then broke a story that Jones had interviewed for the Japan coaching job before the World Cup started.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike a vast majority of the rugby public, we are apprehensive about the immediate state of the game,\u201d Rawlings said.<\/p>\n
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It looks like Angus Crichton won\u2019t be heading to rugby after all.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Getty<\/cite><\/p>\n \u201cYou could reference the assessment made by the head coach [Jones] just days ago to justify that. We have moved on and my client is focused on the upcoming pre-season with the Roosters.\u201d<\/p>\n Rawlings knew Moses was circling and hoping to use his influence to do the deal for Crichton. Moses sealed the $1.6 million-a-season, three-year deal for another Rooster, Joseph Suaalii, to play rugby from 2025, which is the biggest player contract in Australian rugby history.<\/p>\n Moses has a good relationship with McLennan, and was telling people he could make a code switch for Crichton happen.<\/p>\n Moses is still offside with Nick Politis after he left the Roosters chairman largely out of the loop on the Suaalii deal.<\/p>\n In an ironic twist, if Moses could have landed a deal for Crichton, he would have done Politis and the Tricolours a favour, as the Roosters\u2019 salary cap is bulging at the seams and they need Crichton to go to allow them to re-sign and upgrade some young talent.<\/p>\n The Roosters\u2019 cap situation is not caused by Crichton. The club had been planning for Jared Waerea-Hargreaves and Daniel Tupou to have left by now, but they both signed one-year extensions for 2024. Siua Wong has re-signed on a bigger deal and Billy Smith will extend his time at the club.<\/p>\n The Bulldogs had pinned a lot of their hopes on Karl Oloapu as their next big thing, but now they are just happy they discovered his serious spine condition before he suffered a potentially devastating injury.<\/p>\n Karl Oloapu.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>NRL Photos<\/cite><\/p>\n Bulldogs general manager Phil Gould said it could have been a \u201ccatastrophic\u201d situation if they had not discovered the issue. Oloapu faced significant risk playing with a condition he was born with.<\/p>\n It is thought that when Oloapu flexes his neck and looks down, it is pressing on his spinal cord and causing damage, and he could need cervical fusion surgery.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the moment, we\u2019re just gathering medical opinions,\u201d Gould said. \u201cI\u2019ve got a couple of opinions; Karl wants a third opinion. I think he\u2019s very, very lucky that something catastrophic didn\u2019t happen with a condition that he\u2019s got.\u201d<\/p>\n The 18-year-old half or back-rower made his debut in round nine last season and played seven games. If he is forced into medical retirement, the club would face a $1 million-plus payout.<\/p>\n While on the Bulldogs, rising star Jacob Kiraz has a toughness not many know about. He turned up to training less than 24 hours after finding out his brother had leukaemia.<\/p>\n Kiraz broke down during the session and went home only after coach Cameron Ciraldo insisted.<\/p>\n The NRL has taken a bold and controversial step by putting the season-opening Las Vegas clash between South Sydney and Manly behind a paywall.<\/p>\n The move has Fox Sports in raptures, as it is already the most anticipated opening game in the NRL since Sonny Bill Williams\u2019 return in 2013 \u2013 a game that was played in front of 35,952 at Allianz Stadium and was on free-to-air TV.<\/p>\n The Vegas opener helps Fox, as it tries to drive subscriptions through rugby league. There has been debate behind closed doors about the season opener for weeks.<\/p>\n Channel Nine did have a win: it wanted the Brisbane v Roosters clash on free-to-air \u2013 and that will happen as the second game, or main event, of the Vegas adventure on Sunday, March 3 (AEDT) \u2013 but the network\u2019s bid to show both games has been knocked back by the NRL.<\/p>\n Channel Nine is owned by Nine Entertainment, which also owns this masthead.<\/p>\n If News Corp had the free-to-air rights and missed out on the season opener, there would be a sustained public campaign against those who made the decision followed by a string of personal attacks.<\/p>\n Channel Nine will get an extra game in the remainder of round one and will show three matches the following weekend.<\/p>\n NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo sees nothing wrong with the prestigious season opener being restricted to Fox subscribers.<\/p>\n \u201cFans will be the real winners in 2024,\u201d he said. \u201cBy opening the premiership in Las Vegas, we are doing something we have never done before. This creates exciting opportunities for fans, clubs and partners, including broadcasters.<\/p>\n \u201cThe premiership will start a week early next season, with matches one and two from round one being played on Sunday, March 3, a week before when we usually start and on a weekend where we don\u2019t normally play football.<\/p>\n \u201cIn 2024, fans get a bonus match on free-to-air in round one, with four of the eight round-one matches on Nine, instead of the regular three matches per round, starting with the second match of the Las Vegas double header, plus the full Thursday night, Friday night and Sunday afternoon football in round one.\u201d<\/p>\n Russell Crowe is seen as a key figure in spruiking the NRL in the US and his unavailability is partly why the game\u2019s leaders have delayed the launch of their Las Vegas experiment.<\/p>\n The NRL wanted Crowe to help launch the venture, but his movie career comes first. Sensitivity around the ongoing actors\u2019 strike, which has gripped the film industry, was going to make it difficult for Crowe to attend the launch, which was planned for next week.<\/p>\n Cameron Murray.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n Cameron Murray, James Tedesco, Pat Carrigan and Jake Trbojevic were being mentioned as possibilities to fly to Vegas to be the faces of the project.<\/p>\n Make of this what you will. Steve Smith is selling his Bronte property with price expectations of more than $7 million.<\/p>\n He recently purchased an apartment in Manhattan in New York City. His wife, Dani, has been spending time there, getting the apartment ready for their arrival. Whether or not this points to an immediate relocation or an exit from cricket is unclear.<\/p>\n Smith is still at the peak of his powers, and it would be sad to see him leave the game. He is a canny businessman and set for life, thanks to his outstanding cricketing career, coupled with investments in Koala Mattresses. He\u2019s come a long way from the young man I bumped into when he was thinking of buying in the apartment building I lived in at Bondi.<\/p>\n The potential of having this columnist as a neighbour may have inspired him to invest elsewhere.<\/p>\n Latrell Mitchell and Jack Wighton will be in court on Monday and potentially for the following three days as they face charges stemming from their alleged fight outside a Canberra nightclub in February.<\/p>\n Raiders chief executive Don Furner will be there to support Wighton, who will join Mitchell at South Sydney in 2024.<\/p>\n Furner has called his Rabbitohs counterpart, Blake Solly, to let him know that he will be there for Wighton on October 30 and 31 \u2013 his last two days as a Raiders player.<\/p>\n Latrell Mitchell and Jack Wighton at ACT Magistrates Court in February.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Alex Ellinghausen<\/cite><\/p>\n If Wighton is still in court on November 1, Furner has told Solly he can then support both players as, by that stage, Wighton will officially be a Rabbitoh and will be Solly\u2019s problem.<\/p>\n Furner is joking. We think. Solly is aware and ready to jump in.<\/p>\n Our story last week about Ryan Papenhuyzen and a third party offering him to another team definitely annoyed Melbourne general manager Frank Ponissi.<\/p>\n He made that very clear to me with a Sunday morning text message that denied Melbourne were looking to shift Pappy.<\/p>\n Ponissi has his suspicions about those making the inquiries and the thought is that they want Melbourne to focus on Papenhuyzen and take their eye off rising star Sua Faalogo.<\/p>\n Ponissi\u2019s anger is understandable, as he knows the distress Papenhuyzen\u2019s run of horror injuries have caused the fullback. He didn\u2019t want more stress on one of the nice guys of the NRL.<\/p>\n Papenhuyzen has since said publicly what he told me privately: that rugby league is a business and he understands that.<\/p>\n Not that he is looking to leave the Storm. He is using the third-party approach as additional motivation in his latest comeback bid, this time from a badly broken ankle.<\/p>\n Sports news, re<\/i><\/b>sults and expert commentary.<\/i><\/b> Sign up for our Sport newsletter<\/i><\/b>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n Source: Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dogs\u2019 next big thing lucky to escape \u2018catastrophic\u2019 spinal injury<\/h3>\n
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