COACH POURS COLD WATER ON BREACH ALLEGATIONS Green has faith club is in clear
COWBOYS coach Paul Green didn’t shy away from questions about allegations of salary cap breaches yesterday, saying he had full faith in North Queensland’s leadership and had seen nothing in his time at the club that made him worry.
Green addressed the media as scheduled at 1pm yesterday to announce his team for Saturday’s NRL clash against the Canberra Raiders at 1300SMILES Stadium – and it was only then he was made aware of the story published online by Fairfax Media.
He asked for 10 minutes to read the article containing the allegations and consider his response before returning.
When asked about the allegations, Green asked to speak about his NRL side first before fielding any other questions.
“I thought we should discuss the team first, that’s what this press conference is normally about so let’s get that out of the way first,” Green said.
After three minutes of talk about Justin O’Neill requiring scans on his right knee, the strengths of the Raiders and the significance of Matt Scott becoming the fifth player to represent the Cowboys in 200 NRL games on Saturday,
I’m not going to comment about rumours, there are a million rumours in rugby league
Green took almost four minutes of questions about allegations his players acquired properties from club chairman Laurence Lancini in alleged breaches of salary cap rules.
He provided answers for every question, responded frankly and at length while not delving into hypotheticals.
It was strong leadership from the Cowboys coach, who is confident the club has nothing to hide and that the allegations wouldn’t derail North Queensland’s run towards a best- ever NRL finish.
Rumours about a possible salary cap breach had been circulating on social media for several days, but the coach said he wasn’t going to get dragged down by them.
“I’m not going to comment about rumours,’’ Green said.
“There are no secrets in league so if you start worrying what rumours are saying you’ll waste a lot of energy.”