Sharks coach deregistered
Kiwi league star Shaun Johnson’s stint at the Cronulla Sharks has got off to the worst possible start with the coach who wooed him after his messy break-up with the Warriors deregistered by the NRL.
Coach Shane Flanagan was deregistered by the NRL yesterday for communicating with the Sharks while suspended, leaving the club without a coach less than three months before the start of the season.
They moved quickly to replace him, installing assistants John Morris and Jim Dymock as caretaker coaches yesterday.
‘‘I’ve got confidence in them for the time being,’’ captain Paul Gallen said of the assistant coaches.
The Sharks have been fined A$800,000 (NZ$839,000) – half of which was suspended at the time over their supplements saga.
Flanagan and the club have until the end of next month to respond to a breach notice, which is when the NRL will make its final determination.
Sharks chief executive Barry Russell said the club will be appealing against the fine imposed by the NRL with the hope of reducing the amount, but it was up to Flanagan whether he appeals against his ban.
The club will have to overturn evidence found by the NRL integrity unit that more than 50 emails were sent by Flanagan concerning retention and recruitment.
His first correspondence was sent just weeks after his suspension and continued all the way to September 2014.
The club is believed to have initiated most of the discussions, resulting in the extra A$400,000 (NZ$419,000) fine.
However, no other officials have been punished because then-ceo Steve Noyce and then-football manager Darren Mooney are no longer NRL officials.
It is a stunning fall from grace for the man who helped rebuild the beleaguered club after the peptides scandal. Flanagan was banned for 12 months in 2014 because of governance failings, although many believed he should have been sidelined for longer.
He eventually returned and helped mastermind victory against the Melbourne Storm in the 2016 grand final, shaking off the longest premiership hoodoo in the code’s history and in the club’s 50th season.
Last year, Flanagan was named Sharks coach of the halfcentury, along with a score of other premiership-winning players. He has recently been in discussions about a new contract beyond next year.
One of the strict conditions of his ban in 2014 was that he didn’t have any contact with club officials. That especially involved the recruitment or retention of players.
The integrity unit combed through computer servers, laptops and mobile phones after Russell self-reported salary cap anomalies to head office earlier this year.
An investigation into any possible salary cap breaches will be finalised next year but it rushed through its findings into Flanagan to give the club enough time to find a new coach.
For Johnson it’s more of the same as he settles in at the new club after weathering a period of regular change in coaching staff at the Warriors with six different mentors during the past eight years.
Aap/sydney Morning Herald