Maguire enters Tigers minefield
Kiwis coach Michael Maguire has walked into a minefield at Wests Tigers following revelations that the club has been fined A$750,000 (NZ$786,000) by the NRL.
The Sydney rugby league club has also had chief executive Justin Pascoe deregistered from the NRL for salary cap breaches involving club great Robbie Farah.
The NRL revealed yesterday that Pascoe and the Tigers agreed in 2016 to pay Farah A$639,000 (NZ$670,000) a year to return to a club in an ambassador role once he finished his playing career at South Sydney, but didn’t include the club’s salary cap.
Maguire joined the Tigers on a three-year A$2.5 million (NZ$2.62 million) deal after he had finished his commitments with the Kiwis in England last month. He will continue to juggle his jobs with the Kiwis and the Tigers in 2019.
Maguire, who replaced Penrith-bound Ivan Cleary, is making his return to the NRL after finishing with the Rabbitohs in 2017 and would have hoped for a smooth transition into the highprofile role at the Tigers after taking what some had termed to be a ‘‘gap year’’ with the Kiwis.
But any chances of being able to knuckle down and get to work with his new club may have been blown apart by the NRL’S decision to impose such a heavy fine on the club, and to remove Pascoe from his position.
The Tigers have vowed to vigorously defend their integrity and that of Pascoe, who has been provisionally deregistered for the breach which involves an agreement to pay club great Farah in an ambassadorial role when he retires.
The offer was made in late 2015, a year before Farah left the Tigers to join South Sydney. The NRL believes the payment should have been disclosed and included in the salary cap.
‘‘The breach notice proposes a fine of $750,000 and that an amount of $639,000 – the value of the ambassador’s agreement – be added to the club’s salary cap in 2019,’’ NRL CEO Todd Greenberg said.
Pascoe and the Tigers have until January to respond to the breach notice.
The Tigers said they were ‘‘shocked with the decision and extremely disappointed in the process’’.
‘‘Wests Tigers are particularly concerned about the wrongful attack on the integrity of the club’s CEO. For the last three years Justin has shown nothing but respect for the NRL and the salary cap,’’ the club said. ‘‘The club will be vigorously defending this.’’
Farah left the club for South Sydney at the end of 2016 after a long feud with then coach Jason Taylor who wanted to move him on but subsequently returned as a player in June this year.
The Tigers said new CEO Pascoe made the ambassadorial offer because he felt the club had disrespected long-serving excaptain Farah.
‘‘[The ambassadorial role] is an arrangement that Wests Tigers had with Robbie that is unrelated to his career as a player,’’ the club said.