‘Leaks’ probed as Gould puts heat on two men after ugly saga
Updated . First published
Phil Gould wonders who leaked details of an explosive Wests Tigers meeting between coach Benji Marshall and player Adam Doueihi last week, and what the intention was for doing so.
Doueihi stormed out of training last Thursday following a heated confrontation with Marshall after being told he would move from halfback to lock for Saturday’s game against the Raiders.
Adam Doueihi is facing a clouded future. Getty Images
The incident quickly made its way to journalists and continued to blow up over the weekend, to the point Doueihi’s agent Isaac Moses called a crisis meeting with Marshall and club chiefs on Monday morning to resolve the situation.
On Nine’s 100% Footy on Monday night, Gould pointed out the narrative had flipped from anti-Doueihi to pro-Doueihi over the weekend, with explosive claims including allegations of players vaping inside the club gym supposedly adding to the player’s frustrations.
On Wide World of Sports’ Six Tackles With Gus podcast on Wednesday, Gould again took aim at the Tigers for allowing information to leak to the media on a regular basis.
“There’s way too much of it, if there are leaks and there are people speaking to the media outside their authority,” he said.
“You can’t have a club that’s being run by the media, or so open to media access in these type of incidents. These things are happening in clubs all the time... but it seems to be far more public in some clubs than others.
“Why that conversation became immediately public, immediately sourced in the media... if those two are having the conversation, who else knows what they said? And how did it get in the media straight away?
“One of those two (Doueihi or Marshall) had to talk. That’s where the mistake’s made.
“How does that conversation get into the media? And look at the result of that getting into the media, what it’s done. And if that’s not a lesson then I don’t know what is.
“It’s the fact that a face-to-face conversation between the coach and player ended up immediately in the media... so much could have been avoided if that initial conversation was handled better, and perhaps with a different result.”
Intriguingly, Doueihi felt the need to defend his manager Moses when he fronted a media scrum on Wednesday, the day after apologising to his teammates and being named to start at halfback for Sunday’s game against the Eels.
Moses was accused of trying to sabotage the Tigers last year when he agitated for a release for his teenage star Lachlan Galvin, who was eventually allowed to walk to the Bulldogs.
Some believed Doueihi’s walkout last week was another Moses attempt to pry a player away from the club and from Marshall.
“I feel as though he’s been brought into this, and with the whole Lachie Galvin situation, thinking we have this big master plan behind all this - it’s not his intention at all,” Doueihi said of Moses.
“Isaac wanted me out there on Saturday with the team, he was begging me to play.
“I’m here for the next three years. I’ve never walked away from a contract in my life.”
Doueihi said he intends to honour the contract extension he signed in March which ties him to the club until the end of 2029.
Speaking to media on Wednesday, Marshall denied accusations his players have been vaping in the team gym.
“I can tell you now that no one has vaped in the gym. That’s actually fabricated, or misinformation,” Marshall said.
Tigers coach Benji Marshall and player agent Isaac Moses have butted heads before. nna\sbrunsdon
“Is there a vaping problem? Probably with players, but with young men you can’t tell them whether they can vape, or smoke or whatnot.
“I definitely can’t control what they do 24/7, I’m not with them all the time.
“I definitely don’t think there’s a culture problem. If we are talking about standards, there is probably a few things we might have walked past recently that we need to address.
“There’s a few things have popped up that I didn’t know. We need to be able to have open conversations about it.”
Doueihi admitted he “should have played” last week.
“At times as a player I can be a bit stubborn. I can be a hard player to deal with at times,” Doueihi said.
“He knows and I know my love for this club. Looking back on it, I should have played. I was wrong in that sense.
“There was a bit of miscommunication there, and I got into a headspace where I lost my head a bit... it hurt watching the boys on the weekend.”
Doueihi fronted the NRL judiciary last Tuesday night to fight a ban, and had it successfully overturned.
Reports later surfaced he was unhappy that Marshall did not attend the judiciary or contact him following the hearing.
Marshall explained that storyline when also fronting media on Wednesday.
“I had two sick kids who were almost in hospital last week, and I explained that to him,” Marshall said.
“It’s a lie, I did contact him after, actually.
“Whatever the concerns were from Adam’s perspective, were all dealt with and answered in the room (on Monday).”
The Tigers have dropped to 16th on the ladder and will miss NRL finals for a 15th consecutive season.
