{"id":311827,"date":"2023-06-26T14:09:31","date_gmt":"2023-06-26T14:09:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=311827"},"modified":"2023-06-26T15:58:33","modified_gmt":"2023-06-26T15:58:33","slug":"goulds-answer-to-broken-system-after-hunt-farce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=311827","title":{"rendered":"Gould's answer to 'broken' system after Hunt 'farce'"},"content":{"rendered":"

Phil Gould<\/a> has declared the NRL<\/a>'s player transfer system "broken" and renewed his push for a draft, in the wake of the Ben Hunt<\/a> contract controversy.<\/p>\n

Gould, who's long believed the NRL should introduce a draft, also blasted the incumbent way of operating as a "farce", after talk of Hunt breaking his contract with the Dragons to return to the Broncos with 10 weeks remaining in the home-and-away season.<\/p>\n

The Dragons stood firm on Monday, denying Hunt his request for a release with two-and-a-half years remaining on his contract<\/a>.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Star's astonishing feat lifts Aussies to Ashes Test win\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Dragons dig heels in after emergency Hunt meeting<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'Ridiculous' issue NRL needs to address 'now'<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\ufeffBut before the outcome of an emergency meeting was made public, there were murmurs that Hunt was in talks with the Broncos regarding a move back to Brisbane to bolster the club in its pursuit of this year's NRL title.<\/p>\n

Brisbane is placed second on the ladder on the cusp of round 18, trailing only two-time reining premiers Penrith.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"I'll tell you where the system is broken … \ufeffIf Ben Hunt wanted to leave the Dragons mid-season then he should have to go into a draft and the first team that gets to pick is the team running last in the competition. That might stop them from doing that," Gould said on Nine's 100% Footy<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"They think, 'Well, I don't get to go to the Broncos, they have a chance to win the comp, I don't get to go to the Panthers and fill in for three months and maybe play in a grand final. I've got to go down to Wests Tigers and battle it out for a wooden spoon for the rest of the year'. That might change their mind.<\/p>\n

"You just can't walk out of a contract mid-season, particularly at this time of year, and walk into one of the top sides in the competition with the hope of winning a competition.<\/p>\n

"At this time, with June 30 coming up, a few of the top teams are now ringing around the bottom teams that can't make the eight and saying, 'Can we have Tom? Can we have Bill? Can we have Tony? They'll help us for the rest of the year and we'll give you some compensation'.<\/p>\n

100% Footy is now available as a podcast! Subscribe\/follow via<\/strong> Apple<\/strong><\/a>,<\/strong> Spotify<\/strong><\/a> or<\/strong> Google Podcasts<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

"All these discussions go around all the time and it's wrong, it shouldn't be allowed to happen. But in our farce of a system \u2014 and no one has the courage to fix it \u2014 that's what happens."<\/p>\n

\"Slater:<\/p>\n

Contrary\ufeff to talk of Hunt plotting an immediate return to the Broncos, The Sydney Morning Herald's Michael Chammas<\/a> reported that the Dragons skipper told St George Illawarra officials his request for a release related to years 2024 and 2025 of his contract.<\/p>\n

Chammas said that one of the first things the Dragons halfback told club officials in Monday's meet was exactly that.<\/p>\n

Stream the NRL premiership 2023 live and free on<\/strong> 9Now<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Hunt is now faced with the challenge of continuing his career in the Red V after going public with his desire to flee the club, beginning with a game against Cronulla at Shark Park on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

It appears likely that Hunt will depart the Dragons at the end of this season and take up a contract with the Titans.<\/p>\n

However, Gould does not share that belief.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"I think this'll fizzle out … and Ben Hunt will serve out his contract for the next two years and retire and fade off to his home, wherever it is, and that'll be the end of it and this will have all been for nothing," Gould said.<\/p>\n

"It's been quite extraordinary, quite extraordinary. Ben's brought that on because Ben made his request very public. Now they've made a very public denial.<\/p>\n

"End of story, I reckon, I reckon it's the end of story.<\/p>\n

"Ben Hunt's playing for the Dragons."<\/p>\n

\ufeff\ufeffFor a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Phil Gould has declared the NRL's player transfer system "broken" and renewed his push for a draft, in the wake of the Ben Hunt contract […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":311829,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311827"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=311827"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":311831,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311827\/revisions\/311831"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/311829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=311827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=311827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=311827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}