THE Sydney Roosters have told assistant coach Jason Ryles his tenure at the Tricolours is finished at the end of this season after the way the St George Illawarra negotiations have played out.
When Ryles initially signed with the Roosters the Tricolours powerbrokers were given a guarantee the retired NSW and Australia front row forward would see out the full three years of the contract as the club’s defensive coach.
That’s now changed – meaning the Roosters have told Ryles to finish this season irrespective of whether he takes the Dragons head coaching position or not.
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Ryles was informed of the decision a fortnight ago.
The Roosters have also told Ryles if he joins St George Illawarra as head coach the Red V will need to pay a transfer fee similar to when Ivan Cleary left the Wests Tigers to join Penrith.
Ryles is now $1.10 to take over at the Red V next year with the only detail left to be sorted who he brings in as key staff appointments.
As if often the case, master negotiator George Mimis is holding all the cards as Ryles’ agent and has told St George Illawarra the rookie NRL coach wants a five-year contract.
Cameron Ciraldo got the same terms to join Canterbury-Bankstown last November and is also a Mimis client.
The Roosters were initially fuming when they learned of Ryles meeting with St George Illawarra board member Ben Creagh and some at the club wanted to move the defensive coach on immediately.
But other senior figures at the club were adamant this was the wrong way to handle the situation.
Fox League has learned Ryles has been working the phones to canvas a range of opinions about who the best candidates are to join him in the Dragons football department in 2024.
We’ve even heard Ryles has spoken to Cronulla coach Craig Fitzgibbon – who knocked back the Dragons job before they signed Anthony Griffin – to get his view on the Red V set-up.
The smart money says the Dragons will most likely make an announcement about Ryles taking over after the Red V round 12 game on Friday night – ironically against the Roosters at Kogarah Oval.
It’s an equally big game for both clubs with the Roosters coming off a 40-point hammering against Penrith. The Chooks will be without Joey Manu and Jared Waerea-Hargreaves who has been named but won’t be playing.
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NOT for the first time, Canterbury-Bankstown are watching the situation with St George Illawarra halfback Ben Hunt with interest.
Hunt, 33, signed a two-year extension with the Dragons until the end of 2025 at the end of last year.
But with close ally and coach Anthony Griffin sacked on Tuesday there’s no question the champion Dragons playmaker is unsettled with the way the Red V club has been doing business.
Hunt was understandably blowing-up about how players were rostered on for media at the same time as the Dragons were axing Griffin.
Seriously, you can’t make this stuff up.
It’s well known Hunt met with Bulldogs supremo Gus Gould at the end of last year when he was weighing up his future.
There’s no question if Hunt was to be released by the Dragons and parachuted into Canterbury-Bankstown then the Bulldogs become a top four contender next year.
The Dragons are talking tough and trying to point to Hunt being contracted and how he’s a competitor and he simply wants to win.
Hellllllo, with Hunt turning 34 next season his chances of winning a premiership with the Dragons in the final two years of his current contract are gone. Kaput.
The Bulldogs – however – are a club on the up and with a champion no.7 could go to an entirely different level.
The challenge for St George Illawarra will be where the new coach wants Hunt to play.
If Ryles sees Hunt as a full-time no.9, it’s going to be a problem for the Dragons. At his age and at this stage of his career there’s no question Hunt has earned the right to see himself as a halfback wearing the no.7 jumper.
The Bulldogs need a no.7. The prospect of Hunt, Matt Burton at five-eighth, Reed Mahoney at hooker and Stephen Crichton at fullback makes for an extremely strong spine.
Before people blow-up saying how have the Bulldogs got the money – Canterbury-Bankstown still have 12 players from their top 30 off contract for next year including more than $1.2 million tied up in Luke Thompson and Kyle Flanagan.
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MOST people predicted it and it’s ended up being bang on the money – new Wests Tigers head of recruitment Scott Fulton and ex-Wests Tigers recruitment manager Warren McDonnell have had their first blow-up.
And it’s happened in the very first meeting between the pair.
Fulton is a can-do operator and had heard McDonnell had been talking out of school about him.
So the Tigers new head of recruitment simply put it to McDonnell.
They both laid their cards out and there were certainly no backward steps.
Rest assured the differences have been resolved and neither is in any doubt about who sits in what role.
Fulton is now entirely responsible for the Wests Tigers top 30 list and has been busy trying to find some circuit breaking signings for the struggling club.
McDonnell will now be working in junior pathways.
It’s says a lot about the Wests Tigers front office that they’ve sacked McDonnell twice and then re-hired him.
Does that mean they’ve got it wrong three times?
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IF, as expected, Ben Hornby misses out on the St George Illawarra head coaching position then the South Sydney Rabbitohs are already in the queue to re-sign their assistant coach.
The Bunnies have got huge raps on Hornby and as much as they were supportive of him chasing the Dragons head coaching role they’ll also happily extend his tenure at Heffron Park with a view to improving his CV.
The premiership-winning Dragons halfback who captained the club to its last premiership in 2010 has worked under Wayne Bennett and now Jason Demetriou at South Sydney.
In terms of coaching educations, you can’t get a much better grounding than that.
Hornby is off contract at the Bunnies at the end of this season but with everyone at Souths having enormous faith in his ability as a coach there are plans afoot to ensure he remains in the red and green.