Fox news journalist James Hooper has launched a scathing attack on RLPA boss Clint Newton over ongoing negotiations around player’s pay.
NRL players took their boycott to a new level last night, with players for yesterday’s Sydney Roosters Vs Brisbane Broncos game [lead] opting to walk out with patches of tape over their league logo.
The move comes amid pay deal negotiations between the rugby league players’ association and the NRL.
The Rugby League Players Association (RPLA), which is led by Clint Newton, introduced a player media ban earlier this month. When that failed to have the desired effect, the RPLA decided to take the new measure of encouraging players to cover up their NRL logo.
Not everyone was in support of the decision, however. Fox league journalist James Hooper has heavily criticised Newton, saying he should leave the room as the player’s negotiate their pay with the NRL.
“I think the best thing they could do with the gaffer tape is wrap it around Clint Newton’s mouth and he’s not allowed to talk publicly anymore because whenever he does open his mouth he only embarrasses himself,” Hooper told Fox League’s NRL 360.
“There is 510 contracted NRL players. There is 240 contracted NRLW players and Clint is sadly doing them all a gross injustice at this point in time.
“Unfortunately he swallowed a corporate management handbook a number of years ago followed by a thesaurus then he disappeared up his own ass.
“And ever since then it has been a very sad state of affairs. You would be very hard finding anybody in rugby league at the moment and I know he says he has got the support of the players and that everybody is on board.”
The boycott means NRL players are breach of their contract with broadcasters. Hooper claims the players were being used by Mr Newton.
“They are in breach of the broadcast agreement with Fox Sports and Channel 9. The broadcasters are holding their nerve and sticking solid behind the NRL because they believe in the governing body,” Hooper added.
“They think Clint is muckraking for the sake of his own self-importance. When you strip it all back it is all about power, control and sadly ego.”
