Shaun Johnson cannot escape controversy, with news his new coach has been deregistered by the NRL.
The NRL integrity unit found evidence that Cronulla Sharks coach Shane Flanagan was still communicating with the club in 2014, despite being suspended for his role in the supplements saga.
Former Warriors halfback Johnson inked a three-year deal with the Sharks last month, after a well-publicised falling out with the Auckland-based club.
Johnson cited the coaching credentials of Flanagan as playing a key role in convincing him to move to the Sutherland-Shire, but the coach looks likely to be out of the game until 2020.
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The Sharks have been fined AU$800,000, half of which was suspended at the time over their supplements saga.
Flanagan and the club have until the end of January to respond to a breach notice, which is when the NRL will make its final determination.
But the Sharks will have to overturn evidence, found by the NRL integrity unit, that more than 50 emails were sent by Flanagan concerning retention and recruitment.
His first correspondence was sent just weeks after his suspension and continued all the way to September 2014.
The club is believed to have initiated most of the discussions, resulting in the extra $400,000 fine.
But no other club officials have been punished, because then-chief executive Steve Noyce and then-football manager Darren Mooney are no longer NRL officials.
At the time, integrity unit investigators met with both club representatives and Flanagan's manager to ensure the coach had no contact with the club.
Towards the end of his suspension in September, Flanagan sent another email to the NRL, unequivocally stating he had no involvement in retention during his ban.
"We've done a number of interviews with a number of people that are either at the club now or who have left the club," said NRL boss Todd Greenberg.
"And obviously we've had access to the servers at the club, so we've trawled through a number of emails. The evidence in front of me to make this decision was very strong."
Asked to describe Flanagan's behaviour during his suspension period, Greenberg replied: "Disrespectful.
"Fundamental to the rules of the game and the integrity of the game that we work in is people being honest and truthful
"It cuts to the very core of the fabric of what the game's rules stand for, and we can't sit around and watch that happen under the way the rules are governed."
Greenberg met with Sharks chairman Dino Mezzatesta and chief executive Barry Russell to inform them of the decision on Wednesday morning. Flanagan was invited to the meeting, but declined to attend.
Asked whether Flanagan would be allowed to work in the game again, Greenberg said: "The first part he'd have to do is comply with the rules of the sanction in the first place.
"But that'd be something we'd consider after the final determination is made."
West Tigers CEO deregistered after cap breach
Wests Tigers have been fined AU$750,000 and had chief executive Justin Pascoe deregistered from the NRL for salary-cap breaches involving club great Robbie Farah.
On Wednesday, the NRL revealed Pascoe and the Tigers agreed in 2016 to pay Farah AU$639,000 a year to return to the club in an ambassador role, once he finished his playing career at South Sydney, but did not include the payment in the club's 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," Greenberg said.
Pascoe and the Tigers have until January to respond to the breach notice. The Tigers issued a statement saying 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," a club statement said. "For the last three years, Justin has shown nothing but respect for the NRL and the salary cap.
"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 ex-captain 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.
"The club does not know if he is going to take it up and Robbie has not indicated his intention in return.
"Most importantly, Wests Tigers derive absolutely no advantage from this arrangement. It is not tied in any way to Robbie's playing contract."
Greenberg said the Tigers should have declared the agreement to the NRL, but stressed there was no suggestion that Farah has done anything wrong.
"The games rules are very, very clear on these arrangements," he said. "Any commitment to make such a payment should have been disclosed and it should have been included in the salary cap.
"The club failed to do this. The club then compounded its conduct by submitting a misleading application to the NRL in relation to the salary cap treatment of money paid to Robbie when he left the club."
Like Flanagan, Pascoe and the Tigers have until January to respond to the breach notices.
AAP/Newshub.
