New NRL recruit held back a week by club, as they attempt to sort out several issues.
Benji Marshall’s much-anticipated return to the NRL has hit a speed-bump with the St George Illawarra Dragons refusing to pat the Wests Tigers up to $200,000 in compensation for the dual-code player.
After signing a 2.5-year-deal with the Dragons to come back to the NRL, after a failed stint with the Auckland Blues in Super Rugby, many expected Marshall to play for the Dragons this weekend against the Parramatta Eels.
However, when Marshall was not named in the Dragons side, despite training with the team all week, questions were asked as to how much progress was made in the negotiations between the team Marshall’s former club the Tigers.
he Wests Tigers had a clause in his termination release that prevented him from playing with a rival unless they were compensated. The Tigers are looking at between $150,000 to $200,000, which could comprise of cash or kind – or a combination of both.
St George Illawarra chief executive Steve Doust said the club will look to work with Wests Tigers at sorting out a solution both parties can be happy with.
Our intention was always to work through the issue with Wests Tigers,” Doust said.
“I’ve got no real problems with the circumstances of the Wests Tigers situation, we did the same thing with [Mark] Gasnier when he went to French rugby. We’re just going to work our way through it but the priority is to see him train and how he comes off after a pretty significant training week. We’ll just have to see how it goes.
“By the end of the week we’ll know a little bit more.”
However, fanatix understands that while initial discussions were amicable between the two parties, the Dragons refuse to pay the $200,000 requested by the Tigers for the release of their former five-eighth.
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