Statement From Dragons CEO Peter Doust: Tim Moltzen Signing Facts & Update
St George Illawarra Dragons CEO Peter Doust On Wednesday issued the following regarding the signing of Tim Moltzen:
On July 8 this year, the Dragons publicly announced that we had agreed to terms with Tim Moltzen for three years beginning in 2012. On this day, Stephen Humphries telephoned me to express his dissatisfaction with the timing of our announcement.
Whilst I listened to his comments on the timing, it was certainly clear to me from our conversation that the Wests Tigers intended to release Tim Moltzen from the final year of his contract with their Club.
Whilst Stephen continues to state publicly that he has never formalized the release of Tim Moltzen, Tim’s Manager Martin Tauber advised us on a number of occasions that the release was “no issueâ€.
Given these expressions of intent that we received, in good faith, we included Tim Moltzen as part of our roster and planning for 2012 and provided a three year contract which Tim Moltzen and Martin Tauber signed on July 12.
On the same day that Stephen expressed his frustration (July 8) that our game day announcement of Tim's signing was an issue, Tigers Coach Tim Sheens addressed this situation in his post-game press conference, denying it was a distraction. Sheens said ‘The boys were aware that Timmy was moving on …â€
Tim’s Manager Martin Tauber has also publicly stated in various media channels that Stephen Humphries had verbally agreed to a release for Tim. Going even further to say “There is no issue.. He (Tim) will be at the Dragons next year†(July 12).
Tim Moltzen himself discussed his move to the Dragons publicly “It’s a weight off my shoulders … I don’t have to worry about the issue any more. It’s put to bed and my future is decided†(August 2).
Tigers Captain Benji Marshall, who shares a house with Tim Moltzen, is also on the public record acknowledging that Tim would be moving on at the end of the season. “He’s flying for us. He’s a big loss for the club, a massive loss. I’m devastated he’s going, especially the way he’s been playing. That’s rugby league†(Sept 12).
The Dragons have documentation from our meetings and discussions with Martin Tauber and Tim Moltzen where all arrangements in relation to the contract for Tim Moltzen were discussed. Martin also discussed the terms arranged with Wests Tigers regarding Tim’s “Deed of Releaseâ€.
Tim Moltzen has met with our incoming Head Coach Stephen Price where a number of matters were discussed including the fact that Tim had indicated that he would be moving to Wollongong.
It is quite obvious that some circumstances at the Wests Tigers have changed in recent times, otherwise why only now three months later are we made aware that there is an issue?
We believe there are still a lot of unanswered questions in relation to this issue.
It is accurate to note that this contract is yet to be registered by the NRL, as we have been waiting for the formality of the receipt of the official “Deed of Release†from the Wests Tigers. Martin Tauber had been chasing this and even indicated that he thought that this had already been completed by the Wests Tigers.
On September 27 the Tauber Management Group emailed the Dragons to enquire if we were yet to receive the official release from the Wests Tigers stating “… if not, please respond by return email and I will follow-up for youâ€.
In terms of the registration of a “Deed of Releaseâ€, in my some 11 years as CEO of the Dragons such arrangements have always been considered a formality and a situation such as this has never previously presented.
Furthermore I strongly believe that the game generally, athletes and their Managers have not been keen to formalize “Deeds of Release†without prospective contract arrangements in place.
Admittedly if we did have the signed release from the Wests Tigers then we would not be in this situation.
However, we strongly believe this matter should be judged on the principles of intent and actions arising in good faith.
Interestingly, at present, we are yet to formally sign the “Deeds of Release†for Darius Boyd and Ratu Peni Tagive but they are all moving on to other Clubs for next season because that is our intentions and verbal agreements were made with the players and their Managers.
If things were to suddenly change at our Club, as they appear to have for the Wests Tigers, we would not be reconsidering our position as we would stand by our conversations, assurances and undertakings that our Club had given to these players and their Managers, who at present are still officially contracted to the Dragons for 2012. In our opinion, that is not the right thing to do for any of the parties concerned.
The Dragons had not been approached by Tim Moltzen, Martin Tauber or the Wests Tigers to suggest that there was an issue with the three year Dragons contract that had been signed on July 12.
Our suspicions were raised earlier last week when both Martin Tauber and Tim Moltzen did not return phone calls to Dragons staff and Tim also failed to front for a pre-arranged meeting prior to his departure for an end of season overseas trip with other Wests Tigers players.
On October 6 Martin Tauber finally returned calls, where he indicated that he does not wish to meet Dragons staff in an attempt to resolve the issue and that it is something that needs to be sorted out between the two Clubs.
So given, the NRL have not yet registered Tim Moltzen’s signed Dragons contract for 2012-2014, we have been investigating our legal position over the past days. Certainly some sections within the NRL rules are worth exploring in protecting the Dragons’ interests.
Furthermore we have been in daily contact with Wests Tigers Management since last Tuesday ensuring they understood our “good faith†actions throughout negotiations with Tim and his Manager and were encouraged to believe that the release would be forthcoming.
Public comments made by Wests Tigers CEO Stephen Humphries on Monday, October 10 confirmed that position,
“The way that it is likely to play out is that he will be going to the Dragons. We don’t want to stretch it out.
“We will have a conversation with them in the next few days about it, but we have been working on the assumption that he won’t be here next seasonâ€.
Now today, instead of confirmation of the official release that we were encouraged to believe would happen, we have been informed by Wests Tigers that they wish to enter into further discussions with us which we believe will prolong the issue unreasonably.
It is essential that we act to conclude the profile of our playing roster for 2012 as soon as possible.
Clearly this is not something that we have been able to resolve with the Wests Tigers and we will now continue to press our contractual position in relation to Tim Moltzen and his Manager’s intentions for the 2012 season and beyond by formally referring the matter to the NRL.
We believe such circumstances are not in the best interests of the game and our club could be seriously disadvantaged at this late stage with our 2012 pre-season scheduled to start in just a matter of weeks.
