2 hours ago
1
Politis managed to slip past the media scrum waiting for him at Sydney airport on Thursday morning by securing a private passage out of the terminal before heading to a meeting with Robinson.
“Sucked in, you didn’t get me,” Politis told this columnist in the early hours of Thursday morning.
Sources with knowledge of the situation talking on the condition of anonymity told this masthead Robinson was privately disappointed when his chairman announced his hard line on drugs in an interview with the Daily Telegraph in January, feeling he had made a rod for his own back.
To complicate matters further, Politis had also involved his coach.
“We are very strong on it [the club’s anti-drugs stance],” Politis said “Trent [Robinson] is very strong on it.
At the time, those close to Politis knew what it was – an attack on rivals South Sydney for the way they had handled the emergence of a photo showing Latrell Mitchell standing over a white substance at the end of last year.
What they didn’t know was how soon it would come back to bite them. Or how Politis’ own words would potentially spell the end for one of his favourite players.
Trent Robinson and Victor Radley.
Radley, whose name had been dragged into the Smith case three weeks earlier, apologised to Politis for embarassing the club at the time while on an away trip to Melbourne.
That apology was still ringing in the ears of the chairman this week as he began to question the story Radley had told the club, which appeared to have been contradicted by the police evidence.
As Politis wrestled with his conscience, the Roosters’ football department felt that Radley shouldn’t pay the price for the chairman’s animosity towards the Rabbitohs.
And on Thursday evening, the club announced Radley’s fate. He would not be sacked, but instead banned for 10 games without pay and told to donate $30,000 to St Vincents Hospital. All up, the financial penalty amounted to around $150,000, which the club described in a statement as “the heaviest sanction ever imposed on a player in the Club’s history”.
Not that Politis would do things differently if he had his time again.
“No, not really,” Politis told this masthead on Sunday night when asked if he regretted his comments.
“I think if the grounds were there for us to rip up his contract, we would have. But we didn’t have that. He wasn’t charged with anything, so there were no grounds to terminate his contract.
“Could we have gone down the path of sacking him for bringing the club into disrepute? Maybe, but we would have left ourselves open to a wrongful dismissal [case].
“We took the most severe course of action available to us. Tell me, which other club would have imposed the sanctions that we did? If you look at the definition of zero tolerance, it’s the harshest punishment you can impose on a person that is available to you. I can’t remember the last time anyone has ever been suspended without pay. Players have tested positive for drugs and have got minimal suspension and still got paid for it.”
Victor Radley is one of the most popular players at the Roosters club.Credit: Getty
By no means was Robinson happy with Radley’s actions, but at the same time he thought it would be unfair for Radley to be sacked or moved on when players at other clubs had been given lighter punishments due to an absence of proof of wrongdoing.
The same goes with this situation. Radley hasn’t been charged and there is no proof he actually took delivery of the substance, let alone consumed it, according to the Queensland Police evidence briefing obtained by this masthead.
The same concerns Robinson and Aubusson raised by to the board were privately echoed by the club’s senior players, who did not want to lose a teammate widely considered a Rooster to his core.
Loading
Politis touched down in Sydney with every intention of moving on from Radley. He had organised to meet with Ayoub on Monday and rival clubs were already circling. The Cowboys even wanted the Roosters to consider a loan deal for 2026 that would allow Radley to the Tricolours return in 2027.
Politis had been in touch with the NRL and lawyers about the options available to him, and how parting ways with Radley would impact on the club’s salary cap, given he was on a deal worth around $700,000 a season for the next two years.
What became clear was that sacking Radley was going to be too difficult from a legal point of view. And the negative impact it would have on the coaching staff and playing group may have been just as harmful.
On Thursday, Robinson pleaded his case. By the end of the meeting, he had convinced the chairman and his directors that a 10-week suspension, without pay, and a $30,000 fine to be donated to charity was sufficient to demonstrate the club’s hard line when it came to drugs. It’s a $150,000 hit to the pocket.
The Rugby League Players’ Association might not like that, but Radley has already agreed to sign a document when he meets with Politis on Monday, waiving his rights to any action against the Roosters.
Did Politis follow through on his promise? No. Now he will have to live with claims of hypocrisy.
But in swallowing his pride and putting his ego to one side, Politis did what he has done throughout his entire adult life. He put the Sydney Roosters first.
NRL is Live and Free on Channel 9 & 9Now
