Phil Gould has dismissed Roosters coach Trent Robinson’s crack at him over the Joseph Suaalii saga as “pontificating” and declared “you mistake me for someone who cares what he says”.
Gould sparked the war of words when he said Suaalii should leave the NRL immediately and “not let the door hit you on the arse on the way out” after the teen this week signed a $5 million deal with Rugby Australia from 2025.
Robinson went into bat for his star centre as he labelled the comments “ridiculous” and suggested Gould was “fearful” of RA.
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Gould was asked on his podcast on Wednesday about Robinson’s comments and the Bulldogs general manager said he feared nobody.
“You mistake me for someone who cares what he says,” Gould said on Six Tackles With Gus.
“He can only stick up for his player, and he’s got to build a relationship with the player because he’s got another 18 months.
“I fear nothing, and I fear no one, so I don’t know what he’s talking about there.
“It is, it’s a competition between the codes. You can’t get away from that fact.
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“I don’t care that Trent Robinson loves rugby. I don’t love rugby, I don’t even watch rugby. I have no interest in it whatsoever.”
Gould was offered the chance to take back his “don’t let the door hit you” comments but the 65-year-old instead doubled down.
”I think it’s a kick in the guts for the Roosters, I really do, and I think they’ll be quite upset about it on the inside,” he said.
“It means nothing to me, but I’m quite sure it will be a kick in the guts for the people there who have nurtured him and brought him through.
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“They can stand there at a press conference and pontificate and shoot the messenger. But the messenger didn’t do it, Joseph did.
“What I do have is a concern that when this happens it’s an incentive for other players to want to do the same. It’s going to blow our market out of the water too. We can’t afford to be paying those sort of players $1.6 million (a year).
“Which means, what do we do with these fellas? Do we keep them in the system and spend our time… only to see them, even before they’ve reached the peak of their career, jump over there because they’ve got the money to do it?
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“I don’t want (the NRL) to be a feeder system to anything else. But I’ve predicted this all along.
“We’ve got some outstanding young players, we’ve spent a lot of money, a lot of time, put a lot of emotional effort into the development of young players. It’s my passion.
“What I don’t want is them thinking, ‘Ok that’s a stepping stone, because at 21 or 22 when I’ve made my name I can go and get myself a couple million dollars in rugby’.
“Don’t be using rugby league as a stepping stone to that. I don’t like that, and I don’t believe anyone would.”
