By Adam Pengilly
The NRL has fined Phil Gould $20,000 for a television rant in which he described the game as “stupid” because of its own rules.
Gould, who is employed as the Bulldogs’ general manager of football, took aim at the discrepancy in the game’s interpretations on Nine Entertainment’s 100% Footy on Monday night. Nine Entertainment is also the publisher of this masthead.
Gould said the game was “stupid” over a decision to disallow a try to Wests Tigers captain Api Koroisau in their loss to the Broncos, and later criticised an off-season rule tweak in which teams are not penalised for shot kick-offs or dropouts which don’t travel 10 metres.
“Our game’s so stupid,” Gould said on Monday night. “You can lose the ball over the line and it costs you 20 metres and seven tackles. Why?
“I don’t know because it’s stupid, but I can just take a line dropout, and it goes out on the full … no consequence. It’s nothing at all. What sort of stupid game is this? Who sits and makes up these rules?”
NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo has previously warned the Bulldogs about Gould’s commentary surrounding the game in his media role, which includes his Six Tackles With Gus podcast.
Bulldogs boss Phil Gould.Credit: Getty
The NRL breach notice proposes Gould be fined $20,000, half of which will be suspended for 24 months. He has five business days to respond.
Gould is a registered club official and is subject to the NRL’s code of conduct, and was fined because the league considered them detrimental to the best interests of the game.
“We welcome constructive criticism and passionate opinions, but registered officials cannot overstep the mark and make comments that are considered detrimental to the game or NRL competition,” Abdo said.
“Destructive attacks on the game itself will not be tolerated. This is a professional sport and our leaders should set the standard around reasoned debate and respect for the game.”
Gould joined the Bulldogs almost three years ago and has slowly helped rebuild the battling club, which enters round nine of the competition in the top eight.
Not a single player from Canterbury’s top 30 roster in 2021 remains in coach Cameron Ciraldo’s current squad.
More to come
