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Haven't seen this posted, so thought I would. From fox sports.
How Bulldogs have courted Galvin for more than a year... in plain sight — Extra Time
Eamonn Tiernan from Fox Sports
The NRL forbids clubs from privately courting contracted players, but there are no rules around doing it publicly.
Canterbury’s pursuit of Wests Tigers wantaway Lachlan Galvin has been hiding in plain sight for more than a year now thanks to the hugely influential voice of Phil Gould.
Bulldogs general manager Gould, who never says anything publicly without an agenda, has praised Galvin at unprecedented levels since the teenager’s NRL debut last year.
Gould almost never showers NRL rookies with praise let alone makes bold predictions about their futures and where they sit in the game’s history.
But along came Galvin while Gould was in the midst of rebuilding the Dogs and the he abandoned that approach with this huge declaration on one of his media platforms.
“Lachlan Galvin will earn more money out of rugby league than any player in history,” Gould said on the Six Tackles With Gus podcast last August.
“I think he’s the best teenage footballer I’ve ever seen. I think what he is doing is absolutely extraordinary.”
That was just a few months after Galvin had asked the Tigers for a release following their ninth straight loss under rookie coach Benji Marshall.
Then, before a ball had been kicked this season, with Galvin’s manager Isaac Moses telling anyone who would listen that Galvin’s next contract call would be about coaching not cash, Gould dropped this gem.
“I’m obsessed with him. I love watching him play... I’m excited to see how he goes with Jarome Luai at the Wests Tigers,” Gould said.
“I think in the future, whoever has Lachlan Galvin in their side will be winning premierships.
“I’m not even worried about putting raps on the kid because he is probably the most exciting young playmaker I’ve seen coming through in a long time.”
Now Gould is one of the brightest minds in rugby league and those three sentences are a classic Gus sandwich, made by design.
Gould is talking directly to Galvin, but he hides it brilliantly under the guise of simply stating his opinion for the punters while on a podcast.
First, Gould announced how “obsessed” he is with watching Galvin but intentionally directs the chat back to the Tigers by adding how much he’s looking forward to seeing him play alongside Luai.
Second, Gould declares that whoever gets Galvin will win premierships, before finally putting the icing on the cake with “I’m not even worried” about putting external raps on him because he can handle the pressure.
Gould knows exactly what he’s doing here.
He knows how far his voice travels and that somewhere out there, Galvin will be scrolling on his phone and eventually see those comments.
What the 19-year-old, who just collected the wooden spoon in his first NRL season, sees on his phone is that one of the most respected figures in the game is saying he loves his ability and thinks he can win premierships.
Whether Galvin even realises it or not, he’s just been courted by a rival club in plain sight.
We checked with the NRL and there are no rules against this, basically because it’s almost impossible to police.
Gould will no doubt deny the Bulldogs interest in Galvin, just as he did when we revealed he’d signed Sitili Tupouniua only for the club to confirm a four-year deal a week later.
Meanwhile, Tigers legend Benny Elias was “flabbergasted” by Galvin’s call to decide his future at the club with 18 months left on his contract.
Elias said if everybody’s been playing by the rules then it just didn’t make sense, so he believes there must already be a better offer on the table.
“The kid has been offered $5 million at 19 and he turns his back on it. It’s just crazy,” Elias told foxsports.com.au.
“That’s the greatest offer the club has made since 1908, for Wests and Balmain, for a kid that age. It’s history in the making and it’s just remarkable.
“For him to say no now, it just flabbergasts me why they would say no right now. Why announce it? Why not keep it quiet and give the kid a chance to reconsider what he’s doing.
“I actually ran into his mother at Leichhardt Oval and she was saying how overwhelmed she was that he was a Tiger and that it had been a dream all her life and that the kid wanted to play for the Tigers. The club and Benji have a massive regard for him, so there has to be something to it because it’s definitely not about money.
“How do you say no two years out? What if they win the premiership this year? There are so many maybes, he must have done a deal somewhere else… you don’t knock back $5 million unless you’ve got to have something better. There are no two ways about it.
“I don’t know what that is but it’s got to be better (than what the Tigers offered).
“He’d have to have a better offer elsewhere. If I was a betting man, it would be the Bulldogs.”
Elias channelled his inner Geoff Toovey and declared “there needs to be an investigation” as to how his club lost their most exciting player in a decade.
“Whether he’s fallen out with the coach, I don’t know. But that’s the risk in signing coaches or players to such big deals because if they have a falling out, the players say ‘I’m out of here’,” he said.
“The club have to be honest with the people and tell them the truth with what’s happened.
“I’ve got the highest regard for Lachlan’s manager Isaac Moses. I know Isaac very well and I know he’s doing what’s best for the kid and I hate saying that because I don’t want to lose him.
“But there needs to be an investigation into why this kid has left, he’s a superstar in the making with a huge future ahead of him yet he turns his back on the club.
“It’s terrible and the worst timing to announce as the club has just got its act back together, we’re winning a few games, there’s good harmony. I know Benji is trying to create a brand new culture.
“It was so hard to get Jarome Luai to the club, to get a strike player like him was really hard work and we paid overs and you just can’t continue to do that because they’ll go broke and the place will just be a disaster.
“The club needs to find out exactly why a kid like Galvin who came up through the system and they invested enormous hours and money into in one sentence collapses the whole joint.
“Slowly but surely we’ve been building the house and the foundation and the culture and everything and we were slowly but surely starting to get the right results and then in one sentence the place falls to pieces.
“It’s gut-wrenching.”
How Bulldogs have courted Galvin for more than a year... in plain sight — Extra Time
Eamonn Tiernan from Fox Sports
The NRL forbids clubs from privately courting contracted players, but there are no rules around doing it publicly.
Canterbury’s pursuit of Wests Tigers wantaway Lachlan Galvin has been hiding in plain sight for more than a year now thanks to the hugely influential voice of Phil Gould.
Bulldogs general manager Gould, who never says anything publicly without an agenda, has praised Galvin at unprecedented levels since the teenager’s NRL debut last year.
Gould almost never showers NRL rookies with praise let alone makes bold predictions about their futures and where they sit in the game’s history.
But along came Galvin while Gould was in the midst of rebuilding the Dogs and the he abandoned that approach with this huge declaration on one of his media platforms.
“Lachlan Galvin will earn more money out of rugby league than any player in history,” Gould said on the Six Tackles With Gus podcast last August.
“I think he’s the best teenage footballer I’ve ever seen. I think what he is doing is absolutely extraordinary.”
That was just a few months after Galvin had asked the Tigers for a release following their ninth straight loss under rookie coach Benji Marshall.
Then, before a ball had been kicked this season, with Galvin’s manager Isaac Moses telling anyone who would listen that Galvin’s next contract call would be about coaching not cash, Gould dropped this gem.
“I’m obsessed with him. I love watching him play... I’m excited to see how he goes with Jarome Luai at the Wests Tigers,” Gould said.
“I think in the future, whoever has Lachlan Galvin in their side will be winning premierships.
“I’m not even worried about putting raps on the kid because he is probably the most exciting young playmaker I’ve seen coming through in a long time.”
Now Gould is one of the brightest minds in rugby league and those three sentences are a classic Gus sandwich, made by design.
Gould is talking directly to Galvin, but he hides it brilliantly under the guise of simply stating his opinion for the punters while on a podcast.
First, Gould announced how “obsessed” he is with watching Galvin but intentionally directs the chat back to the Tigers by adding how much he’s looking forward to seeing him play alongside Luai.
Second, Gould declares that whoever gets Galvin will win premierships, before finally putting the icing on the cake with “I’m not even worried” about putting external raps on him because he can handle the pressure.
Gould knows exactly what he’s doing here.
He knows how far his voice travels and that somewhere out there, Galvin will be scrolling on his phone and eventually see those comments.
What the 19-year-old, who just collected the wooden spoon in his first NRL season, sees on his phone is that one of the most respected figures in the game is saying he loves his ability and thinks he can win premierships.
Whether Galvin even realises it or not, he’s just been courted by a rival club in plain sight.
We checked with the NRL and there are no rules against this, basically because it’s almost impossible to police.
Gould will no doubt deny the Bulldogs interest in Galvin, just as he did when we revealed he’d signed Sitili Tupouniua only for the club to confirm a four-year deal a week later.
Meanwhile, Tigers legend Benny Elias was “flabbergasted” by Galvin’s call to decide his future at the club with 18 months left on his contract.
Elias said if everybody’s been playing by the rules then it just didn’t make sense, so he believes there must already be a better offer on the table.
“The kid has been offered $5 million at 19 and he turns his back on it. It’s just crazy,” Elias told foxsports.com.au.
“That’s the greatest offer the club has made since 1908, for Wests and Balmain, for a kid that age. It’s history in the making and it’s just remarkable.
“For him to say no now, it just flabbergasts me why they would say no right now. Why announce it? Why not keep it quiet and give the kid a chance to reconsider what he’s doing.
“I actually ran into his mother at Leichhardt Oval and she was saying how overwhelmed she was that he was a Tiger and that it had been a dream all her life and that the kid wanted to play for the Tigers. The club and Benji have a massive regard for him, so there has to be something to it because it’s definitely not about money.
“How do you say no two years out? What if they win the premiership this year? There are so many maybes, he must have done a deal somewhere else… you don’t knock back $5 million unless you’ve got to have something better. There are no two ways about it.
“I don’t know what that is but it’s got to be better (than what the Tigers offered).
“He’d have to have a better offer elsewhere. If I was a betting man, it would be the Bulldogs.”
Elias channelled his inner Geoff Toovey and declared “there needs to be an investigation” as to how his club lost their most exciting player in a decade.
“Whether he’s fallen out with the coach, I don’t know. But that’s the risk in signing coaches or players to such big deals because if they have a falling out, the players say ‘I’m out of here’,” he said.
“The club have to be honest with the people and tell them the truth with what’s happened.
“I’ve got the highest regard for Lachlan’s manager Isaac Moses. I know Isaac very well and I know he’s doing what’s best for the kid and I hate saying that because I don’t want to lose him.
“But there needs to be an investigation into why this kid has left, he’s a superstar in the making with a huge future ahead of him yet he turns his back on the club.
“It’s terrible and the worst timing to announce as the club has just got its act back together, we’re winning a few games, there’s good harmony. I know Benji is trying to create a brand new culture.
“It was so hard to get Jarome Luai to the club, to get a strike player like him was really hard work and we paid overs and you just can’t continue to do that because they’ll go broke and the place will just be a disaster.
“The club needs to find out exactly why a kid like Galvin who came up through the system and they invested enormous hours and money into in one sentence collapses the whole joint.
“Slowly but surely we’ve been building the house and the foundation and the culture and everything and we were slowly but surely starting to get the right results and then in one sentence the place falls to pieces.
“It’s gut-wrenching.”
