NRL 2020: Tevita Pangai Jr.’s third-party investigation ‘will cost people their careers’
Andrew McMurtry, news.com.au
August 25, 2020 5:22am

As if it couldn’t get much worse for the Brisbane Broncos, a drama surrounding Tevita Pangai Jr. and his third-party deals is threatening to explode, according to Fox League’s NRL 360.

In a story broken by the Sydney Morning Herald on Sunday, Pangai Jr. was set to meet with NRL Integrity Unit officials on Monday via Zoom after missing payments from a third-party agreement.

The story alleges the missing money is a six-figure sum, on top of his $650,000 contract with the club.

The report says that “Pangai is driving the issue” and “he is being pressured from some in the game to keep quiet and move on”.

But the rocky relationship between the player and the club after rumours he was shopping himself around to rival teams before several COVID-19 biosecurity breaches reportedly has the club on the verge of tearing up his contract.

In an interview with Fox League on Friday, Pangai Jr. said he wanted to stay at the Broncos and said he would adhere to biosecurity conditions if he was allowed back into the club.

“I owe a lot to the club. I came here as a 19-year-old boy and they helped me become the person I am today,” he said.

“I’ve grown as a person and they’ve stuck by me. I’ve come off contract a few times and could’ve left for more enticing offers down south but I love living in Brisbane and love the club.”

He also admitted he knew he was breaking the rules.

But the latest issue could potentially be the most explosive, according to Paul Kent and James Hooper on NRL 360.

“This is an explosive story. I think this story is a hand grenade that is guaranteed to go off,” Hooper said.

“There are people involved who their roles remaining in the game going forward will be called into question, and they will have to provide answers.

“Essentially you can’t have a third-party agreement that isn’t registered with the NRL, and this third-party agreement that we believe was done, was done between a couple of people and nobody else knew about it.”

The Daily Telegraph’s Phil Rothfield said with the difficulty businesses are under at the moment, many third-party agreements weren’t going to be paid.

But Kent clarified and said the issue was that it was not registered.

“The issue isn’t that the NRL know about it and it’s not being paid, it’s that the NRL didn’t even know about it. It’s catastrophic,” he said.

“It’s someone looking after Pangai’s interests because the Broncos have given him a breach notice and are trying to sack him from his contract. Meanwhile he has unpaid third-party (deals) promised to him by the Broncos.”

Hooper also suggested the third-party deal may have helped the Broncos hold on to the 24-year-old.

“The Warriors offered him $800,000 last year … he stayed at Brisbane for $650,000 a season,” Hooper said.

“Now there’s an unsigned, unregistered third-party deal. Don’t worry about the bikies and the barbershops and all the rest.

“The theory is that someone at the Broncos has initiated this arrangement with a third party, and it hasn’t been forthcoming.”

Kent pointed out “someone has” brought the issue to light in recent times, but not necessarily Pangai Jr.

“If you were trying to sack me and I had an illegal payment that you had given me to hang over your head to stop you sacking me, I’d use it,” Kent said.

“That’s what I think has happened. He knows he’s got an illegal payment there, the Broncos are trying to strongarm him out of the club.”

Just another day in the life of the Broncos.

“The thing that confuses me is that he went from knowingly breaching the protocols because he wasn’t happy with what was happening with the Broncos to going on a PR exercise last week, trying to repair that relationship, and a few days later perhaps he’s aggrieved after all,” Ben Ikin said.

“It’s what I call rugby league, Ben,” Kent said.

Can’t wait to see how this plays out - the Broncos for years have flaunted the TPA setup through their links with “The Thouroughbreds”. Hope this brings them to their knees. This should be the catalyst for the NRL to overhaul the whole salary cap /TPA system. I think there will be a few clubs watching very closely. Lets see if they have the gonads to do it.

TPJ please just walk away and lose the money. Don’t expose this as the foundation for retaining and attracting big name players may potentially collapse.

@pawsandclaws1 said in TPJ and TPA:

TPJ please just walk away and lose the money. Don’t expose this as the foundation for retaining and attracting big name players may potentially collapse.

Sorry I can’t agree with that.

I hope he blows the lid on it all.

@Cultured_Bogan said in TPJ and TPA:

@pawsandclaws1 said in TPJ and TPA:

TPJ please just walk away and lose the money. Don’t expose this as the foundation for retaining and attracting big name players may potentially collapse.

Sorry I can’t agree with that.

I hope he blows the lid on it all.

I’m being facetious. I hope this results in an audit of all payments to players.

@pawsandclaws1 said in TPJ and TPA:

@Cultured_Bogan said in TPJ and TPA:

@pawsandclaws1 said in TPJ and TPA:

TPJ please just walk away and lose the money. Don’t expose this as the foundation for retaining and attracting big name players may potentially collapse.

Sorry I can’t agree with that.

I hope he blows the lid on it all.

I’m being facetious. I hope this results in an audit of all payments to players.

Sorry my sarcasm detector is in getting fixed today.

@pawsandclaws1 said in TPJ and TPA:

@Cultured_Bogan said in TPJ and TPA:

@pawsandclaws1 said in TPJ and TPA:

TPJ please just walk away and lose the money. Don’t expose this as the foundation for retaining and attracting big name players may potentially collapse.

Sorry I can’t agree with that.

I hope he blows the lid on it all.

I’m being facetious. I hope this results in an audit of all payments to players.

The NRL have little option but to engage a firm to undertake a forensic audit of all payments to players.

@pawsandclaws1 said in TPJ and TPA:

@pawsandclaws1 said in TPJ and TPA:

@Cultured_Bogan said in TPJ and TPA:

@pawsandclaws1 said in TPJ and TPA:

TPJ please just walk away and lose the money. Don’t expose this as the foundation for retaining and attracting big name players may potentially collapse.

Sorry I can’t agree with that.

I hope he blows the lid on it all.

I’m being facetious. I hope this results in an audit of all payments to players.

The NRL have little option but to engage a firm to undertake a forensic audit of all payments to players.

I think they’ll try to stick their head in the sand like so many times before.

Remember when Maloney was joining Panthers, and he said in an interview the contract was stalling as it was taking time for the club to sort the TPA? They just swept it under the rug, saying, no Maloney* didn’t mean that, he meant something else. Nothing to see here…

Fingers crossed TPJ keeps pushing, and it all comes falling out.

@JD-Tiger said in TPJ and TPA:

@pawsandclaws1 said in TPJ and TPA:

@pawsandclaws1 said in TPJ and TPA:

@Cultured_Bogan said in TPJ and TPA:

@pawsandclaws1 said in TPJ and TPA:

TPJ please just walk away and lose the money. Don’t expose this as the foundation for retaining and attracting big name players may potentially collapse.

Sorry I can’t agree with that.

I hope he blows the lid on it all.

I’m being facetious. I hope this results in an audit of all payments to players.

The NRL have little option but to engage a firm to undertake a forensic audit of all payments to players.

I think they’ll try to stick their head in the sand like so many times before.

Remember when Maloney was joining Panthers, and he said in an interview the contract was stalling as it was taking time for the club to sort the TPA? They just swept it under the rug, saying, no Maonlet didn’t mean that, he meant something else. Nothing to see here…

Fingers crossed TPJ keeps pushing, and it all comes falling out.

I do remember now. Now that it is with the Integrity Commission I doubt it can be rug swept.

TPJ the loose cannon on the field and off. This is going to get interesting.

I dont know what would be better, Broncs getting stripped of points and getting the spoon or if they get it the old fashion way of loosing all their remaining games and the doggies grab a couple.

@JD-Tiger said in TPJ and TPA:

@pawsandclaws1 said in TPJ and TPA:

@pawsandclaws1 said in TPJ and TPA:

@Cultured_Bogan said in TPJ and TPA:

@pawsandclaws1 said in TPJ and TPA:

TPJ please just walk away and lose the money. Don’t expose this as the foundation for retaining and attracting big name players may potentially collapse.

Sorry I can’t agree with that.

I hope he blows the lid on it all.

I’m being facetious. I hope this results in an audit of all payments to players.

The NRL have little option but to engage a firm to undertake a forensic audit of all payments to players.

I think they’ll try to stick their head in the sand like so many times before.

Remember when Maloney was joining Panthers, and he said in an interview the contract was stalling as it was taking time for the club to sort the TPA? They just swept it under the rug, saying, no Maloney* didn’t mean that, he meant something else. Nothing to see here…

Fingers crossed TPJ keeps pushing, and it all comes falling out.

Hopefully with different men in charge who have no past club affiliations or skeletons in the closet this gets fixed once and for all. Its been a disgrace for years and nobody has ever wanted to do a thing about it.

@tigerbalm said in TPJ and TPA:

I dont know what would be better, Broncs getting stripped of points and getting the spoon or if they get it the old fashion way of loosing all their remaining games and the doggies grab a couple.

The wider view that potential systemic circumventing of the salary cap has/is occurring is more appealing.

We all can think back to big name players being acquired or retained when it didn’t appear possible for a club to do so vis a vis the salary cap.

@JD-Tiger said in TPJ and TPA:

@pawsandclaws1 said in TPJ and TPA:

@pawsandclaws1 said in TPJ and TPA:

@Cultured_Bogan said in TPJ and TPA:

@pawsandclaws1 said in TPJ and TPA:

TPJ please just walk away and lose the money. Don’t expose this as the foundation for retaining and attracting big name players may potentially collapse.

Sorry I can’t agree with that.

I hope he blows the lid on it all.

I’m being facetious. I hope this results in an audit of all payments to players.

The NRL have little option but to engage a firm to undertake a forensic audit of all payments to players.

I think they’ll try to stick their head in the sand like so many times before.

Remember when Maloney was joining Panthers, and he said in an interview the contract was stalling as it was taking time for the club to sort the TPA? They just swept it under the rug, saying, no Maloney* didn’t mean that, he meant something else. Nothing to see here…

Fingers crossed TPJ keeps pushing, and it all comes falling out.

That was under Turdberg where many things were ignored we can only guess why that was.

Yet more proof that the Salary Cap Cheating is Rife in the NRL.

The NRL has chosen for years to turn a blind eye.

TripleM panel mentioned in Jest a few weeks back how some players at the Broncos mysteriously had mortgages paid