St George Illawarra Dragons coach Shane Flanagan, and his Canberra Raiders counterpart Ricky Stuart, have both teed off at player agents in the wake of recent contract calls.
While neither move is currently confirmed by new clubs, the Canterbury Bulldogs have reportedly snared talented youngster Finau Latu from the Dragons, while the Manly Sea Eagles are understood to have signed Jamal Fogarty on a three-year deal from the Raiders.
Stuart, speaking to Code Sports this week, revealed Fogarty's management had cancelled a meeting ahead of last weekend's game against the Titans.
โI really hope the offer of $700,000 over three years is real," Stuart told the publication.
โAs I've said all along, Jamal has to look after his family.
โEverybody knows we wanted to keep Jamal, but it's an offer we can't match
โIt [the cold] must have cleared up pretty quickly because we saw him bouncing around at the football the following day."
Flanagan, meanwhile, was far more blunt when speaking to the media ahead of the Dragons' Anzac Day clash with the Sydney Roosters, saying he was left frustrated by the negotiation process.
"Without a doubt, I wanted to keep him," Flanagan said.
"I'm not happy about the negotiation side of it. It has been handled poorly... Terribly.
"Sometimes you lose them because you're not willing to pay a certain fee, or you don't want the player, but we wanted to keep him and we aren't happy about it."
Flanagan even hinted the club didn't get a chance to keep the youngster, before teeing off on the state of rugby league managers around the competition following the recent situations with not only Fogarty, but also Lachlan Galvin.
"I just didn't like the way it was handled by his management. It was handled poorly. Really poorly. We have brought the young bloke up for the last three or four years, we wanted to keep him, but we never got an opportunity too," the Dragons head coach added.
"It's a concern for me at the moment. I've got some good relationships with agents, they all have their pros and cons, but as I said, the handling of this one has been poor.
"I read that Ricky [Stuart] isn't happy with what has gone on with Jamal Fogarty. We have the Lachie Galvin situation. It's too big a problem for me to solve, but I'm not happy about it."
It has been rumoured that the NRL will look at the potential of player agent changes in the coming off-season following the incidents throughout 2025, although nothing has been confirmed at the time of publication.
