The relationship between St George and Tyson Frizell has reportedly hit a new floor with the second-row forward said to be pushing hard for an early exit from his deal with the Dragons.
The 27-year-old, capped 11 times by New South Wales and a representative in all three Origin games in a winning series for the Blues, saw little success at club level as the Dragons crashed to 15th in 2019, finishing only above the lowly Gold Coast Titans.
Nine's Wide World of Sports consequently reported via The Mole Tuesday morning that Frizell is ardently seeking a move elsewhere despite being contracted to the Dragons until 2020, but his potential reasons for such a decision appear to be based on more than on-field misfortunes.
The club's approach to the Jack de Belin sexual assault case, which originally stemmed back to an incident in Wollongong last December but has now evolved into additional sexual assault charges and five counts of rape, has also reportedly upset Frizell and although no official bids from other clubs have been publicised as yet, it appears he will examine all options after 146 games in seven seasons at the Dragons.
Whatever unfolds from here, the incoming St George manager of football, most likely to be Phil Gould, will have t major task to sort from the get-go in cooling relations between the two parties.