As the deadline nears for a 2027 mutual option to keep star fullback Jahream Bula at Wests Tigers next year, on-air comments from Bulldogs general manager Phil Gould have come under the microscope.
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Bula has been sensational for the 4-1 Tigers this year and had his best game of the season against the Knights on Sunday, yet his future at the club remains cloudy.
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The Bulldogs are rumoured to be one of the several teams interested in Bula’s services — meaning Gould’s comments on Channel 9 during the Tigers-Knights sparked close attention, even in Nine Newspapers.
“That’s an athlete,” Gould said. “Gee-whiz he’s going to be a good player.
“He’s just creamy, so fluid, beautiful, like apple pie on a Sunday.”
Gould must be somewhat careful with what he says about other club’s players, due to a new rule the NRL brought in during the off-season.
Seemingly in response to Gould’s public praise of Lachlan Galvin, before the young star ended up leaving the Tigers early to sensationally sign with the Bulldogs, the NRL introduced a gag order of sorts for club officials in a bid to clean up the messy November 1 anti-tampering deadline system.
“Clubs have been advised that the definition of tampering will now include certain public and private statements that could be seen as attempts to lure or entice a player to join another club,” the NRL announced in a statement.
Gould wasn’t pleased when a Nine journalist put to him that Tigers fans could feel “edgy, even angry” about his Bula comments, responding in a text: “Grow up.”
Bula and Wests Tigers have a mutual option that has created an awkward standoff. The club can activate the option for $900,000 next season, which it has reportedly baulked at, while the fullback can take the option for $800,000.
Alternatively, they can strike a new deal — or he can go elsewhere. Bula has also been linked to the Dragons, though they are touted to instead sign Cowboys fullback Scott Drinkwater.
While the Red V are the favourites to land Drinkwater, two other clubs have been raised as potential fits for the attacking gun.
Drinkwater’s former teammate Chad Townsend believes Cronulla would suit the fullback down the ground.
“I think he could fit in the Sharks, to be honest,” Townsend said on SEN’s Saturday League Kick-Off.
“He’s a mature footballer now, playing probably some of the best football of his career.
“I think he’d be a great fit at the Sharkies.”
Meanwhile, Townsend’s Saturday League Kick-Off co-host Denan Kemp thinks Gould and the Bulldogs should be closely monitoring Drinkwater’s situation.
“If you went outside of Reece Walsh, what fullback can essentially guarantee me six to 12 points a game? It’s Scott Drinkwater,” Kemp opined.
“So, if you’re the Dogs, you’re sitting there going, ‘OK, what’s our Achilles heel?’
“Our defence is good; we can keep teams usually below that 14 (point) mark.
“If we add 12 points onto that (in attack), all of a sudden, we’re a premiership threat.”
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