Bulldogs supremo Phil Gould has defended himself once more amid accusations he “misled” the public with his comments on Lachlan Galvin, while also criticising Toby Sexton’s manager after reports emerged the halfback wants out of the club.
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It has been a busy 48 hours for the ladder leaders, with the first domino falling on Sunday afternoon when Fox League’s James Hooper reported that Galvin was set to sign with the Bulldogs on a three-and-a-half year deal.
That was despite Gould telling Nine Newspapers in April that the club was “not thinking about” Galvin and that the 19-year-old playmaker was “not on our radar”.
Gould on Sunday went on to explain that the “goalposts changed”, but that was just the start of the drama in Belmore as Monday saw the ripple effects of Galvin’s impending arrival.
First, foxsports.com.au reported that the Bulldogs had granted hooker Reed Mahoney permission to talk to rival clubs before it dropped that Sexton was also likely on his way out at the end of the year.
All of which put the focus squarely on Gould again given the unique position he is in as both general manager of the club and a media personality at Channel Nine.
Making his regular appearance on ‘100% Footy’ on Monday night, Gould used the opportunity to once again maintain that he did not “mislead” the public on the Galvin matter.
“I never at any time said we weren’t interested,” Gould clarified.
“What I said was, we’re on a different course. He’s not in our plans because he wasn’t off contract till ‘27. We couldn’t talk to him until November.
“Go back and review everything I said about Lachlan Galvin and what transpired, and everything I said was 100 per cent the truth at the time. The goalposts moved this week when they came back and said it could be available now.”
Gus confirms Mahoney can talk to rivals | 02:16
Paul Crawley, however, called Gould’s antics — even if in the best interests of the Bulldogs — “a stain on the integrity of the NRL” while one club chair told News Corp’s Andrew Webster “we’re sick of him flirting with players through the media”.
Speaking of Webster, he reported that Galvin told Rabbitohs players after their game on Sunday, the night before the board meeting which decided he would be granted an early release, that he was off to the Bulldogs.
That conflicts with Gould’s version of events that he presented on Sunday afternoon, claiming the “goalposts got moved incredibly” because the Bulldogs got a call “all of a sudden” on Tuesday saying there was an opportunity to secure Galvin’s services “virtually now”.
Whether it was a sign of what was to come or not, Gould first indirectly showed some level of interest in Galvin in August last year on his podcast when he said he thought the teenager would “earn more money out of rugby league than any player in history”.
“I think he’s the best teenage footballer I’ve ever seen,” said Gould at the time, adding that he was “obsessed with him” and that “whoever has Lachlan Galvin in their side will be winning premierships”.
When reports emerged in April this year that Galvin wanted out of the Tigers, Gould said on his podcast that the situation was becoming “untenable” but a few days later clarified the club was “not thinking” about the 19-year-old and that he was “not on our radar”.
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While Gould has maintained that everything he has said publicly on the Galvin matter is accurate, The Daily Telegraph’s Phil Rothfield cast doubt over that claim given the Bulldogs supremo’s history in the NRL.
“To be quite frank, I don’t believe anything he says,” Rothfield said on Fox League’s ‘NRL 360’.
“Earlier this year, Wide World of Sports, through Gus, ran a story saying they didn’t want Leo Thompson from Newcastle and that they were dropping out. They signed him a couple of weeks later.
“You go back a few years he said Trent Barrett was going to be here longer than me. He left three weeks later. Punted.
“Do you want me to go back to Penrith? 2016, he said Matt Moylan will play here for the rest of his life. He sold him to Cronulla the next year.
“At Penrith, he signed Griffin, extended Griffin, said he was the future of this club and sacked him.”
NRL 360 co-host Braith Anasta, while not agreeing with the way Gould “palmed” the Galvin saga off as a “media beat-up”, did give him credit for being able to deliver results for his club.
“He’s renowned for it (lying). But he gets it done too, right? Have a look at this situation. He fooled everyone bar us,” Anasta said, calling it a “tactic” for the “betterment of the club”.
Gus weighs in on Dogs Galvin interest | 02:04
However, as Rothfield went to point out, at the heart of the issue is the fact Gould is able to use his media platform to his advantage as the general manager of a football club.
There is nothing stopping him from continuing to do it at this point, although the Galvin situation may change that given the uproar across the NRL community.
Plus, as Rothfield went on to say, it is about more than just that.
“The difference is, Gus is not a club official,” Rothfield explained.
“He is being paid a substantial amount of money to sit on a panel like this, to Channel Nine viewers to keep them informed on rugby league matters and in my view he’s misled them — the people who watch Channel Nine have been misled.”
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Gould took the opportunity to address those viewers and Bulldogs fans at home on Monday night regarding the future of both Sexton and Mahoney.
When it came to Sexton, Gould suggested it was all being pushed by his manager, Tas Bartlett.
“Just firstly on the articles regarding Toby Sexton, I haven’t seen them but I’ll guarantee you it’s the same journalist that’s written all the other ones in the last 12 months, who happens to be a friend of the manager who’s agitating for Toby Sexton to get re-signed,” he said.
“I ignore all that rubbish and I’m ignoring this rubbish. I met with Toby Sexton a number of times in the last month, talking about his football and where he stood contract wise, I didn’t want it to be playing on his mind. It’s an important decision for us and it’s an important decision for Toby.”
Gould went on to add that he had spoken with Sexton on Friday and admitted to him that he had discussions with Galvin the previous day, making sure the current halfback was across those developments.
But as for Sexton’s own future, Gould said he is “very happy in what he’s doing at the moment” despite reports he was potentially going to be dropped as soon as this week.
“We’re not in any contract discussions with Toby at the moment, his manager keeps pushing for it and we keep saying no, we’re on another mission,” Gould added.
Galvin to join Dogs in immediate switch! | 03:55
Moving onto Mahoney, Gould confirmed the hooker’s manager had requested permission to talk with rival clubs earlier in the year and that he replied by saying it was “too early to call” about an extension beyond 2026.
“I said by then the salary cap is going to be tight, happy for you to have a look at him if you want to,” Gould explained.
“So it came at his request. How that got into the media I don’t know and who leaked that I don’t know.
“It was certainly at his request, it wasn’t our request and there’s absolutely no talk at all it’s immediate.”
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