Titans: Matt Rogers signs with Titans

[Grimmace]

Rogers will switch early: Jones
By Adrian Warren
December 06, 2006 QUEENSLAND and former Australia coach Eddie Jones believes Mat Rogers has made up his mind to return to rugby league next year and would rather see him play for the NRL's Gold Coast Titans than switch to the Reds.

The Australian and NSW Rugby Unions have yet to confirm reports Rogers has asked for a release from his contract, but senior figures from both bodies will meet this week to discuss his situation.

Among those likely to be involved are Wallabies coach John Connolly, his NSW counterpart Ewen McKenzie, ARU boss Gary Flowers, NSW boss Fraser Neill and ARU high performance unit manager Pat Wilson.

Personal as well as playing reasons are believed to be key factors for Rogers who has yet to publicly declare his intentions for 2007.

Already signed to return to the NRL with the Titans from 2008 and keen to return to the Gold Coast, he refused to rule out an early switch last week.

Jones and McKenzie squashed any suggestion Rogers would be allowed to serve out the final year of his rugby contract with Queensland to keep him in the code through to the 2007 World Cup.

Jones managed to see a funny side to the wrangle, when asked if he thought Rogers player might end up with his Reds.

"We'd have to come up with a harlequin-type jumper with some Titan badges somewhere, a bit of Waratahs somewhere else and Reds elsewhere," Jones joked.

"I think Matty has made his mind up to go back to league and he's had a great rugby career, and certainly I hope whatever he does in his next career, he does well," Jones said.

While Rogers craves more opportunity as a Test five-eighth, Jones only talked of him as a full back, the position he deployed him in for the 2003 World Cup final.

"We're pretty well catered for at 15 with Latho (Chris Latham) who I think is the best full back in the world and Clinton Schifcofske, so whilst Matty is a great player, I think I'd rather see him playing for the Titans," said Jones.

McKenzie dismissed any suggestion Rogers would be allowed to play for the Reds.

"That's not an option. He's contracted to play for the Waratahs, so I'm not handing him over to Queensland," McKenzie said.

McKenzie, who met with Rogers last Monday, is scheduled to hold further talks with the gifted utility back next Tuesday.

He was adamant nothing had changed since last Monday and was still hopeful of retaining the services of Rogers.

"I'm confident in my own mind, but my perspective on things is different to his, it's different to the ARU, everyone has got a different perspective," McKenzie said.

"I'd like to have him around next year and I'm hopeful that's going to happen, but there's lots of things we still have to talk about.

"I'm a fairly realistic sort of person, so we'll have another face-to face and a fairly down to earth conversation next week.

"We had a good discussion the other day; we covered some issues about lack of communication, so most of the conversation was about that, but in terms of moving forward, well we've got to still sort that out."

Jones, who has been linked to the vacant England coaching position, reiterated his commitment to the Reds without totally shutting the door on a possible move.

"If there was an offer there, I'd have a serious look at it like anyone in their jobs, if you're given an offer, you have a look at it," Jones said.

"But I'm happy and committed and want to see the Reds do well."

AAP

[Queenslander]

QUEENSLAND and former Australia coach Eddie Jones believes Mat Rogers has made up his mind to return to rugby league next year and would rather see him play for the NRL's Gold Coast Titans than switch to the Reds.

Yay that is great news, hopefully we see Rogers in the Titans colours one year early!

[Future Star]

im sad that he didnt come to the Raiders.. :')

But Matt Rogers back in league is a great thing for any League-Lover!
Hope to see him down here in Canberra round 18 in '07! (i have a Wallabies jersey i want signed, lol)

[Queenslander]

I has been reported on channel nine that Rogers has been seen meeting with Cartwright at a Gold Coast function last night....things are looking good!

Young wants Rogers released now
By Jon Geddes
December 07, 2006

RECENTLY retired Australia prop Bill Young has called on the Australian Rugby Union to immediately release his former Test teammate Mat Rogers from his contract if he wants to play rugby league next year.

ARU chief executive Gary Flowers meanwhile said Rogers sitting out next season or being released from his contract with rugby seeking compensation from Gold Coast Titans were both possible scenarios.

Those developments came yesterday as Rogers' return to rugby league a year early appeared more and more likely to eventuate.

"If Mat has personal issues - as we all have - if he wants to leave, the door should be open and he should be able to walk out the door," Young said.

"I am disappointed by the way the rugby union are handling it."

The veteran of 46 Tests, who retired this year because of a chronic neck problem, didn't understand the great desire to retain players if their heart was not in playing for Australia.

"I don't know why we desperately try and hold on to them," Young said.

"If an individual is not happy you are not going to get the best out of him, so why even try and coerce him into staying for an extra 12 months?

"Just say, 'Fair enough, it is personal reasons, off you go'.

"And if anyone else wants to leave, the door is there for you too."

Young, now a publican who runs the Concord and Wisemans Ferry hotels, said people should love their job, whether it be pulling a beer or playing for Australia.

"If you don't love it, then you are not going be to be able to put your heart into it anyway," he said.

The ARU will meet Rogers next week in an attempt to have the matter finally resolved.

"The bottom line is that when you play for the Wallabies you are representing your country and it is absolutely critical that you want to pull on the gold jumper with pride and passion," Flowers said.

"And if you don't - whether it is Mat Rogers or any other player - then contract or no contract, you won't be picked."

[Future Star]

Bill Young, you legend! Truer words were never spoken!

[Ryan]

I hope this issue doesn't turn sour for Rogers, threats of forfeiting isn't the best way for Rogers to end his Rugby career and carry back into League. This is starting to smell like Steve Turners situation. If Rogers comes to The Titans for 2007, I think thats greats, but I hope the transition is done on peaceful sort of terms.

[Grimmace]

Rogers party snaps
By Jon Geddes

December 08, 2006 12:00

THE Gold Coast Titans have furiously denied they are guilty of double standards after disgruntled Wallaby Mat Rogers was snapped partying with club officials at a glamourous function on the holiday strip.

While Rogers is set to walk away from his $500,000 rugby contract and join the new NRL club next year, the Titans still refuse to budge in their stance to force winger Steve Turner to join the club even though he is determined to remain in Melbourne.

But Titans CEO Michael Searle insists there was nothing untoward about Rogers being at the VIP function on the Gold Coast beachfront after NSW Waratahs coach Ewen McKenzie gave the star back a week to consider his future in rugby.

Searle said Rogers was there as a friend of the developer Michael Bezzina who comes from the Sutherland Shire - and had made the commitment to attend about six months ago. "I didn't even know he was going there until yesterday, I didn't even know he was on the Gold Coast,'' Searle said.

"There was no business talk, certainly not in a gathering of 500 people.'' Asked if he thought the Titans would see Rogers in their jersey next year, Searle said it was obviously a complex situation as he was contracted to the ARU nd playing with the Waratahs.

"From our point of view, we have always said if he is released we will have a chat with him about it,'' Searle said. "But we have cap issues anyway so it is not as though he is going to come over to league for a bundle of money.''

Former Wallaby Chris Handy last night said it was time for Mat Rogers to grow up and that he should be forced to sit out next season if he doesn't want to play for the Waratahs. And the Australian Rugby Union have revealed they won't be seeking compensation from the Gold Coast Titans if they decide to release him.

"It staggers me that a deal is not a deal anymore, whether it be a handshake or a contract,'' Handy said. "I just think his (Rogers) behaviour appears to be not honourable and he is not showing great integrity that he says he has contributed as part of the Wallabies.

"I just think at some stage a 30-odd-year-old man has got to grow up and live up to the personal and commercial contracts they have signed, otherwise any agreement between him and whoever is subject to review at any time.''

Handy said if Rogers was as honourable as Gorden Tallis when he wanted to move from St George to the Broncos, he should sit out that season and not expect an immediate release. "If he just doesn't want to play, he sits it out and he doesn't get paid,'' Handy said. "I think it is a test of (ARU CEO) Gary Flowers.''

Handy said his biggest concern for Rogers was that the Titans have used him as a publicity vehicle and he won't even get to play in the position he want to. "All the while it is giving the Titans all the publicity that they need and they have probably got sufficient publicity with all of this stuff to make whatever they are paying him worthwhile,'' Handy said.

ARU High Performance Unit manager Pat Wilson said if Rogers is released it will be on the principle of the matter. "We are not going to seeking compensation or negotiating about it, I can't be any clearer than that,'' Wilson said. "The decision will be made on the value of the jersey.''

Source: Daily Telegraph

[lambdalogan]

Rogers has no regrets leaving rugby
Monday Dec 11 11:00 AEDT
By ninemsn staff

Wallabies five-eighth Mat Rogers "cringes" when he thinks of his rugby union career, and will have no regrets if he leaves the game without a world cup winner's medal.

The talented 30-year-old is this week expected to request a release from the final year of his contract with the Australian and New South Wales Rugby Unions, with his waning interest in union fuelled by family issues.

Rogers, who lost his mother Carol to cancer in 2001 and his famous father Steve earlier this year, has also had to deal with separating from his wife and last week was nursing his brother Don in hospital after an overdose.




Prior to Rogers' latest crisis, Inside Rugby magazine conducted an in-depth interview with the former Cronulla Shark that focussed on his football career, and the signs that all was not well were readily apparent.

To date Rogers? rugby career has not led him expand his trophy cabinet, as many thought it would when he made the switch five years ago, and the lack of genuine achievement hangs heavily.

"When I look back at my time in rugby I honestly sort of cringe a little bit," Rogers said. "When I arrived at the Waratahs and the Wallabies, the Wallabies in particular were a real force and the world?s best team. Since I?ve been here we?ve managed to lose that spot and we?ve been far from great in the last few years.

"I'd love to win the World Cup and I?d love to win the Super 14. But if those things don?t happen I?m not going to look back on my rugby career and think I was a failure."

Rogers has already signed with the Gold Coast Titans for the 2007 season, but the reported desire for a release from union and an early return to the NRL is hardly surprising, when the importance of his family comes through in the interview.

"You listen to the important people in your life and that was [partner] Chloe and my brother Don and they were 100 per cent supportive of the decision [to return to the NRL]," Rogers said. "It was all pretty simple and happened pretty quickly. It was about me making the right decision for myself at the time, and as selfish as it might sound, it was something that I had to do for me."

And that decision appears to have been accelerated this week; a move which could also be motivated by the realisation that his career is entering its' twilight stage.

"I just want to play the best I can because I know the exact date of when I?m going to finish up, and it?s coming around pretty soon." Rogers said.

The full interview with the troubled star will be published in Inside Rugby, on sale Wednesday December 13th.

[DIEHARD]

Come on Matt quit union, come back to rugby league!!

[Pale Ale Panther]

I hope this issue doesn't turn sour for Rogers, threats of forfeiting isn't the best way for Rogers to end his Rugby career and carry back into League. This is starting to smell like Steve Turners situation. If Rogers comes to The Titans for 2007, I think thats greats, but I hope the transition is done on peaceful sort of terms.

i didn't want to be the 1st one to bring it up, well done Ryan, the smell of the Turner situation is overwhelming ! the Titans will get Rogers because i don't think the ARU will want a "SOOK" in there ranks ! :lol!: the Titans will make Turner sit out 3 years because they too don't want a "SOOK" in there ranks. :rotflmao: you know too many "SOOKS" spoil the Broth. :lol!: mabey Turner and Rogers could turn out for the Qld Roar for a year or 2 then go back to wherever the Hell they want to go ? :dead: :dead: :dead: :dead: :dead:

[PROMETHEUS]

Fair dinkum you're an idiot. :whatd:
Frank Puletua returned to penrith after the titans released him on compassionate grounds (his grandmother died) :')
Rogers wants a release on compassionate grounds (his brother o'd) yet you call rogers a sook..WHATS THE DIFFERENCE?
Or is puletua a sook as well and you wont admit it?

[Coaster]

Who owns Union again?

Oh that's right Murdoch.

Is this also a coincidence?

Some interesting reading about the 2 sports:

3. Murdoch & Rugby

A key case study in Murdoch's involvement in sport, underlining the apocalyptic views of the culturalists - and the sports fan - is surely the way he has exerted a stranglehold on the two codes of rugby.

Despite the cultural discourse, the media analysts and business press rarely consider sport as a cultural activity but as a product. Yet consider the impact of "SuperLeague" in Australia. Murdoch's News Limited in Australia became convinced Rugby League, based on twin (local and complementary) leagues in both New South Wales and Queensland, was a sport which could generate pay-TV subscriptions.

It arrived at this conclusion following discussions with the Brisbane Broncos, a private 'franchise' club - which allowed the NSWRL to adopt a 'national' league format, to the detriment of the Queensland League.

Ken Cowley, head of News Limited's Australian operations insisted that if they were going to spend A$60m on rugby league, as proposed, "News Limited wanted some control over the game" (Nauright and Phillips, 1997).

Super League was based not on the traditional, fan-led model of club ownership traditional in Australian sports, but instead on private, US-style franchises that are run for profit with fewer teams - each being granted territorial rights - and market zones. In addition for such exclusivity, league-wide merchandising deals and advertisement revenues were pooled through joint marketing arrangements. Indeed the Super League concept was seen as being spread globally. Rugby League was similarly remodelled in other countries (most notably Britain and 'Europe' with the establishment of a team in Paris) and the sport was heavily marketed in areas where it was not already being played.

The results have been bitterly opposed by fans world wide, not least in Australia where supporters were used to exercising democratic control and participating in social activities organised around the sports club itself.

In terms of the impact on the sport, 'civil war' would be a cliched term which, in this instance would not be misplaced.

The ARL (formerly the NSWRL, which itself had trampled on its Queensland 'sister' league) and Murdoch's bete noire, Kerry Packer stoutly opposed the setting up of Super League. Murdoch however launched on a strategy of signing as many clubs, players, officials, coaches and referees as possible, including those in England and New Zealand, thereby effectively controlling international fixtures.

The net result was a bloody court battle. As the Nauright and Phillips (1997) paper states:

"The fight...pitted player against player, club against club, city against city, state against state, country against country, pay-television operator against pay-television operator, phone company against phone company, and media mogul against media mogul."

Interestingly, the authors do not claim the result was to pit fan against fan.

Rowe (1997) describes the impact on the sport as "cataclysmic" - at one stage the Australian Courts outlawed Super League players (branded as "rebels" against Packer's "loyalists" by Packer: ironic with it coming from the man who almost split cricket in two during the 1970s with the Cricket 'Circus').

An inevitable phase of rival leagues came into being, but the game was irreversibly changed. Players who had spent their careers together on the Australian national team found themselves divided by accusations of dishonour and greed. Dismal TV ratings and attendance figures soon became the norm in both leagues, whilst team expenses soared.

Prior to that the Australian Court found that News Limited had been guilty of "deceit, dishonesty and duplicity" with a "meticulously planned operation, involving secrecy, suddenness and deception".

Despite the ARL (and Packer's) attempts to persuade the fans that they were the custodians of the sport, Murdoch and Packer met on the former's yacht and hatched a compromise deal which "shocked" the ARL's chair - who resigned, as well as the fans. Rowe (1997) comments "All the ARL's and Packer's rhetoric about the people's game, loyalty and tradition was ultimately subordinated by individual economic interests."

Almost as soon as the yacht deal was brokered, News Limited contacted various senior figures in Australian Rugby Union to, in the words of Business Week (September 11 1995), "reassure" them that Murdoch was ready to enter Rugby Union too.

The report suggests "It was as if Murdoch had created a distraction with Super League...while he was garnering even more money for rugby union, an international code with wider appeal".

Business Week reports that "when those first News Ltd calls came in April (of 1996), rugby union literally had nothing to sell" but less than a month later Australia annnounced the end of amateurism. Shortly after, the competition schedules of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa had been torn apart and restructured into a package of southern hemisphere competitions.

Just four days after the rugby unions of the southern hemisphere had met Sam Chisholm, a new governing body SANZAR had been formed. Six weeks after that Murdoch agreed to pay US$50m over 10 years for exclusive world rights to all rugby in those three countries.

As with rugby league, capturing Union as a global sport is what drove Murdoch. In June, Murdoch's final phase of his master plan almost split the northern hemisphere game in two, and the reverberations continue to this very day, even whilst he begins to turn his attentions to the next phase of his plans to exert control over association football.

Source http://sportsworlds.blogspot.com/200...s_archive.html

[Pale Ale Panther]

Fair dinkum you're an idiot. :whatd:
Frank Puletua returned to penrith after the titans released him on compassionate grounds (his grandmother died) :')
Rogers wants a release on compassionate grounds (his brother o'd) yet you call rogers a sook..WHATS THE DIFFERENCE?
Or is puletua a sook as well and you wont admit it?

Promite, what i said had nothing to do with Frank, i just think it if funny the Titans fans whant to hang Turner out for not being true to his word and yet want Rogers to walk out on his contract ? the "SOOK" come from John Cartwright not me ? there was 1 rolling laughing man and 2 LOL's there, i think it was obvious i was posting it in a light manour, i even made a joke about them playing for the Roar ? go back and read just about all of my posts on this topic i have said countless times Turner should be on the Coast ? i didn't want to make that post to serious because of Matts Bro, thats why i didn't mention it, and i think Matt was asking for a release before that anyway ?



as for being an "IDIOT" i'd rather ba an "IDIOT" than lack a sence of humour. get over yourself and enjoy a bit of life !

:lol!: that si a funny thing, :rotflmao: so's that, and that, that too............................just so you know for next time.

[Steelers]

...i just think it if funny the Titans fans whant to hang Turner out for not being true to his word and yet want Rogers to walk out on his contract ?

The Titans aren't pushing Rogers to get a release, the Titans have said that if Rogers wants out, and the ARU lets him go, then the Titans will be happy to accomodate for him.

[PROMETHEUS]

PAP if your gonna make generalisations about players be prepared to get a response