Rugby League: Recruitment poster sparks row

By PETER JESSUP

The Warriors have cried "foul" over a Mt Albert Rugby League club promotion that offers young players a chance to train with the Canterbury Bulldogs.

It was the Mt Albert Lions who first applied to play in the Australian premiership competition in the early 1980s, a vision that became the Warriors, but now the NRL club is accusing the Lions of trying to undermine its operation.

The problem has arisen through Lions Bartercard Cup coach John Ackland being contracted to the Dogs as a talent scout.

At the heart of the row is a recruitment poster for the Mt Albert under-16 Bartercard Cup team that has been distributed to schools.

It carries Lions and Bulldogs logos and the slogan "Get yourself discovered by the NRL."

The poster says the best players from the under-16s "will be selected to go to Sydney to train with the NRL Canterbury Bulldogs."

Warriors chief executive Mick Watson accused the Lions of trying to undermine the joint New Zealand Rugby League-Warriors development programme.

"The enemy is not Australian clubs, the enemy is not rugby union - it is people within New Zealand rugby league," he said of player-poaching.

Mt Albert chairman Tony Sadgrove was dismayed at what he considered a misunderstanding and promised to review the poster, but defended the club's position and vowed allegiance to the Warriors.

"We are trying to create opportunities for players and to give them something to keep them in the game," he said, decrying the numbers who shift to rugby first XVs about age 16.

Ackland's association with the Dogs offered the chance for youngsters to visit the Sydney club, train and meet their players, and the Lions saw that as an incentive, Sadgrove said.

The only player who had signed with Canterbury was prop Hutch Maiava, who had been suggested to the Warriors but not picked up.

Sadgrove agreed that conspiracy theorists might see the fact that the Bulldogs will train today at the Lions' home ground at Fowlds Park as evidence of a too-cosy relationship.

They could think what they like, he said. Newcastle trained at the ground last weekend.

The Lions had promoted seven of last year's domestic league-winning line-up to the Warriors. Vinnie Anderson had been signed and his younger brother, Louis, attached to the development squad, but the others were rejected, Sadgrove said.

Fullback Lee Finnerty had gone to Halifax, former Warrior Peter Lewis to Penrith, and South Sydney were chasing brothers Sala and David Fa'alogo.

Ackland's contract with the Lions precluded him doing deals with the Bulldogs that Mt Albert were not aware of.

"He knows that every one of our players gets a go at the Warriors first. But if there's no potential for them at the Warriors we want kids to know they still have a chance," Sadgrove said.

The Warriors agree that is fair enough - if there are half-a-dozen good halfbacks in town they do not want all their careers to stall behind Stacey Jones.

"But this is like a kick in the guts," Watson said. "We played Souths [last year in pre-season] in a Mt Albert jersey. Fowlds Park was the first place the Warriors [under Watson] played a trial.

"We feel we've given them respect as the club that fought for our existence ... Mt Albert wanted a pathway for players and now they're trying to kill that."

Watson's ire was raised quickly because this is not the first such link. The Melbourne Storm and Cronulla Sharks have hired talent scouts here and have tried to build links through schools in Wellington and Christchurch.

The ruckus is likely to result in clearer guidelines from the NZRL on what is acceptable in building relationships with NRL clubs other than the Warriors.

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