League: Fuming Warriors boss skins Eels

The Warriors were found to have no case to answer over the Dylan Brown "poaching" saga.

The Warriors have been cleared of attempted "poaching" over the Dylan Brown saga, with the NRL Integrity Unit finding the club had no case to answer.

After an investigation, the NRL informed the club on Thursday night that there was no evidence the Warriors had acted contrary to the anti-tampering rules which govern approaches to players under contract at rival clubs.

Warriors CEO Cameron George was pleased to be vindicated, but also fuming at the "very poor" conduct of Parramatta during the whole affair.

"[The integrity unit] have told us there is no case to answer in terms of what was alleged," George told the Herald. "It's good that it has been cleared up, as we expected.

"[But] I was very disappointed that a club would allege something like that against us when there was clearly misinformation provided to the club.

"It's very poor. It's disappointing that another club decided to make comments to the press about it. If I had an issue with another club in a similar situation I would certainly [deal] with it from a CEO to CEO perspective. It was unfortunate that false allegations were thrown our way because of an individual [journalist] and another club."

Two weeks ago the Sydney Morning Herald reported that the Warriors could face scrutiny from the NRL over a big six-year offer to Auckland-born youngster Brown, currently an Eels development player.

The article said that the Warriors could be in breach of the anti-tampering rules by offering Brown a deal from 2020 onwards, a period when he was still under contract.

It added that the Eels management were "infuriated", and indicated that Warriors recruitment manager Peter O'Sullivan, who had a chequered past and was on his last chance at the Warriors, could be kicked out of the sport if found guilty.

The Warriors have consistently maintained no wrongdoing, saying that they were misinformed about Brown's contractual status by his manager Gavin Orr, and withdrew their offer as soon as Orr rectified his mistake.

"Once we were advised that [Brown] wasn't off contract, Peter withdraw his offer in writing," said George. "It was then acknowledged by the manager that he had made a mistake and he apologised to the club for doing so.

"[But] it was really disappointing that we, as a club that had done nothing wrong, got dragged through some allegations that were quite damning to both the individual and the club.

"You have to move on. There were people that had an axe to grind against certain things for certain reasons and that's why they said what they said. But we always knew we would be sweet ..."

The Warriors have their final pre-season trial in Whangarei against the Tigers today, with young prop Bunty Afoa aiming to continue the momentum from 2018.

The 22-year-old was a breakout star of the Warriors' impressive campaign, featuring in all but two matches as the club reached the finals for the first time in seven years.

"I took a lot of positives out of our season," said Afoa. "What's changed the most for me is my confidence and game experience. I played most games last year and that boosted my confidence a lot.

"I've put on three or four kilos to help with the contact in the middle and I'm aiming really high [this year]. I want to be a starting prop and set a platform."