Manly executives are furious at Wests Tigers because they think the joint venture is secretly planning to sabotage the Sea Eagles’ 2024 preparations.
Both teams have been busy. Manly recruited Tommy Talau and Luke Brooks from the Tigers, while the highly-regarded young Fainu twins chose to sign with another team.
Additionally, they have switched recruitment managers, with Manly set to hire Warren McDonnell and Scott Fulton heading to the Tigers.
However, Manly is upset over a rumor that surfaced in the media last week, claiming that the Sea Eagles are experiencing salary limit issues after adding winger Jaxson Paulo of the Roosters, Brooks, and Talau, and after upgrading Josh Schuster, Tolutau Koula, Taniela Paseka, Kaeo Weekes, and Christian Tuipulotu.
A highly-placed Manly insider told Wide World of Sports, “We believe that the rumors started from the Tigers camp and they are just trying to cause trouble for us.”
“Recently, the NRL gave us the all-clear regarding our salary cap, and they even discovered some money we hadn’t spent.
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“However, there is a mysterious rumor circulating that we are having cap issues, which raised concerns about our player managers.”
“Several of our players are upset because they believe they will have to move on since we don’t have place for them, which is upsetting.
“It’s dirty tricks and we won’t be forgetting it.”
