SENIOR Canberra players Terry Campese, David Shillington and Brett White took the extraordinary step yesterday of posting a video on the club's website to dismiss the ongoing speculation that player power had been behind the sacking of coach David Furner.
In a six-minute video, the trio denied the report that a faction of players had spoken to the board the night before the decision was made and that Furner had paid the price for consistently bending the rules for troubled centre Blake Ferguson.
Campese, the captain of the club, said some of the players were on a golf course with Furner when the coach received a call and left. He was sacked a short time later by his brother and Raiders chief executive Don Furner.
"All these accusations that there was a nine-player revolt or the players confronted the board -- that never happened," Campese said.
"That was false. We were going down the coast to have a meeting that night, which we didn't get to hold because obviously Dave got the sack before we could hold that meeting -- and Dave was aware of that meeting as well."
The Australian understands that players were frustrated at being painted as the villains over Furner's sacking on Tuesday.
It is believed they were more concerned that the club's failure to act on an independent review conducted at the end of 2011 -- which promised better conditions at the club -- was affecting morale and would ultimately hurt their playing roster.
There have been reports that Ferguson is agitating for a release while boom fullback Anthony Milford also wants out to return home to Brisbane, but there are bigger concerns just around the corner with Edrick Lee and Jack Wighton both off contract at the end of next season.
"It's disappointing to read all this stuff in the media at the moment talking about a nine-player meeting and a player revolt and obviously the whole saga centred around Blake Ferguson and Dave's relationship," Shillington said.
"They weren't the reasons why it happened, and obviously there's a whole lot of things that go into a football club and relationships with players and the way teams are run.
"I think for it to focus on someone like Blake Ferguson or a player revolt is unfair and untrue."
Source: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/nrl/senior-raiders-reject-talk-of-player-revolt/story-fnca0von-1226701621405
Topic: Senior Raiders reject talk of player revolt
