NRL 2022: John Asiata would prefer working in construction than getting vaccinated
John Asiata is on nearly $200,000-a-year but he would prefer to change job rather than be forced into a Covid vaccination.Dean Ritchie and David Riccio- News Corp Australia Sports Newsroom
November 14, 2021 - 7:32PM
Canterbury recruit John Asiata has told Bulldogs management he would prefer working on a construction site rather than be forced into a Covid vaccination to play rugby league.
Unless Canterbury general manager of football, Phil Gould, can this week persuade Asiata into a jab, the new Bulldogs forward faces being sacked before he has even trained at his new club.
It could also end his NRL career.
And News Corp can also reveal Panthers CEO Brian Fletcher has called hooker Api Koroisau — another player yet to be inoculated — to a top-level meeting on Wednesday.
Bulldogs management has told Asiata he will be dumped by remaining unvaccinated.
The club is aware of the major dramas an unimmunised player will cause through tough Covid laws in Victoria and Queensland along with airline, stadium and hotel restrictions.
Gould and Asiata have already spoken about the issue, the player not claiming to be an anti-vaxxer, more having a mistrust and anxiety about the significant side effects vaccination jabs caused family and friends back in Tonga.
Asiata, who signed a one-year deal with Canterbury worth nearly $200,000, even told Gould he would be prepared to work on a building site if pushed out of rugby league, despite that vocation also requiring a Covid jab.
Gould will this week try again to remind Asiata, 28, of the incredible benefits of playing NRL. Another NRL club may look to sign Asiata if offloaded by Canterbury.
“Still hoping John gets a vaccination. I’d like to have him play for us. But if that’s not to be, we will look at our options,” Gould tweeted on Sunday.
Asiata is due to attend his first training session with Canterbury within the next fortnight. Teammate Luke Thompson has been vaccinated after initially resisting.
Clubs are anticipating the NRL will release a more formal vaccination policy in coming weeks.
NRL vaccination holdouts
1 Jason Taumalolo - Cowboys $1 million2 Warriors player $725,000
3 Nelson-Asofa Solomona - Storm $675,000
4 Josh Papalii - Raiders $660,000
5 Joseph Tapine - Raiders $600,000
6 Api Koroisau - Penrith $475,000
7 Raiders player - $400,000
8 Raiders player - $400,000
9 Dylan Walker - Sea Eagles $375,000
10 Brian Kelly - Titans $320,000
11 Sharks player - $300,000
12 John Asiata - Bulldogs $180,000
13 Tigers player - $150,000
14 Roosters player - $70,000
15 Dragons player - $70,000
Some of the 15 names on the list have already been revealed publicly while others have been withheld from this column because they‘re yet to declare their position outside of informing their club.
The players are less than a month away from an NRL proposal that their salaries be docked by as much as 20 per cent – which will also be deducted from their respective club’s salary cap.
That’s the leading item on a paper being drawn-up by the NRL which will be presented to the ARL Commission in December.
A 20 per cent deduction of a player‘s salary – which would also be removed from their respective club’s salary cap – is being discussed as a starting point.
The termination of a player’s contract – if he is unable to train, travel interstate or play under the health orders of their respective state – remains a real and likely prospect.
Some football clubs, who survive from the financial coffers of their leagues club or affiliated clubs, like the Panthers, Sharks and Bulldogs, are preparing to mandate vaccination on their own accord.
The boards of each club believe it would be negligible to ask patrons to show a vaccination passport to enter their leagues club, yet their star footballers without a vaccination are free to train and play, in some cases, directly across the road.
In simple terms, it’s a case of, get the jab or get the sack, for those three clubs.
Such is the case, Canterbury recruit John Asiata has already told Bulldogs officials to plan without him in 2022.
The Dogs, given their delicate salary cap juggle, haven’t needed to be told twice by Asiata to wait – already shifting the forward’s $180,000 contract on their spreadsheet into another column for another player.
Alternatively, it gives reason why English prop-forward Luke Thompson, widely-known as an anti-vaxxer, is understood to have received his first jab – de-risking his $725,000 contract.
