The emergency board meeting held by the Bulldogs last night has seen a firm stance by the club as they voted to give permission for their marquee forward Willie Mason to negotiate with other clubs to see if their is interest in him.

It’s the first step towards ousting Mason at the Canterbury Bulldogs club; while stopping short of totally sacking the prop forward – the Bulldogs have given Mason the chance to reply to the decision next week at yet another board meeting.

With Willie keen to move on and the Bulldogs now allowing him to legally discuss his future with other clubs – it does seem inevitable that the international forward will part company with the Bulldogs.

Last nights decision by the Bulldogs still keeps the ace up their sleeve. They can choose to keep Mason at the last minute should they want to; or they could also play a part in allowing which club Mason can sign with.

Overall it seems Willie Mason must leave the NRL for two reasons; the main one being money. Mason simply cannot earn the major dollars in the NRL by such a late club change – the pay packet he commands needs to be carefully planned for by all NRL clubs as they struggle to keep under the salary cap. The big wage that comes with Mason takes over 12 months of planning for most clubs and virtually all of them run close to the salary cap limit anyway, meaning Willie would have to take a huge paycut.

The other reason that Willie Mason looks set to leave the NRL is because the Bulldogs would much prefer him to play out the remaining 2 years of his deal in the UK Super League. Similar to what Parramatta did with Jamie Lyon; the Bulldogs would not want to see him playing for another NRL club that could possibly bite them on the bum in the next 2 years.

So it seems we will need to wait another week to find out the end result in the Willie Mason / Bulldogs saga. However its looking more likely that NRL Rugby League looks set to lose a major icon. The days of Homeboy Willie Mason, his entourage, bling bling, A.D.D and his almost weekly headlines could be a thing of the past. “Could be.

By ricky

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