He was chasing a deal whilst in Australia behind the clubs back. Once that fell through, he thought he could waltz back into Headingley like nothing had happened. Gary was quite rightly waiting with Nenes P45.

His lack of commitment meant he often turned up to training late, or not at all, and apparently this caused a bit of tension in the locker room. It's probably understandable why Cameron was so blunt about him not coming back from Oz.

If you look at his playing career, there is a pattern of him moving clubs roughly every 12 months over the past decade. That probably tells it's own tale. I wouldn't be surprised if he stays at Salford until he gets a better offer and does a vanishing act again.

It's a shame as he is a great player. With the right attitude, he could be one of the best around.

Not sure why we wouldn't hold on to his registration and require a fee if he was going to join another team, particularly a Super League team.

I mean if we are looking to sign a Salford player, and he goes to Salford, then we do look like chumps if he goes for nowt and we have to pay a big fee.

Maybe it is a legality thing? Do they still have to pay wages if they hold the registration as part of the contracts?

I'm just glad he is gone and someone else's problem, to be honest. Let it be a learning curve.

In one sense if he doesn't want to play for us there is nothing we can do, but in another sense what's there to stop us saying to Brodie Croft we will give you a bigger paycheck if you walk out on Salford so we don't have to pay a fee.

Is it only a problem if you ask someone to do it, or are players just free to break contracts whenever they feel like it.

UK employment laws don't give employees unfair dismissal rights until they have 2 years of "permanent" employment. Can you just sack a player anytime, or do the games bylaws prevent it?

I'm genuinely confused here.

That he went on paternity leave never to return, 'i ain't dun nuffin wrong guv'.

As with Austin, the irony of him ending up at a club that have (potentially) lost its 2 main assets to the club they shafted will be slightly amusing.

Could holding his registration have quota implications? Perhaps that's why he's been let go so easily.

In any case, I think there's no point dragging stuff out with this guy. Despite obvious talent, he's clearly a rotten egg, and good riddance is the best policy in my view.

if he had this reputation then someone at the club didn't do any background checks. a couple of phone calls should have rung warning bells. surely all clubs do that. they certainly do in other sports

Sometimes you take a punt I guess. Don't matter now, we didn't pay a fee and we've now signed someone better who wasn't available when we signed McDonald.

We took a punt based on Smith's relationship with Nene and the fact he was already over in England suggested he was settled OK. It didn't work out. The main thing is we moved decisively to replace him, which was a sign that the club recognised this off-season wasn't the one to mess about in, particularly with the upset he seemingly caused other players.

I reckon in plenty of recent years we would have tried to get Macdonald back, but am glad we haven't. He's a hell of an athlete and I wish him well to be honest. I'm far more interested in the team we're building.

Doing this may have stopped us signing Momorovski as we would have had no quote spot free?!

If this is the case then OS quota player can do what they like of they want out as clubs are held to ransom on needing to fill that spot.

Seems to be the case yep. Have we ever received a transfer fee for any overseas player wanting out? Segeyaro, Eastwood etc.?

No, not disclosed anyway I think.

We usually get a “world class partnership & idea exchange with “game changing pathways” instead of cash.

Bottom line is 2024 is a fresh start. We've got some real star signings and a completely new spine. Any player not fully committed should be shown the door (and probably has been). I reckon that's the approach Leeds have taken to this off-season, and its been a long time coming. Letting Nene go and signing someone else quickly afterwards ought to send a clear message to any prima donnas in the squad (not thinking of anyone in particular of course.....).