What Shane Webcke didn't want you to see
By Nick Walshaw
March 25, 2009 12:00am
KANGAROOS legend Shane Webcke has sensationally bought the copyright to his own book so he can have it pulped just days before its planned public release.
Webcke yesterday demanded Hard Road: Tough Thoughts On A Tough Game be spiked despite 7000 copies having already been printed. The decision was made after Webcke had second thoughts about criticising the Brisbane Broncos and Immortal Andrew Johns.
He was able to successfully block the book's public release, which was to be serialised in The Sunday Telegraph this week, by buying the copyright from publisher Pan MacMillan.
The stunning development to assume rights has cost the retired league legend - now back at the Broncos as an assistant coach - a substantial sum. But it could ultimately prove a financial windfall in the event Webcke opts to release the tell-all book in the future.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal the Queenslander was concerned about a controversial chapter slamming the club's handling of boozy behaviour and sexual assault allegations last year. He was also worried about revelations of his own depression after retiring, plus two chapters devoted to Johns.
Read a summary of the highly controversial extracts below. Also check out the full extract of the chapter titled Broncos Behaving Badly.
Toilet Tryst
"What took place in September, and the club's response to it, led to something that had never happened before in my life and probably will never happen again: I went to a Broncos game not caring if they won or not."
Hunt, Boyd, Thaiday
"The three players involved should not have been allowed to play in that match against the Storm. I believe that the majority of ordinary, decent people who make up our community would have supported such a stance and would have admired the Broncos for taking it.
"The fact that we had three players in a public toilet with a woman, and drunken players kicked out of hotels, should have been enough for us to say: 'You're not going to play!' That would have been the best and clearest way for the club to tackle it: to stand down the players. It would have been a stance of real strength that would have been applauded, I'm sure, by all fair-minded people.
"Yes, the players had been given the green light to go out drinking that day - but, as far as I'm concerned, their behaviour went far beyond the boundaries of what is acceptable."
Bruno Cullen
"At the time I discussed the issue at length with Bruno Cullen and left him in no doubt about my views . . . I told Bruno of my belief that we could never go wrong doing the right thing."
Andrew Johns
"I don't have the slightest doubt that rugby league's administrators, all the way to the top of the ARL and the NRL, would have known of Andrew Johns' lifestyle and problems. Who didn't know? I knew.
Team Of The Century
"If I had been a judge on that panel, I wouldn't have picked Andrew Johns to be in the Team Of The Century."
The Black Hole Syndrome
"I'd say I was pretty much OK with my life until the team went back into training in November. From that time, I had the feeling the whole world was moving on - except for me.
"It was then I really went into a trough . . . this sort of foggy period . . . It came to the point where I really faltered. In fact, I have never felt so lost.
"I worried about making the wrong choices, f . . . ing up and ending up with nothing . . . I wouldn't say I went into a depressed state but I certainly went down deep into a state of mind where I wasn't myself. And I'm talking months and months."
Depression
"I'm inclined to think the word "depression" gets bandied around a bit too freely these days. But there were nights during that period when I couldn't sleep and days when I didn't feel like doing anything."
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