{"id":717820,"date":"2026-06-05T22:49:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T22:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/717820\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T22:49:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T22:49:10","slug":"nrl-2026-mal-meninga-breaks-silence-after-anti-tampering-claims-matt-burton-jacob-preston-perth-bears-what-did-he-say-news-reaction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/717820\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL 2026: Mal Meninga breaks silence after anti-tampering claims, Matt Burton, Jacob Preston, Perth Bears, what did he say, news, reaction"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Bears coach Mal Meninga has blasted his critics while breaking his silence over anti-tampering claims levelled against him.<\/p>\n<p>Watch every game of every round of the Premiership Season LIVE with no ad-breaks during play on FOX LEAGUE, available on Kayo Sports | <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kayosports.com.au\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Public comments Meninga made about the Bears\u2019 potential interest in signing Bulldogs duo Jacob Preston and Matt Burton led to a complaint from Canterbury and in turn, a job for the NRL\u2019s Integrity Unit who are currently investigating.<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"i-amphtml-fill-content i-amphtml-replaced-content\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/poster-fallback.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere has also been a heap of noise around Matt Burton. Jacob Preston, he\u2019s someone coming off contract after 2027, we\u2019ll be in the picture,\u201d Meninga said about the pair, who are both set to hit the open market on November 1.<\/p>\n<p>The new \u2019Phil Gould rule\u2019 Meninga is alleged to have broken was brought in this season.<\/p>\n<p>The rule is designed to stop team coaches or officials potentially enticing players under contract at other clubs with public comments.<\/p>\n<p>It was introduced following comments Gould \u2013 the Bulldogs\u2019 general manager of football \u2013 made last year on then-Tigers young gun Lachlan Galvin, who eventually signed with the Dogs. <\/p>\n<p>Meninga says he\u2019ll cop any punishment on the chin but admitted he wasn\u2019t aware his remarks ran afoul of the NRL rule book.<\/p>\n<p>Robbo: &#8216;Best Combination of the Season&#8217; | 06:10<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI honestly wasn\u2019t aware of it until yesterday. I haven\u2019t worried too much \u2026 If I\u2019ve done the wrong thing, I\u2019ll put my hand up,\u201d Meninga told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.codesports.com.au\/nrl\/mal-meninga-hits-back-at-gus-gould-over-tampering-allegations-defends-bears-from-criticism\/news-story\/a182f21cd11bc1e6313b6b062b54429d\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Code Sports<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The rugby league legend then had a crack at those who have criticised him and the Bears for not being vocal enough in the media.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m damned if I do and damned if I don\u2019t,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople complain we\u2019re not engaging in the market, then criticise us for saying something.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEveryone plays somewhere, mate. That\u2019s the bottom line.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know where the line is with talking about players. I don\u2019t know where I stand.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not familiar with all the internal rules. But if someone asks if you\u2019d be interested in a marquee player, of course you would be but we haven\u2019t approached anyone who is under contract.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bears coach Mal Meninga has blasted his critics while breaking his silence over anti-tampering claims levelled against him.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":717821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,689,212183,5366,25907,763,4592,4415,4617,33215,11639,41606,6407,761,762,673,158,677,348159,37290,85,348160,348161,348162],"class_list":["post-717820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-bears-coach","tag-broncos","tag-canterbury","tag-fox-league","tag-jacob-preston","tag-james-tedesco","tag-lachlan-galvin","tag-lord-gould-of-brookwood","tag-mal-meninga","tag-marquee-player","tag-michael-maguire","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-new-south-wales","tag-nrl","tag-oceania","tag-public-comments","tag-rule-book","tag-sports","tag-team-coaches","tag-then-tigers-young","tag-turn-things"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=717820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}