{"id":758076,"date":"2026-06-24T22:47:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T22:47:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/758076\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T22:47:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T22:47:24","slug":"former-nrl-star-states-he-was-sacked-from-nswrl-after-blues-criticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/758076\/","title":{"rendered":"Former NRL star states he was sacked from NSWRL after Blues criticism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former NRL<\/a> player Reni Maitua<\/a> has claimed he was fired from his part-time community ambassador role with the NSW Rugby League<\/a> after comments he made about the NSW Blues<\/a> on his podcast.<\/p>\n

Maitua, who has worked with the Deadly Choices program for the past four years, revealed on the BTFU Podcast he received a phone call earlier this week informing him he had lost his position following criticism of the Blues’ performances and coaching decisions.<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs premiership winner said he had expected to continue his involvement with the program through State of Origin<\/a> III and had been preparing for community engagements.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was something that I enjoy and something I am passionate about,\u201d Maitua said on the BTFU Podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was never for financial gain. That kind of work is good for my mental health. I was pencilled in to go to game three and be there all week. I’d go around Brisbane and do stuff with the homeless and some Aboriginal communities there that we work with. I’ve done it for the last three years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got a call saying that because of comments I’d made around the NSW side, I’d lost my role as an ambassador. Someone who is my boss and someone who I consider a close friend \u2013 I am not going to hold this against him. He didn’t tell me. I was not warned.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a legality point of view \u2013 I should’ve been more aware of what I was saying around the side, but I never once criticised, I critiqued Laurie Daley’s performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe team selection, interchange. It was based around the game. In my head, I didn’t think that because I was contracted by the NSWRL, I couldn’t say a word.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t apologise for my comments. I do care about the fact that I’ve been left out of doing the community work.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last two appearances for deadly choices, I haven’t even invoiced them.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the NSWRL has disputed Maitua’s version of events.<\/p>\n

NSWRL insists nobody in a position of authority contacted Maitua to inform him he had been sacked. The NSWRL also maintains Maitua had not signed a new agreement beyond his previous contract.<\/p>\n

Maitua’s podcast co-host and former NSW representative Braith Anasta<\/a> came to his defence, arguing the punishment was unjustified given Maitua’s lack of involvement with the Blues<\/a> setup.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve been stronger than you have; no one else has been sacked, but they think Reni Maitua<\/a> has done the wrong thing by us and the team, which you have nothing to do with and us,\u201d Anasta said to us.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s a disgrace. As a good mate, it hurts me that they’ve done it. This shows exactly where the NSWRL are.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they are looking at Reni and his podcasts \u2013 they aren’t looking at the work he is doing, which is low paying \u2013 if they think using you and taking away from you and the impact you have on young kids is the right thing to do, pull your heads in.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former NRL player Reni Maitua has claimed he was fired from his part-time community ambassador role with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":758077,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-758076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758076","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=758076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/758077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=758076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=758076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=758076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}