'No response to him': Gus Gould burns Phil Rothfield in live TV interview
There’s certainly no love lost between Phil Gould and Phil Rothfield, and one of the longest-running feuds in the NRL is showing no signs of ending anytime soon.
Gould made an appearance on the Today Show on Tuesday to discuss the NRL’s ugly war of words with Channel Nine.
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Gould had previously defended Channel Nine for publicly calling out the NRL’s ‘financial mismanagement’ - which many believe has landed them in the current mess they’re facing amid the coronavirus crisis.
Veteran NRL journalist Rothfield then savaged Gould’s defence of Channel Nine as ‘absurd’, but Gus was in no mood to respond to Rothfield when asked about him on Tuesday.
“I’ve got no response to him,” Gould said.
When pressed on why he wouldn’t respond Gould added: “I just don’t rate his opinion.”
Gould was then pressed even further, to which he said: “It goes without saying, I think.”
Gould and Rothfield haven’t seen eye-to-eye for years, and Rothfield reignited their feud on Monday.
“It was as predictable as the Easter bunny arriving that Sydney woke on Sunday to a Gus Gould rant defending his employers, the Nine network,” Rothfield wrote in The Daily Telegraph.
“This from a man who annually wasted millions of dollars in his previous job as general manager of Penrith over a period in which the Panthers lost more money than any other club in the game.”
Gould says Channel Nine and NRL must work together
Gould went on to say the NRL and Nine Network must discuss a long-term plan during Tuesday's critical discussions about their broadcast deal.
The league and the free-to-air channel will sit down for anticipated talks around what a restructured season will look like should it return as planned in late May.
Gould, a long-time commentator for the network, defended the game's decision to give itself a time-frame for when the season would resume.
“It's probably optimistic, but they've got to start somewhere,” Gould said.
However, he claimed Nine were upset with being left out of the plans.
“The NRL last week made an announcement that May 28th was its goal but with very little detail around that about whether it would be a revised, modified or shortened competition," Gould said.
“And I think that's what started to get broadcasters nervous, that they hadn't been included in those discussions.”
He said Nine's outburst was needed for the game, before predicting Tuesday's talks would be "significant" for the league's future.
with AAP
