Canberra fullback Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad admits sacked Raiders teammate Curtis Scott “has a few things to fix up” and has revealed he’s been in touch with him to offer his support.
Scott‘s troubled time at the Raiders ended drastically when the club on Monday axed him less than two years into a four-year contract.
The 23-year-old’s latest off-field incident resulted in the NRL in July handing down a three-game suspension and a $15,000 fine, after he was allegedly involved in a fight at a Canberra nightclub.
After former Raiders co-captain Josh Hodgson said this week he was “really disappointed” with the club’s decision to fire Scott, Nicoll-Klokstad gave the rising centre his backing in an interview with 2GB’s Wide World of Sports radio.
“It was a little bit of a sad one for Curtis. I reached out to him just to let him know that I’m always there if he needs me there – and that’s what I want to do for him,” Nicoll-Klokstad said.
“He’s definitely a really good person off the field and he’s a good, quality player on the field, too.
“He has a few things he has to fix up and I’m sure it’ll turn around for him.”
The Raiders camp appeared to be shaky when Hodgson in May announced he had stood down from his co-captaincy, amid an awful start to Canberra’s season.
Forward Joe Tapine’s wife Kirsten then caused a stir when she slammed coach Ricky Stuart on Instagram for having “an international player warming [the] bench for 50 minutes”.
And that testing scenario was followed by the messy departure of English halfback George Williams, who had been struggling with homesickness.
“We’ve got a leadership group in place for those sort of things and … all those issues are dealt with through them and our head coach, [Ricky Stuart], and our CEO, [Don Furner],” Nicoll-Klokstad said.
“In terms of the other players, we get trickled down information.
“It’s not what we need as a club but it’s definitely something that’ll make us better going forward.”
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