It’s one of the great weeks in the Bulldogs’ history, but club chief executive Aaron Warburton is sitting in a quiet corner of a Las Vegas bar wiping tears from his eyes.
We have been talking for less than 10 minutes and the emotion is overwhelming about what he saw, heard and felt on December 14 at Bondi Beach when two gunmen opened fire and killed 15 people in an antisemitic terror attack now the subject of a royal commission.
It’s not well known that the Dogs boss is a Bondi resident. He and his wife Britt had a front-row view of what unfolded that tragic day.
“A minute after putting our groceries down that day after our grocery shopping Britt and I heard a bang,” Aaron said.
“I looked outside and I could see what looked like old men wrestling. I said f— there is a guy with a gun, and then I said there is two of them.
“My place to the bridge where the two men shot from … I could throw a cricket ball there.”
He’s using sporting references to help him cope. He has been struggling to process what happened to those innocent families. Warburton’s balcony is probably 50 metres from the bridge and a similar distance to where Sajid Akram and his son Naveed Akram parked their car. Police shot dead Sajid, while his son has been charged with almost 60 offences, including 15 murders.
Bulldogs CEO Aaron Warburton with wife Britt.Credit: Christian Gilles
“They killed those poor people on our doorstep,” he said. “Britt and I were at home with our son. It was like any Sunday in summer, we don’t have a plan and we are often in that park or at the beach because it’s our backyard. I remember hearing a noise. Then I looked outside and there’s a guy with a gun … you could hear the shooting. There’s a guy with a gun. It was 50 metres away … I could see the guy in the white pants just walking up the bridge to join another person to just start shooting, and we didn’t know he was the son at the time.
“We tried to ring the police but we could not get through. So I started filming because I thought I’ve got an angle for police, and they’ve got a need to see what I’ve got. I didn’t know what they were aiming at, but he had obviously a very, very clear target, and that was the only thing he was shooting at. I was in shock. Britt was telling me to get down and she was screaming and it seemed to go on forever, the continuous shooting. Then there was talk of another shooter. I just feel for those families.”
Aaron was holding it together until he started talking about how it impacted him. It’s when he broke down.
“That night was terrible for everyone … for me it was a lot worse in the weeks after,” he said. “So the first week was probably the lowest but when they kept doing seven days since it happened … 14 days … It was like it was still all there. That was hard. When they were doing that, it felt like, ‘f—, this is going to go on forever’. It felt overwhelming and overpowering, literally, like it won’t go away or pick up, get over it.
“But after the first month, and then it turned into something positive … the community stance. And it did from the first day after it … it was the community … it was just… stronger, straight away.
“You hate when something so terrible has to take place to get the community to bind together a bit more. That’s the only good to come from something so bad.”
Warburton’s phone has video from the day that is tough to watch. We viewed some of the aftermath and it was hard not to get emotional. He has been interviewed by police and has shown them what he has, including some vision that no one else would have. He is still trying to process the tragic events of the day.
“One thing I want to say is the Bulldogs club has been unbelievable in the way they have supported me, including the offer of counselling and everything else.”
Willie or won’t he get Chiefs job?
Willie Peters has some key support to be the inaugural coach of the Papua New Guinea Chiefs when they enter the NRL in 2028. He has been a miracle worker over the last 12 months. What he has done with Hull KR is incredible and it was capped off with the World Club Challenge win against the Brisbane Broncos.
Willie Peters – celebrating last year’s Super League premiership triumph – shapes as the next NRL coach-in-waiting.Credit: Getty Images
Apart from being a great coach, he is a very good person and a committed family man. You could not ask for a more decent man to oversee a tricky operation. He has a new relationship with recently appointed PNG general manager Michael Chammas, formed on the recent Kangaroo tour where Chammas was a journalist for the Herald and Peters was an assistant coach for Australia. But it’s the Australian Rugby League Commission which will make the decision, not Chammas.
“I’d be open to a discussion about that job,” Peters said. “There is no secret that I hold an ambition to get a start as a head coach.”
Emperor’s new clothes
Rugby league supremo Peter V’landys had to do an emergency shopping run when he landed in Las Vegas earlier in the week because he has run out of clothes that fit him. The chairman of the game has shed four pant sizes and an amazing 12 kilograms over the summer. He is on a protein-heavy diet and is not eating before lunchtime. Intermittent fasting is the key with exercise tossed in.
“I used to get my exercise by dusting off my gym equipment at home,” he said. “I figure I get better results if I actually use it. I feel good. And if I can do it anyone can do it.”
NASCAR takes pole position
There is no question the Las Vegas experience is a must-do for Australian fans, but the cut through in the United States is a long way short of what the code was hoping for when the idea was first proposed.
Rugby league in Las Vegas is a smash hit in terms of launching the season and providing fans with an experience they won’t forget. However, despite the NRL’s best efforts, it’s not on the lips of every American sports fan like head office was hoping it would be.
The best indication of that is the Fox network has decided against showing the matches on its free-to-air channel because it has the NASCAR on instead. It can still be seen on Fox but only by pay-TV customers. While not a deadly blow, it’s a significant one. Without mainstream television coverage, it’ll be difficult for rugby league to gain true traction.
That’s not to say that the NRL takeover is not a big deal in Las Vegas with the huge influx of Australian and English tourists. It may be why V’landys has been making a lot of noise about a global round as well. He revealed on Nine News this week that Wembley in London was the next target to showcase the NRL.
Excellence move by Bulldogs
There is a common perception among the teams in Vegas that the Bulldogs spent $50,000 to train at the centre of excellence of the Las Vegas Raiders.
Some digging around, however, has revealed they didn’t pay a cent. The NRL has established a tremendous relationship with the Raiders and there was no hiring fee for the Dogs. The reason that the $50,000 number may have been floated is before the establishment of a good relationship, that figure was being tossed around as what clubs would have to pay to train at the facility.
The Bulldogs started making moves to secure the training facility last year on a fact-finding mission headed by general manager Phil Gould and chairman Adam Driussi. The pair toured the facilities when last season’s teams were preparing for their Vegas campaigns. It was during that time that they expressed an interest in using the Raiders facility. There has been a feeling among rival clubs that the Bulldogs have been put on a pedestal. When I put that to Gould he didn’t seem to care about what other teams thought.
Welcome to workout central
Willie Peters (left) and Shane Flanagan take a breaking from working out in Las Vegas.
Forget coffee clubs or boozy nights. The place to network and meet for rugby league types is early in the morning at the Resorts World Las Vegas gymnasium, while working up a sweat.
Many English players, including impressive Hull KR hooker Jez Litten, were working out of the gym while fitness fanatic coach Willie Peters was going through his paces. St George Illawarra coach Shane Flanagan has been slogging it out doing the hard yards on an exercise bike, while his still super-fit assistant Michael Ennis was doing his thing. Cowboys boss Todd Payten was lifting big weights between phone calls and Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo was seen working out with his players, including Jacob Preston and Max King. King isn’t one for having days off training and would head to the gym even on training days to do extra.
The NRL’s general manager of US expansion, John Vellis, works out daily and some teams even do late sessions among the public. The hardest trainer by far was Cowboys doctor Chris Ball, who trains as hard as the players. The odd journalist was even seen working out, in a true indication the times have changed.
Most Viewed in Sport
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
