Wests Tigers players slammed for ‘disgusting’ treatment of Lachlan Galvin

Wests Tigers players have been slammed for their “disgusting” treatment of wantaway young star Lachlan Galvin.

Galvin was axed by the Tigers this week after he rejected a $5m contract extension to stay at the club.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: RLPA enters standoff between Tigers and Galvin.

The club were furious with the 19-year-old’s decision and released a strongly worded statement on Monday night before dropping him to reserve grade.

The prodigy made the controversial comment that leaving the Tigers was “in the best interests of my career”, outlining a desire to “build my game at a different club” during “an important period of my development as a half”.

This followed reports that his manager Isaac Moses had told Wests hierarchy that Galvin would not develop under coach Benji Marshall.

Furious senior players informed club legend Marshall they did not want to play with Galvin, who was subsequently dropped for Monday’s clash with Parramatta as teammates Jarome Luai and Sunia Turuva fired barbs on social media.

Club captain Luai posted a “Team First” message on Tuesday, while Turuva posted a clip on Instagram which showed Galvin’s dressing room locker and the WWE theme song Here Comes the Money played over the top.

NRL great Brad Fittler slammed the social media posts on Wide World of Sports.

“You’ve got to say, it sort of says a lot about the club, I suppose, and with what’s going on with Lachie,” Fittler said.

“I don’t think you would see this at Melbourne or some of the bigger clubs.

“It’s a really good opportunity just to say nothing and go and play footy.

“I find it quite disgusting what they’re all doing on social media. It’s terrible.”

Fellow NRL great Andrew Johns was equally scathing, pointing out that both Luai and Turuva left their former clubs to join the Tigers on big-money deals.

“I think if you asked (Luai and Turuva), they’d probably like to take that back, because they left Penrith to go to the Tigers. So it is hypocritical,” Johns said.

Dragons coach Shane Flanagan also pointed out that fact.

“Those two players that have said something about Lachie looked after themselves as well, looked after themselves financially,” Flanagan said on Wednesday.

Phil Gould has predicted Galvin will exit the club early due to the “untenable” situation that has developed in recent days.

Gould, speaking on his ‘Six Tackles With Gus’ podcast, said he was worried about Galvin’s welfare and didn’t believe the young gun would spend two seasons in reserve grade.

Podcast host Mathew Thompson asked the Canterbury boss, whose club is among those in the mix to sign the playmaker, if Galvin would now leave.

“I think he’ll have to,” Gould replied.

Gould said Galvin’s situation was now “untenable”.

“This is the first time time I have ever seen it played out so publicly,” Gould said.

“Within hours (of Galvin’s statement) the playing group has said, ‘if that’s your attitude we don’t want you in the team’.

“That’s terrible. That is why the playing group has come out and supported the coach.

“Benji didn’t make that decision. The senior playing group took it out of his hands and said we don’t want to play with him.”

Meanwhile, Parramatta have emerged as one of the front-runners to sign Galvin.

The move has the backing of club legend Brett Kenny who told AAP that Galvin would be “the perfect complement for halfback Mitchell Moses” just as he was in the halves alongside Peter Sterling in the 1980s.

The 19-year-old will leave the Tigers at the end of 2026 and will become a free agent on November 1, when clubs are able to table formal offers.

AAP understands the Eels are getting all their ducks in a row in the background to secure Galvin, although Canterbury are also understood to be right in the mix.

Manly coach Anthony Seibold on Tuesday ruled the Sea Eagles out of the running.

“We haven’t discussed Lachlan,” Seibold said.

“I don’t know where Lachlan will end up. I admire him from a distance, but he won’t be at Manly.”

- With AAP