Cronulla's board meets on Wednesday night where Gallen's leadership of the club is also expected to come under fire. The NRL announced on Monday that Gallen would be ineligible to be selected for the Kangaroos in 2015 unless he successfully completes a leader's accountability course. His eligibility will ultimately be determined by an ARLC panel. Smith labelled the tweet, in which he wrote "Steve Noice (sic) actually cared about players from cronulla's feelings. Couldn't say that about any other c--- from Nrl", a clear breach of the code of conduct and said it was "aggravated by the fact that Gallen, as captain of the NSW Blues, holds an important leadership position in the game". Gallen has seven days to respond to the breach notice which included the maximum fine the NRL could impose. Sharks chairman Damian Keogh said the club supported the strong sanctions. "The last two years have been a difficult period for the Sharks and our focus is on performing strongly on and off the field in 2015," he said. "So it is disappointing to have the club involved in this sort of issue as we prepare for next season." Gallen said he had tried to contact Smith following his Twitter tirade against the code's governing body. Earlier on Monday, Gallen announced his second professional fight against former teammate Anthony Watts on December 3 on the undercard of Daniel Geale and Jarrod Fletcher's bout.

Gallen, who returned from a holiday in Hawaii, had already taken to social media to apologise. "I tried to ring Dave Smith and the club within minutes of getting off the plane," Gallen said. "I put something on Twitter. I used language I should've have used. I'm here to talk about boxing." An NRL spokesman confirmed Smith had made contact with Gallen via text. The spokesman said Smith wrote to Gallen on Saturday; "thanking him for making an effort to make contact and they would talk once the matter was concluded". Gallen has had a turbulent two years, culminating in his ongoing ban by ASADA following an investigation into Cronulla's supplement program. The ban – which ends on November 21 – ruled Gallen out of Australia's Four Nations squad. Gallen also dodged talk of reports he had been suffering depression. "It's an issue, not for me to talk about at the moment," Gallen said. "I support people who come out and talk about it. I encourage people to talk about it. It's a very serious issue. I won't be discussing it with anyone I don't know or trust." Having knocked out Herman Ene-Purcell in his debut bout in February, Gallen said he was looking at stepping back into the ring.

He'll fight one-time teammate Watts, who is looking to overcome his own demons. "I know Anthony Watts is really keen to fight me," Gallen said. "About 12 months ago our media manager [at Cronulla] came running onto the field asking if I was fighting Anthony Watts. I had no idea what he was talking about. But apparently he told a judge he needed bail because he had to fight Paul Gallen. That was the first I heard of it." Meanwhile, Geale will return to the ring for the first time since losing his world title shot against Gennady Golovkin in July.