Fairfax understands the breach notice wasn't served after the Sea Eagles told the NRL integrity unit's boss, Nick Weeks, that Hopoate wouldn't be coaching the team on the weekend because the team had a bye. The NRL's position is that officials of each NRL club must be registered with the league, and as Hopoate hasn't been granted registration it says he is ineligible to be involved in an official capacity with the Sea Eagles. Weeks also asserts Hopoate is not a fit and proper person for registration based on his past brushes with the law and his past on-field antics. The bye prevented a possible flashpoint situation, but Levick implored Manly to ensure Hopoate is in charge of the team when it plays Canberra at Brookvale Oval this Saturday. "It's time for the club to man up and back Hopoate 100 per cent," said Levick, who also represents William Hopoate, Todd Carney and a host of other NRL players involved in legal battles with NRL clubs.

Levick said the SG Ball competition is governed by the NSWRL – not the NRL – meaning the NRL has no jurisdiction over Hopoate as coach of a SG Ball team. NSWRL chief executive Dave Trodden reiterated as late as last Thursday that Hopoate has fulfilled the criteria to be an SG Ball coach. Levick pointed out what she called the "hypocrisy" of the stand-off, saying Hopoate was selected by the NRL to do a coaching course that provides a pathway to coach at the elite level. "He was hand-picked by the NRL to do the course that qualified him to coach first grade" Levick said. 'So on the one hand they pick him and put him through the courses to coach first grade but on the other hand they say 'no, you can't coach'." Hopoate was suspended for a NRL record 45 weeks during his 209-game first-grade career and before being rubbed out of the game in 2005 after copping a 17-match ban for a tackle on Keith Galloway. He was suspended for 12 games in 2001 for poking opposition players up the backside.

Hopoate is bitterly upset about his coaching career being in jeopardy and, in his view, believes it is a personal attack. "Never go to the casino and yet get barred. Tried to ask why [I'm banned] when I don't go there and they said 'don't have to tell you why'," Hopoate wrote on Facebook. "Looks like they just pull your name out of a hat … what a load of crap especially when you never go to the place. The NRL handpick me to do a high performance course in Nov so I can coach 1st grade yet turn around and say you can't coach. "It's alright for them to take the $400 off me to pay for the course but now it's not ok for me to coach. It's like giving me a driver's licence and then saying 'sorry you can't drive'. I ain't no angel but if there's 1 thing I love and that's giving back to kids and make them not make the same mistakes I've done," he wrote. "If there's 1 thing I can teach the kids [it] is what NOT to do."