‘‘I’m particularly close to Bryce because of our time at Penrith and my role in him coming here. It was fine that she was in touch, especially if she had some concerns for him. To say she was blowing up is not right at all.” That contact with the coach has generated significant discussion at the club. They need one of their big signings to be playing like they know he can. There were some at the Titans who had reservations about Cartwright’s off-field life and this doesn’t ease their concerns. News of the message has spread through the NRL. Cartwright is a talented footballer, who has found himself in some bad situations. During his time at Penrith, he had an affair and got a woman pregnant. The woman, whom I had known for a while, aborted the child and there was a $50,000 payment. That led to much negative publicity for the Panthers – but the human toll was far worse. Cartwright was blamed for so much and that would have taken its toll. Cartwright has just bought a $1.3 million property on the Gold Coast, in a market that has been heavily influenced by the hype surrounding the Commonwealth Games. He has had to borrow heavily to do so. Other new arrivals at the Titans have listened to their financial advisers and backed off for the time being.

Cartwright very nearly backed out of his deal with the Titans after texting his teammates to tell them he was leaving. He did that without knowing that his deal on the Gold Coast was not sealed. Cartwright left the Panthers because he was having serious doubts about his chances of making the first grade team. His lack of fitness was a concern for the Panthers. Cartwright needs to start playing the kind of football that made him one of the rising stars of the game – for himself, his young family and his finances. He has the potential to be anything, but those who know him say that he needs to take control of his career. But first and foremost he needs to make sure his head is ready for the high-pressure life of an NRL first grader. Izzy’s on the outer and league clubs ready to pounce Loading NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg has kept in close touch with Israel Folau since he left the NRL. At the start of the year, when there were plenty of rumours that he was heading back to league, Greenberg got the message that Folau was likely to stick with rugby until after the 2019 World Cup. But plenty has changed since then.

A few controversial social media posts later and Folau, whose contract expires at the end of this year, is on the outer. And now the NRL is bracing for a possible return — especially with Folau annoyed that the ARU turned the meeting he had with management into a media event. Hastings and DCE get physical Manly officials say Jackson Hastings is not playing today due to an Achilles injury – and his absence has nothing to do with a scuffle at training with skipper Daly Cherry-Evans. The Sea Eagles told this column things got heated between the pair. They ended up locked together on the turf at training last week. I was told initially that Hastings belted DCE. The club says that wasn’t the case. Clearly something happened between the pair. Those who claim they saw it say it was worse than a scuffle. I’ll believe what a senior official told me as he has never lied to me in the past.

Support for V’landys in club land Our item about Peter V’landys perhaps positioning himself for a run at the NRL’s top job received support in club land. Some club bosses would like to see him challenge the league’s chief executive, Todd Greenberg. They see V’landys as a mover and shaker, who is not afraid to rattle a cage or three. Word out of the first meeting of the new-look ARL Commission is that he tried to pass a motion saying former chairman John Grant should not get the position as head of the Rugby League International Federation. Quite a brave move for a new player in the game. He got minimal support. V’landys also has it in for anyone who is consulting for the NRL. He can’t understand why consultants are needed. He thinks full-time employees should do the work.

Footage on the nose The game’s powerbrokers wanted Mitchell Pearce wiped out of the game for a year for his Australia Day bender. It was only strong arguments from the Roosters that got his penalty down to eight weeks and a $125,000 fine. In effect, Todd Carney got three years plus for his ‘‘bubbling’’ incident. Both were hammered by the look of the images we saw. You have to wonder what penalty New Zealand’s Kevin Proctor and Jesse Bromwich would have received if the footage of them snorting cocaine had emerged at the time when their suspensions were still being considered. The vision that emerged this week of the pair in Canberra using cocaine looks pretty bad, and is another bad image for the game.

Proctor and Bromwich were heavily penalised (Proctor was banned for four games and Bromwich for two, and both were not considered for the Rugby League World Cup), but you have to think the lack of footage, until now, helped them. Remember, Matt Lodge’s drunken New York rampage only really grabbed headlines when video of the incident emerged. John Grant’s big test He may have been chairman of the RLIF for only a couple of months, but John Grant has already put his neck on the line. Grant has sanctioned the mid-year Test in Denver between England and New Zealand, even though the Test has the potential to wreak havoc with the NRL. Sam Burgess, Gareth Widdop, James Graham, Shaun Johnson, Kieran Foran and others will fly 13,000 kilometres to play a Test at altitude before rushing home to play the next round for their clubs.

In some cases, the game’s top stars will be expected to play just two days after taking a long flight to Sydney. The players are being seduced to play in the Test by the promise of business-class flights, the best in accommodation and medical care, and a $5000 playing fee. Not to mention a break from a gruelling NRL season. The NRL, Rugby League Players Association and clubs have all expressed reservations about the Test. While they support international matches, they believe the Test should be held either in New Zealand or at the end of the season. However, Grant has the whip hand because players are required to make themselves available for representative football. So the Test will go ahead. But the focus will again fall on Grant if there are serious injuries to key players, if the optimistic 50,000 crowd figure fails to materialise or if there are off-field dramas in Denver. It will be even worse for him if players drop out at the last minute – as they used to do for City-Country matches – and turn the Test into a substandard affair.

There are already some on the new-look ARLC who cannot understand why Grant is representing Australia on the international federation. There might be even more questioning his appointment by the end of this Test. Carney a Cowboys priority The Cowboys will meet with the NRL early in the week to discuss Todd Carney’s return. The NRL remains bemused by the idea, given the club already has Te Maire Martin waiting in the wings to support two of the game’s best halves, Johnathan Thurston and Michael Morgan. For many reasons, Carney is a high priority for the Cowboys. No average Joe Say what you want about mind guru Joe Wehbe, but one thing is certain: he has a loyal bunch of followers. Last week this column revealed Jarryd Hayne was meeting with Wehbe. We produced a grainy image (below) we had been sent as proof.

Well, didn’t that generate some feedback – positive and negative. Wehbe works his magic on the likes of James Tedesco, Daly Cherry-Evans and Mitchell Moses, to name just a few, and they swear by his mind-clearing ways. He is also quite the businessman. He has a close relationship with controversial manager Isaac Moses. The pair work hand in hand. I wrote last week that Wehbe was spotted with Hayne and recounted the history of how Wehbe and Isaac Moses were not wanted at Wests Tigers. Wehbe wanted to bring in his own masseur, who was seen as having too much input at the Tigers and things didn’t work out. Loading

Somehow this was interpreted as this column suggesting Wehbe was the reason for Parramatta’s horrendous start to the season. I received the following text message from Eels captain Tim Mannah, who rarely buys into any drama. In short, he is one of the game’s good guys. Mannah wrote: “Just wanted to write to you about the article you wrote last week which involved Joe Wehbe. I just wanted to clear things up and let you know that Joe hasn’t been involved with our team at all this year and the fact that you insinuated that he was to blame for our current form didn’t sit well with myself, as well as many other players across the competition who consider Joe a close friend. ‘‘Not sure if you just took a stab or whether someone fed you bad info, but just wanted to make you aware that it was off the mark.’’ I called Mannah and talked him through my take on the Wehbe article. The point of the story was to say he was talking to Hayne, and that was all in relation to Wehbe. The main thrust of the story was that the Eels players had held a heart-to-heart where they ripped into each other and didn’t wait for coach Brad Arthur to hop in and give them a serve. It was a credit to the players.