Because like any employee or contractor his work commitments to Penrith are whatever agreed hours in his contract (7am to 4pm etc). What he does outside those hours in his own personal time is entirely up to him which is when he calls players etc and prepares for next year. Provided that an employee does not commit an illegal act against his employee (for eg steal intellectual property/assets from the employer etc) an employer cannot restrict what their employee does in their own personal time. Even if Barret came to the Dogs this year he cannot call prospective players during normal hours anyway because they are training with their current clubs. Talking to our current players off contract is a much lower priority because they are not match winners and not in demand with other clubs.
If we are to believe the reports and what Barrett has said himself then he has been told by Penrith not to talk to
ANY Penrith players or staff. Plainly, if he had started as coach with us, there are some players that he wouldn't be "legally" allowed to talk to anyway, but any off contract this year he would be able to talk to. "Illegally" he could talk to anyone of course.
NRL coaches and assistant coaches don't work 9 to 5 (or 7 till 4) 5 days a week, if they did they wouldn't last a month in the job (Bellamy apparently works 80+ hours a week and expects his support staff to put in the hours too.) Often the video review session starts with the coaching staff the morning after the game, while the physio staff are working on player recovery, so as an example Barrett would have been involved most of last Saturday. Then have Sunday off with his family and maybe review the video of the team that they are playing next, then start Monday morning with the players on last game/next game.
Barrett currently lives at Freshwater but his house is for sale (source ahttps://www.news.com.au/finance/real-estate/new-bulldogs-coach-trent-barrett-lists-luxury-freshwater-beach-house-for-sale-with-32m-guide/news-story/39c3915391734879523f4449e97814bb) and the family is moving back down to the south coast. So he travels 2 to 3 hours a day getting to and from work, say 5 am, maybe that's when he called Elliott. So even if he works the normal 50 to 60 hours a week of an assistant coach he then adds 10 to 15 hours week travelling time. I'm OK with a casual chat on the hands free phone whilst driving, but complex business stuff doesn't mix well with the concentration required while driving in Sydney traffic. If Barrett is spending more than a few hours a week on us I'd be very surprised. Whereas he should be spending 80 + hours like Bellamy.
Go Dogs
