Former Manly prop threatens legal action on NRL club
Former Manly player Lloyd Perrett (centre) is threatening to take the club to the Supreme Court.
Manly are at risk of becoming the second NRL club to face legal action over training techniques, with former player Lloyd Perrett threatening to take the club to the NSW Supreme Court.
Perrett has revealed he is planning to launch action over a training session in late 2017, which left him hospitalised with heat stroke after suffering a seizure.
The former member of Queensland’s Emerging State of Origin squad recovered to play again in 2018, but his career fell away and he was released by Manly in 2019.
In an interview with Wide World of Sports, Perrett said he had been prompted to start legal action after the death of Keith Titmuss at Manly training in 2020.
The findings of a coronial inquest into Titmuss’s death are due on Friday.
“I didn’t want to do this, but I felt like everything in my life got taken from me,” Perrett told Wide World of Sports.
“It was gone in an instant and I am still feeling the effects, mentally and physically.
“Taking legal action has been dangled in front of me since it all happened, but my manager at the time said ‘you’ll win but never play footy again’… so I held off.
“I think the result of the Keith Titmuss inquiry was the final straw. That’s when I decided to take action.”
Perrett said he had been suffering from “survivor’s guilt”, and wanted to set a standard for training styles at NRL clubs.
The prop also claimed he was never the same footballer following his collapse at age 23, which he said came after players were discouraged from drinking water during a running session.
Perrett played 13 NRL games in 2018, but after coach Trent Barrett exited the club that year he managed only three matches in 2019 before going unsigned.
Manly were contacted by AAP for comment on Wednesday, but could not respond given they had not received any legal documentation from Perrett’s lawyers.
None of the Sea Eagles’ current training stuff were with Manly at the time of the incident.
Perrett’s hospitalisation and Titmuss’s death also occurred under two separate coaching regimes, and there is no suggestion the incidents are linked.
Perrett’s proposed legal action comes as Canterbury prepare to go to court in June to defend themselves against former player Jackson Topine.
Topine will claim that he suffered “psychiatric injury” after being forced to wrestle up to 36 teammates back-to-back after being late to a session last July.
Canterbury have made clear they will deny some parts of the claim and defend themselves in the civil case.