Reni Maitua is expected to be banned from the NRL until 2010 after he was axed by the Bulldogs for missing a training session.
The unannounced no-show was the last straw for the notorious Bulldogs bad boy - the last in a long line of misdemeanours spanning his five seasons at the club.
The former Kangaroos lock was "shattered" by the Bulldogs' decision, but the worst could be yet to come for Maitua after NRL David Gallop revealed it's unlikely he will be permitted to play for another NRL club.
"If another club wanted to sign him, we'd be unlikely to register his contract for the 2009 season," Gallop told Fairfax.
"Where players are terminated for repeated behaviour issues, there would be an inherent unfairness if the player could just walk into another club. The simple message is, stay out of trouble."
The move to prevent Maitua playing with another NRL club was pushed by Bulldogs boss Todd Greenberg, and is reminiscent of the ban laid down against wayward Canberra star Todd Carney.
"I think the supporters would find it hard to take if we had to play against him," Greenberg said.
It’s expected Maitua’s agent Sam Ayoub will start fielding offers from UK Super League clubs.
Maitua's public behavioual dramas have included a drink-driving charge in 2006 and numerous missed training sessions after extended drunken weekends.
"On this occasion, he failed to front for a ball-work session at 8am, followed by yoga and weights. It is believed he was out in Cronulla on Sunday night," said Greenberg.
"There's been numerous breaches of the club's code of conduct.
"Kevin [Moore] said to the team that under his watch, the club comes first, the team second and the individual third.
"If you don't toe that line, you've got some issues. There were 25 other blokes at training at eight in the morning slogging it out, doing it tough, and he wasn't one of them."
