Strained relationship ... Josh Dugan and David Furner. Photo: Colleen Petch
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Desperate Canberra Raiders officials were on the phone trying to track down Josh Dugan.
The fullback hadn't shown up to training for days, without explanation, and his coaches didn't know whether to be angry or concerned.
Leaving the ACT Magistrates Court after having his license suspended for 15 months in July 2010. Photo: Lannon Harley
This didn't just happen last week. It was in 2008, when Dugan was playing for the Raiders' under-20s.
He was suspended on three separate occasions that season, for a total of six weeks, for failing to turn up to training, sometimes for days on end.
Five years on, how did it come to this? That Canberra's highest-paid player would become so disgruntled he'd walk out on his home club this week without even a phone call to say goodbye?
With only a few tattoos in July 2010. Photo: Graham Tidy
Raiders coach David Furner adamantly denies the reports of a personal falling-out with Dugan, although many have assumed that Dugan was pointing his middle finger at Furner in the Instagram photo as he drank alcopops on a Nicholls rooftop on Monday.
The Canberra Times has learnt that Dugan sent a text message to Furner on Thursday, after his sacking, apologising to the coach and thanking him for the opportunity at the Raiders.
Furner refused to comment when contacted on Friday, saying his focus was only on Sunday's game against the Gold Coast.
With a full body of tattoos last month. Photo: Colleen Petch
The deeper question about Dugan is whether he's ever had any respect for authority?
Had the Raiders' leniency with discipline contributed to his attitude? Or were they never a chance of taming a kid that was on their radar at 13 and always destined to be something special as a rugby league player?
Dugan's list of reported misdemeanours is long, including having his driving licence suspended and, last year, being stood down for drinking while injured.
The picture that proved the beginning of the end.
Raiders insiders say the list of unreported incidents of insolence is much longer.
It will no doubt be presented to the NRL before it decides whether to register Dugan with another club this season. The Dragons are emerging as the favourite for his signature.
Rumours of Dugan's discontent in Canberra were not new, but problems seemed to be alleviated when he signed a new two-year deal, fattened with third-party sponsorships, last year.
Club sources, however, reveal that Dugan blatantly began to defy coaching instructions late last season.
When Dugan returned from an ankle injury, the Raiders coaching staff contemplated shifting him to the wing and allowing the in-form Reece Robinson to continue at fullback. After much debate, Dugan was given his No.1 jersey back.
But during matches, when the message came down from the coach's box for Dugan and Robinson to switch places, Dugan often resisted.
In the most recent off-season, the Raiders pulled favours to schedule Dugan in for surgery on his injured ankle so he could be back for the start of pre-season. He didn't show up for the operation, again without explanation.
It was rescheduled for a week later, but his rehabilitation was already put behind.
The drinking binge with Blake Ferguson this week was also nothing new. The pair were stood down for one match last season under similar circumstances.
On that occasion, Dugan was drinking while injured and Ferguson reported to training affected by alcohol.
But club insiders have revealed that Dugan was going to be spared the axe that week and only Ferguson would be dropped. That was until Dugan turned up late to the very next training session, giving the coaching staff no alternative.
Yes, he stuck his finger up at Raiders officials this week, but history shows he'd been thumbing his nose at them for a while.
It would be unfair to say the Raiders have not tried to intervene. Back to 2008. Dugan, who turned 18 that year, was called in to Raiders headquarters with his parents to attend a meeting with then NRL coach Neil Henry, under-20s coach Tony Adam and Raiders chief executive Don Furner.
The club had suspended him three times for missing training and they asked him directly: did he want to be there? He told them he did.
Coincidentally, the Raiders sacked Todd Carney in 2008.
Dugan's story has obvious parallels to Carney's.
Both were local juniors, identified at young ages as potential superstars. They were friends and at one stage they were looking to rent an apartment together. The club advised against it.
Both were big fish growing up in Canberra's small pond. This is where Canberra's environment can work against it.
When a Canberra junior is so good on the field, as in the cases of Carney and Dugan, the Raiders tend to persist with them even when they're bad off it.
Raiders development officer David Hamilton admitted it touched a nerve to see Dugan walk out on the club this week. ''You don't want to see anyone fail, but it would have been nice for him to be successful here,'' Hamilton said.
''You don't begrudge anyone success. But at the moment it's pretty raw, it's disappointing.
''You think you put in so much time and people have done so much for him, he probably wouldn't realise.''
Dugan had lost the support of the bulk of his teammates.
When one player was asked early this week whether teammates were beginning to lose faith in Dugan, he said: ''We lost that a long time ago.''
For a person who tweets more than an aviary, Dugan is almost impossible to reach by phone.
There's a story circulating that when Dugan's manager Paul Sutton wants to get in touch quickly, he texts to say there's a sponsor interested in his client.
Dugan usually calls back within minutes.
It's understood Furner has not responded yet to Dugan's apologetic text.
Now it's the Raiders who have stopped calling.
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