NZ Warriors coach Nathan Brown has taken "full responsibility" for the early departure of Matt Lodge, despite the club's owner claiming his fallout with the forward was the catalyst for his exit.
Last week, Lodge was granted a release with a year left on his contract citing his reluctance to relocate his family to New Zealand next season.
That was followed by a stunning revelation from Warriors owner Mark Robinson that an argument with Lodge at a pub last year created a hatchet that couldn't be buried, eventually leading to Robinson paying the Australian out of the final year of his deal.
Lodge later denied any argument took place, but after the Warriors' loss to Newcastle Knights on Saturday, Brown insisted the blame for Lodge's exit should lie squarely on his shoulders.
"When you recruit a player and it doesn't work out, as in Lodgey's case, it's no-one's fault, but the head coach's," said Brown. "I brought Lodgey here to the club and it didn't work out, so that's on me.
"It's not on the owner, it's not on Lodgey, it's not on anyone. It's on me.
"If you've got a bloke moving out of the club that you brought to the club, you've done something wrong - it's no-one else's fault, but the head coach.
"If you move players that you didn't bring to the club, that ain't your fault, because you're doing your job to help the club get better, so I take full responsibility for the Lodgey situation.
"I brought Matt to the club and it didn't work out, so the full responsibility should land on me - not anyone else."
Lodge is yet to sign on with another NRL club, but was spotted playing second-grade club rugby at Brisbane last weekend.
Brown revealed he had spoken to Lodge since he left the team and wished him success at his next stop.
"I just had a chat to Lodgey," he said. "I just really want him to make his next club to work for him, his best years are coming - that's all I said to him.
"He was playing some really good, consistent footy for us. I just want him to go to a club where it works out for him for a 4-5 year block, because his best footy is coming.
"He's still only 26 and you want to see it work out for him. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out here and, as I said, when you bring a bloke to the club and it doesn't work out, you've got to look at maybe what you got wrong."
While the loss of the in-form Lodge was a significant blow to the team's stocks, he may not have made much difference in another inept display by the Warriors at Moreton Daily Stadium on Saturday.
Baffling unforced errors - including kicks sent out on the full - and poor defence saw the Warriors squander a 12-0 lead against the struggling Knights to fall to their fourth straight defeat.
"We were in total control in the first half and then we kicked quite poorly," Brown noted. "We put two out on the full and sprayed two that didn’t go anywhere.
"Our kicking game let us down bad, which hadn't been the case. The boys had been kicking well, so we invited them back into the contest.
"In the second half, again, we were on top and got in front, but then didn't catch a kickoff.
"It's like we try to make it as hard as we can. Some of the boys were working their socks off, some blokes were playing some of their best-ever footy and then we hand it back over.
"[The Knights] are a team that's down there like ourselves, and when you're trying to get going and become a good team, making it very easy for the opposition is not the idea of it."
The defeat leaves the Warriors mired in 12th on the NRL ladder.
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