Willie Mason has been told not to turn up to the resumption of Bulldogs training on Monday morning, even though he has still not formally asked for a release from his $450,000- a-year contract.

The Bulldogs have instructed the star forward to stay clear of Belmore Oval, so as not to disrupt the start of their 2008 campaign. The disciplinary committee of coach Steve Folkes, football manager Brad Clyde and chief executive Malcolm Noad made the recommendation to the board so that Mason would not be financially penalised for "missing training" under his contract.

"Technically he is still under contract but he won't be at training on Monday, he won't be required at all until this is all sorted out," club spokesman Chris O'Brien said.

Complicating Mason's decision is the fact he recently refinanced his property portfolio and has a combined loan of more than $2.6 million on two properties, requiring regular cash flow, including that from his Australian-based personal sponsors.

Mason has a mortgage of $504,000 on the Charlestown house he bought for his mother and a $2.15 million mortgage on the three-bedroom Clovelly house he bought just four months ago for $2.3 million.

His interest repayments chew up a lot of his disposable income from his football contract.

Mason, who returned from the Melbourne Cup carnival yesterday, was picked up and briefed by his manager, Greg Keenan, as to his options for next season.

One of those is, of course, to front the Bulldogs board and apologise profusely. However, given his repeated inflammatory remarks about the club, it appears Mason has significantly overplayed his hand to remain at the Bulldogs.

The Bulldogs have not formally notified Mason of his requirement to front the board to explain his actions pending the termination of his contract, but its next meeting is next Thursday night.

It appears that cash-strapped St George Illawarra are out of the race for Mason and chief executive Peter Doust only met Keenan yesterday to discuss whether the player would be interested in moving to the Dragons at a drastically reduced price.

That leaves just the Roosters and the Sharks with a serious chance of snaffling his signature in the NRL.

Sharks coach Ricky Stuart was also at the races for a pre-arranged couple of days with friends, including Laurie Daley, but did not talk to Mason. Cronulla have been unable to off-load their forward Ben Ross, who was called into Sharks headquarters yesterday to explain his comments in Friday's Herald. Ross said Cronulla's desire to rid him for Mason was "low".

It is understood one rugby league identity had warned Hull coach Peter Sharp they would be paying over the odds for Ross and the UK club decided not to make an offer.

"Ben has no other options, he will honour his contract here at Cronulla Sutherland," Sharks spokesman Rob Willis said. "It looks like we can't spend any more unless someone moves on."

Meanwhile, coach Stuart and Brett Kimmorley were surprised at a rumour that the halfback would be switched to hooker next season.

"It is lucky we have got a lot of depth in the halves and I will be looking at training and the trials to work out our combinations," Stuart said.

¡ Kiwis coach Gary Kemble insists he is handling the pressure ahead of the final rugby league Test against Great Britain but is worried about how his family are coping, reports NZPA.

Kemble's position will be in jeopardy if his team fails to show a vast improvement in Wigan on Saturday night and in next week's one-off Test against France, having suffered record defeats against the British and Australia in recent weeks.

The new Kiwis coach has been labelled out of his depth and is said to have lost the respect of his players.

"It's not affecting me, but it's affecting my family and I get gutted on that," Kemble said. "My family's not very happy about what's going on."