Keys leads US charge into quarters at Queen's Club
Madison Keys has powered into the quarter-finals of the Queen's Club Championships with a 6-3 6-2 win over Anastasia Zakharova, while fellow American luminaries Emma Navarro and Amanda Anisimova also progressed.
Australian Open champion Keys had an early wobble in the opening set in her first grasscourt match of the season when she found herself 3-1 down as she tried to find her footing on Wednesday.
But she did not panic and quickly recovered to win the next five games, sealing the set with an ace straight down the middle.
Zakharova had her moments in the second set but could not contend with the power of Keys, who converted five break points and clinched victory with an unreturned serve to wrap up the contest in 68 minutes.
"Always tough to play your first match on the grass, especially against someone who's already played a few matches. But overall, pretty happy and happy that I get another match here," Keys said.
"The first couple of games felt like I was just trying to find my footing. Once I did, I feel like I played really well."
Third seed Navarro overcame a nightmare opening set and also saved match point to beat Brazil's Beatriz Haddad Maia 1-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-3.
After Navarro saved a match point in the second set, Haddad Maia led 4-2 in the tiebreak but the Brazilian lost her momentum when play was paused so an audience member could receive medical treatment.
Haddad Maia then began making errors and Navarro pounced, forcing a decider where the Brazilian lost serve with a double fault before Navarro clinched victory in a match that lasted nearly three hours.
"It wasn't easy. I think I've spent the most time on a match court with Bea than anyone else. We play each other all the time and we always go to three sets," Navarro said.
"I've only been playing on grass for about four days, it's a quick turnaround."
Navarro set up a quarter-final clash with Anisimova, who needed only 64 minutes to beat Sonay Kartal 6-1 6-3, the second Briton she had beaten at the tournament after Jodie Burrage.
"I'm so sorry, guys," she told the home fans. "There's been some tough matches here but I am enjoying it and glad to be through to the next round.
"There are so many strong girls right now in America and I am so happy to see us doing well. I am sure the match with Emma will be a battle. She is a tough player and I am looking forward to it."
Any home hopes of British success in the doubles also went up in smoke when Emma Raducanu and Katie Boulter lost 6-2 7-5 to top seeds Erin Routliffe and Lyudmyla Kichenok.
Madison Keys has powered into the quarter-finals of the Queen's Club Championships with a 6-3 6-2 win over Anastasia Zakharova, while fellow American luminaries Emma Navarro and Amanda Anisimova also progressed.
Australian Open champion Keys had an early wobble in the opening set in her first grasscourt match of the season when she found herself 3-1 down as she tried to find her footing on Wednesday.
But she did not panic and quickly recovered to win the next five games, sealing the set with an ace straight down the middle.
Zakharova had her moments in the second set but could not contend with the power of Keys, who converted five break points and clinched victory with an unreturned serve to wrap up the contest in 68 minutes.
"Always tough to play your first match on the grass, especially against someone who's already played a few matches. But overall, pretty happy and happy that I get another match here," Keys said.
"The first couple of games felt like I was just trying to find my footing. Once I did, I feel like I played really well."
Third seed Navarro overcame a nightmare opening set and also saved match point to beat Brazil's Beatriz Haddad Maia 1-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-3.
After Navarro saved a match point in the second set, Haddad Maia led 4-2 in the tiebreak but the Brazilian lost her momentum when play was paused so an audience member could receive medical treatment.
Haddad Maia then began making errors and Navarro pounced, forcing a decider where the Brazilian lost serve with a double fault before Navarro clinched victory in a match that lasted nearly three hours.
"It wasn't easy. I think I've spent the most time on a match court with Bea than anyone else. We play each other all the time and we always go to three sets," Navarro said.
"I've only been playing on grass for about four days, it's a quick turnaround."
Navarro set up a quarter-final clash with Anisimova, who needed only 64 minutes to beat Sonay Kartal 6-1 6-3, the second Briton she had beaten at the tournament after Jodie Burrage.
"I'm so sorry, guys," she told the home fans. "There's been some tough matches here but I am enjoying it and glad to be through to the next round.
"There are so many strong girls right now in America and I am so happy to see us doing well. I am sure the match with Emma will be a battle. She is a tough player and I am looking forward to it."
Any home hopes of British success in the doubles also went up in smoke when Emma Raducanu and Katie Boulter lost 6-2 7-5 to top seeds Erin Routliffe and Lyudmyla Kichenok.
Madison Keys has powered into the quarter-finals of the Queen's Club Championships with a 6-3 6-2 win over Anastasia Zakharova, while fellow American luminaries Emma Navarro and Amanda Anisimova also progressed.
Australian Open champion Keys had an early wobble in the opening set in her first grasscourt match of the season when she found herself 3-1 down as she tried to find her footing on Wednesday.
But she did not panic and quickly recovered to win the next five games, sealing the set with an ace straight down the middle.
Zakharova had her moments in the second set but could not contend with the power of Keys, who converted five break points and clinched victory with an unreturned serve to wrap up the contest in 68 minutes.
"Always tough to play your first match on the grass, especially against someone who's already played a few matches. But overall, pretty happy and happy that I get another match here," Keys said.
"The first couple of games felt like I was just trying to find my footing. Once I did, I feel like I played really well."
Third seed Navarro overcame a nightmare opening set and also saved match point to beat Brazil's Beatriz Haddad Maia 1-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-3.
After Navarro saved a match point in the second set, Haddad Maia led 4-2 in the tiebreak but the Brazilian lost her momentum when play was paused so an audience member could receive medical treatment.
Haddad Maia then began making errors and Navarro pounced, forcing a decider where the Brazilian lost serve with a double fault before Navarro clinched victory in a match that lasted nearly three hours.
"It wasn't easy. I think I've spent the most time on a match court with Bea than anyone else. We play each other all the time and we always go to three sets," Navarro said.
"I've only been playing on grass for about four days, it's a quick turnaround."
Navarro set up a quarter-final clash with Anisimova, who needed only 64 minutes to beat Sonay Kartal 6-1 6-3, the second Briton she had beaten at the tournament after Jodie Burrage.
"I'm so sorry, guys," she told the home fans. "There's been some tough matches here but I am enjoying it and glad to be through to the next round.
"There are so many strong girls right now in America and I am so happy to see us doing well. I am sure the match with Emma will be a battle. She is a tough player and I am looking forward to it."
Any home hopes of British success in the doubles also went up in smoke when Emma Raducanu and Katie Boulter lost 6-2 7-5 to top seeds Erin Routliffe and Lyudmyla Kichenok.
Madison Keys has powered into the quarter-finals of the Queen's Club Championships with a 6-3 6-2 win over Anastasia Zakharova, while fellow American luminaries Emma Navarro and Amanda Anisimova also progressed.
Australian Open champion Keys had an early wobble in the opening set in her first grasscourt match of the season when she found herself 3-1 down as she tried to find her footing on Wednesday.
But she did not panic and quickly recovered to win the next five games, sealing the set with an ace straight down the middle.
Zakharova had her moments in the second set but could not contend with the power of Keys, who converted five break points and clinched victory with an unreturned serve to wrap up the contest in 68 minutes.
"Always tough to play your first match on the grass, especially against someone who's already played a few matches. But overall, pretty happy and happy that I get another match here," Keys said.
"The first couple of games felt like I was just trying to find my footing. Once I did, I feel like I played really well."
Third seed Navarro overcame a nightmare opening set and also saved match point to beat Brazil's Beatriz Haddad Maia 1-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-3.
After Navarro saved a match point in the second set, Haddad Maia led 4-2 in the tiebreak but the Brazilian lost her momentum when play was paused so an audience member could receive medical treatment.
Haddad Maia then began making errors and Navarro pounced, forcing a decider where the Brazilian lost serve with a double fault before Navarro clinched victory in a match that lasted nearly three hours.
"It wasn't easy. I think I've spent the most time on a match court with Bea than anyone else. We play each other all the time and we always go to three sets," Navarro said.
"I've only been playing on grass for about four days, it's a quick turnaround."
Navarro set up a quarter-final clash with Anisimova, who needed only 64 minutes to beat Sonay Kartal 6-1 6-3, the second Briton she had beaten at the tournament after Jodie Burrage.
"I'm so sorry, guys," she told the home fans. "There's been some tough matches here but I am enjoying it and glad to be through to the next round.
"There are so many strong girls right now in America and I am so happy to see us doing well. I am sure the match with Emma will be a battle. She is a tough player and I am looking forward to it."
Any home hopes of British success in the doubles also went up in smoke when Emma Raducanu and Katie Boulter lost 6-2 7-5 to top seeds Erin Routliffe and Lyudmyla Kichenok.
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The Age
3 hours ago
- The Age
‘Not to be messed with': Criminals recruited for country's biggest wind farm
When Keys arrived at the wind farm, west of Melbourne, as the AWU's chief delegate, he was determined not to let history repeat. According to project insiders, he began cultivating people who could keep the CFMEU at bay. Among them was ex-AFL player Billy Nicholls, who in 2015 was sentenced to 11 years' jail for shooting two men in their legs over drug disputes. Both victims survived, and Nicholls was convicted of intentionally causing serious his arrest, the former Hawthorn and Richmond player's life had become consumed by ice and a descent into the underworld. Keys told supporters Nicholls had not only left jail a reformed man, but with a tough-guy reputation that ensured the CFMEU had earmarked him to join its growing list of criminals-turned-union reps. Keys got in first, appointing Nicholls his new AWU wind farm deputy delegate. Nicholls would in turn bring his own hard men to the wind farm, proposing as a delegate an ex-Geelong bikie and boxer called Brad Azzopardi, who had been released from prison after being jailed for a dangerous driving incident that left a man dead. Wiser heads in the AWU intervened and Azzopardi, who has a 1 per cent bikie tattoo on his head, was instead given a support job on the wind farm. Nicholls also arranged for ex-bikie Jonny Walker, who served eight years in jail for manslaughter over the fatal bashing of a man in a bikie clubhouse, to get work at the wind farm after the CFMEU turfed Walker amid a bikie cleanout in the wake of the Building Bad scandal in July 2024. Along with hard men, Keys and his deputy were also assembling a group of staunch AWU companies capable of withstanding the CFMEU's pressure and heavy connections. Project sources said 24-7 would come to stand out. Workers from rival labour hire firms were pushed onto its books and 24-7 began promoting, through its website, its achievement in supplying 'approximately 50 skilled people … to one of the largest renewable wind farm projects in the world', as well as its 'close working relationships with industry stakeholders, including unions'. When project and union insiders queried why Keys appeared so enamoured with the labour hire company, despite its lack of obvious civil construction experience or AWU history, they became concerned it was because of the whispers that 24-7 had both gangland and CFMEU protection. When first approached by this masthead a fortnight ago, Keys said he had no knowledge of the firm's criminal links, or of any person called Bassem. He said 24-7 involved only 'two girl directors and the operations manager' and that he had 'never met a guy' called Bassem. Keys subsequently refused to answer further questions on the record, despite repeated attempts by this masthead to quiz him. But photos uncovered by this masthead show Keys, Nicholls and a third AWU delegate being hosted by 24-7 at the Collingwood AFL President's Lunch at the MCG on the day the Building Bad scandal broke last July. In the photos, there is no sign of the firm's female directors. Rather, the AWU trio are snapped at the 24-7 table posing with two brothers, Bassem and Osama Elsayed, along with a third man, Jarrod Hennig. Bassem is a convicted criminal who was accused in a September 2017 bail hearing by a Victoria Police special taskforce of hiring a violent criminal to bribe a grandmother preparing to testify that his brother Osama had shoved a gun in her son's mouth over a drug debt. A detective told the bail hearing of her concerns about Bassem's 'associations with organised crime' and how phone taps had captured him and his younger brother talking about how the violent criminal would be 'taking care of it'. Loading 'They have a conversation, laughing in regards to how loose … [the standover man] is and they know that he has … [previously] murdered someone,' the court heard. The court also heard allegations Bassem had separately extorted an associate over a $100,000 business loan, texting the victim: 'I hope Allah burns you in hell you thief' and allegedly hiring a standover man who threatened to 'rape' the debtor's family. After the victim retracted the most serious allegations from his statement, Bassem was sentenced in 2019 to six months' jail and a 12-month community corrections order. The conviction added to a criminal rap sheet that already included 'offences of violence, dishonesty, firearm, driving and drug offences' and which Victorian Supreme Court judge Rita Zammit described as 'significant'. Osama was, in August 2019, separately jailed for three years and four months for his role in a drug trafficking syndicate and for separate charges of robbery and recklessly causing injury. This drug syndicate was led by the third man photographed at the MCG lunch, Jarrod Hennig, who was jailed for eight years on multiple counts of drug trafficking. Industry, underworld and police sources, along with corporate and court records, reveal Hennig's middle name to be Morgan. He is the 'Jarrod Morgan' whose signature appears on AWU enterprise bargaining agreements secured by 24-7 in 2023 and 2024. Hennig is also married to Rebecca Reed, who signed off on the same documents as 24-7's director. Her co-director, Kristina Kuzmanovska, is Bassem Elsayed's wife. Osama Elsayed also appears to have been involved in the 24-7 group, creating a business called 24-7 Waterproofing in 2024 with fellow convicted drug trafficker Mohsen Mehrijafarloo. In January 2025, 24-7 Labour moved its registered office to a new Northcote business address. On the same day, Osama moved another of his businesses to the same registered office. The address is the office of accountant Charles Pellegrino, who for years has handled the finances of the CFMEU-backed gangland figures Mick Gatto and John Khoury. Pellegrino's Northcote office was raided in March by a federal police team investigating payments to Pellegrino's companies that were allegedly intended for Gatto, Khoury and other construction industry or union players. No charges have been laid. There is no suggestion the Elsayed brothers are the targets of that federal police operation. But they have their own strong links to the CFMEU. A character referee for Bassem at his 2017 bail hearing was ex-kickboxer and bouncer Chris Chrisopoulidis, who told the judge he was 'good friends' with Bassem. Chrisopoulidis would go on to become one of the CFMEU organisers who confronted Keys on the West Gate project. Bassem's wife, Kristina, is also a 50 per cent shareholder of a construction firm which gained a CFMEU enterprise bargaining agreement in 2021. Her co-owner of that business is builder Thomas Chillico, who is facing criminal charges for allegedly bribing a public official to gain construction permits. In a statement, Rebecca Reed said 24-7 'has no knowledge of or involvement with organised crime at all and is in all respects a well-run small family business. Loading 'If anyone has made allegations that 24-7 … is in any way involved with organised crime, those allegations are false,' she wrote. She said that while the company took a 'progressive approach to ex-offenders', Bassem had no 'formal involvement' with her firm. Reed did not answer several specific questions, or respond to further requests. Asked about whether he knew of 24-7 ties to any criminals such as Bassem, AWU secretary Ronnie Hayden said he had 'no idea who any of these people are'. 'When 24-7 came to us … Jared [sic] came with two women, Rebecca and Kristina,' he said. Hayden stressed he had never authorised the AWU to give preferential treatment to any labour hire firm. He conceded it was possible Keys had 'favoured' 24-7 because of concerns other labour hire firms were not giving the AWU the chance to recruit their workers as union members. 'I understand Johnny was pissed off with the labour hire companies that had done that,' he said. Before 24-7 was engaged at Golden Plains, there was the Host Group. It not only supplied multiple workers to the wind farm project but allied itself closely with the AWU in Queensland, contributing dozens of workers and security personnel to the government-funded Centenary Bridge upgrade in Brisbane. Host's director Gary Samuel has recently fallen out dramatically with the AWU over hotly disputed claims of underpayment of workers. But until last year, Host promoted itself boldly as the AWU's preferred labour hire company across the nation, helping it win an important contract with Centenary Bridge's key contractor, BMD Group. That deal partly involved providing security against intimidation tactics carried out by the CFMEU on the project. BMD declined to comment, but this masthead's investigation has confirmed that a security subcontractor used by Host to help do this engaged several high-ranking Comancheros, including the feared bikie group's national president, Bemir Saracevic, to intimidate CFMEU figures in Brisbane last year. While there is no suggestion that Samuel himself was involved in the Comanchero standover, he has a history of underworld relationships. Sources close to Samuel have confirmed he met Saracevic on multiple occasions, having employed one of the bikie boss's close friends as a Host adviser and worker. Royal commission records reveal that in 2011, Samuel advised a building firm owned by Mick Gatto and his fellow underworld identity Mat Tomas (both Tomas and Gatto achieved notoriety by beating separate murder charges). Samuel later went into a failed business venture with Tomas and also ran the Victorian operations of the now-deceased labour hire king Kevin McHugh, whom federal police charged in 2020 with money laundering offences and tax fraud. Loading Samuel is also close to convicted drug trafficker turned businessman Michael La Verde, who married into a prominent Calabrian mafia family and has a host of organised crime connections. La Verde claims on LinkedIn to be involved in Samuel's Host Group, although it is understood this is limited to Samuel providing his friend an email address. Samuel declined to answer specific questions but in a statement said it was 'important to acknowledge the ongoing rivalry between the CFMEU and the AWU' and that 'certain factions of the CFMEU have been linked to organised crime'. 'Our company is law-abiding and has no link to organised crime,' he said. The AWU is now rethinking its backing of the firm at the wind farm and the Centenary Bridge. Quizzed about Host, Hayden conceded the union failed to undertake thorough due diligence of labour hire firms it has supported with EBAs and other union backing. He said the union would lift its game but also urged federal and state governments to do more to weed out sinister players in the industry. Hayden said one vital reform the Albanese government could back was banning labour hire on government-funded projects. 'I think any project that the government are putting taxpayers' money into should be direct employment,' he said. A Victorian government spokesperson said it was 'eradicating the rotten culture' in the construction industry, including through the introduction of new powers for the Labour Hire Authority. Federal Workplace Relations minister Amanda Rishworth said the government was finalising a blueprint to improve the industry and was working on the implementation of a new labour hire system.
Sydney Morning Herald
3 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘Not to be messed with': Criminals recruited for country's biggest wind farm
When Keys arrived at the wind farm, west of Melbourne, as the AWU's chief delegate, he was determined not to let history repeat. According to project insiders, he began cultivating people who could keep the CFMEU at bay. Among them was ex-AFL player Billy Nicholls, who in 2015 was sentenced to 11 years' jail for shooting two men in their legs over drug disputes. Both victims survived, and Nicholls was convicted of intentionally causing serious his arrest, the former Hawthorn and Richmond player's life had become consumed by ice and a descent into the underworld. Keys told supporters Nicholls had not only left jail a reformed man, but with a tough-guy reputation that ensured the CFMEU had earmarked him to join its growing list of criminals-turned-union reps. Keys got in first, appointing Nicholls his new AWU wind farm deputy delegate. Nicholls would in turn bring his own hard men to the wind farm, proposing as a delegate an ex-Geelong bikie and boxer called Brad Azzopardi, who had been released from prison after being jailed for a dangerous driving incident that left a man dead. Wiser heads in the AWU intervened and Azzopardi, who has a 1 per cent bikie tattoo on his head, was instead given a support job on the wind farm. Nicholls also arranged for ex-bikie Jonny Walker, who served eight years in jail for manslaughter over the fatal bashing of a man in a bikie clubhouse, to get work at the wind farm after the CFMEU turfed Walker amid a bikie cleanout in the wake of the Building Bad scandal in July 2024. Along with hard men, Keys and his deputy were also assembling a group of staunch AWU companies capable of withstanding the CFMEU's pressure and heavy connections. Project sources said 24-7 would come to stand out. Workers from rival labour hire firms were pushed onto its books and 24-7 began promoting, through its website, its achievement in supplying 'approximately 50 skilled people … to one of the largest renewable wind farm projects in the world', as well as its 'close working relationships with industry stakeholders, including unions'. When project and union insiders queried why Keys appeared so enamoured with the labour hire company, despite its lack of obvious civil construction experience or AWU history, they became concerned it was because of the whispers that 24-7 had both gangland and CFMEU protection. When first approached by this masthead a fortnight ago, Keys said he had no knowledge of the firm's criminal links, or of any person called Bassem. He said 24-7 involved only 'two girl directors and the operations manager' and that he had 'never met a guy' called Bassem. Keys subsequently refused to answer further questions on the record, despite repeated attempts by this masthead to quiz him. But photos uncovered by this masthead show Keys, Nicholls and a third AWU delegate being hosted by 24-7 at the Collingwood AFL President's Lunch at the MCG on the day the Building Bad scandal broke last July. In the photos, there is no sign of the firm's female directors. Rather, the AWU trio are snapped at the 24-7 table posing with two brothers, Bassem and Osama Elsayed, along with a third man, Jarrod Hennig. Bassem is a convicted criminal who was accused in a September 2017 bail hearing by a Victoria Police special taskforce of hiring a violent criminal to bribe a grandmother preparing to testify that his brother Osama had shoved a gun in her son's mouth over a drug debt. A detective told the bail hearing of her concerns about Bassem's 'associations with organised crime' and how phone taps had captured him and his younger brother talking about how the violent criminal would be 'taking care of it'. Loading 'They have a conversation, laughing in regards to how loose … [the standover man] is and they know that he has … [previously] murdered someone,' the court heard. The court also heard allegations Bassem had separately extorted an associate over a $100,000 business loan, texting the victim: 'I hope Allah burns you in hell you thief' and allegedly hiring a standover man who threatened to 'rape' the debtor's family. After the victim retracted the most serious allegations from his statement, Bassem was sentenced in 2019 to six months' jail and a 12-month community corrections order. The conviction added to a criminal rap sheet that already included 'offences of violence, dishonesty, firearm, driving and drug offences' and which Victorian Supreme Court judge Rita Zammit described as 'significant'. Osama was, in August 2019, separately jailed for three years and four months for his role in a drug trafficking syndicate and for separate charges of robbery and recklessly causing injury. This drug syndicate was led by the third man photographed at the MCG lunch, Jarrod Hennig, who was jailed for eight years on multiple counts of drug trafficking. Industry, underworld and police sources, along with corporate and court records, reveal Hennig's middle name to be Morgan. He is the 'Jarrod Morgan' whose signature appears on AWU enterprise bargaining agreements secured by 24-7 in 2023 and 2024. Hennig is also married to Rebecca Reed, who signed off on the same documents as 24-7's director. Her co-director, Kristina Kuzmanovska, is Bassem Elsayed's wife. Osama Elsayed also appears to have been involved in the 24-7 group, creating a business called 24-7 Waterproofing in 2024 with fellow convicted drug trafficker Mohsen Mehrijafarloo. In January 2025, 24-7 Labour moved its registered office to a new Northcote business address. On the same day, Osama moved another of his businesses to the same registered office. The address is the office of accountant Charles Pellegrino, who for years has handled the finances of the CFMEU-backed gangland figures Mick Gatto and John Khoury. Pellegrino's Northcote office was raided in March by a federal police team investigating payments to Pellegrino's companies that were allegedly intended for Gatto, Khoury and other construction industry or union players. No charges have been laid. There is no suggestion the Elsayed brothers are the targets of that federal police operation. But they have their own strong links to the CFMEU. A character referee for Bassem at his 2017 bail hearing was ex-kickboxer and bouncer Chris Chrisopoulidis, who told the judge he was 'good friends' with Bassem. Chrisopoulidis would go on to become one of the CFMEU organisers who confronted Keys on the West Gate project. Bassem's wife, Kristina, is also a 50 per cent shareholder of a construction firm which gained a CFMEU enterprise bargaining agreement in 2021. Her co-owner of that business is builder Thomas Chillico, who is facing criminal charges for allegedly bribing a public official to gain construction permits. In a statement, Rebecca Reed said 24-7 'has no knowledge of or involvement with organised crime at all and is in all respects a well-run small family business. Loading 'If anyone has made allegations that 24-7 … is in any way involved with organised crime, those allegations are false,' she wrote. She said that while the company took a 'progressive approach to ex-offenders', Bassem had no 'formal involvement' with her firm. Reed did not answer several specific questions, or respond to further requests. Asked about whether he knew of 24-7 ties to any criminals such as Bassem, AWU secretary Ronnie Hayden said he had 'no idea who any of these people are'. 'When 24-7 came to us … Jared [sic] came with two women, Rebecca and Kristina,' he said. Hayden stressed he had never authorised the AWU to give preferential treatment to any labour hire firm. He conceded it was possible Keys had 'favoured' 24-7 because of concerns other labour hire firms were not giving the AWU the chance to recruit their workers as union members. 'I understand Johnny was pissed off with the labour hire companies that had done that,' he said. Before 24-7 was engaged at Golden Plains, there was the Host Group. It not only supplied multiple workers to the wind farm project but allied itself closely with the AWU in Queensland, contributing dozens of workers and security personnel to the government-funded Centenary Bridge upgrade in Brisbane. Host's director Gary Samuel has recently fallen out dramatically with the AWU over hotly disputed claims of underpayment of workers. But until last year, Host promoted itself boldly as the AWU's preferred labour hire company across the nation, helping it win an important contract with Centenary Bridge's key contractor, BMD Group. That deal partly involved providing security against intimidation tactics carried out by the CFMEU on the project. BMD declined to comment, but this masthead's investigation has confirmed that a security subcontractor used by Host to help do this engaged several high-ranking Comancheros, including the feared bikie group's national president, Bemir Saracevic, to intimidate CFMEU figures in Brisbane last year. While there is no suggestion that Samuel himself was involved in the Comanchero standover, he has a history of underworld relationships. Sources close to Samuel have confirmed he met Saracevic on multiple occasions, having employed one of the bikie boss's close friends as a Host adviser and worker. Royal commission records reveal that in 2011, Samuel advised a building firm owned by Mick Gatto and his fellow underworld identity Mat Tomas (both Tomas and Gatto achieved notoriety by beating separate murder charges). Samuel later went into a failed business venture with Tomas and also ran the Victorian operations of the now-deceased labour hire king Kevin McHugh, whom federal police charged in 2020 with money laundering offences and tax fraud. Loading Samuel is also close to convicted drug trafficker turned businessman Michael La Verde, who married into a prominent Calabrian mafia family and has a host of organised crime connections. La Verde claims on LinkedIn to be involved in Samuel's Host Group, although it is understood this is limited to Samuel providing his friend an email address. Samuel declined to answer specific questions but in a statement said it was 'important to acknowledge the ongoing rivalry between the CFMEU and the AWU' and that 'certain factions of the CFMEU have been linked to organised crime'. 'Our company is law-abiding and has no link to organised crime,' he said. The AWU is now rethinking its backing of the firm at the wind farm and the Centenary Bridge. Quizzed about Host, Hayden conceded the union failed to undertake thorough due diligence of labour hire firms it has supported with EBAs and other union backing. He said the union would lift its game but also urged federal and state governments to do more to weed out sinister players in the industry. Hayden said one vital reform the Albanese government could back was banning labour hire on government-funded projects. 'I think any project that the government are putting taxpayers' money into should be direct employment,' he said. A Victorian government spokesperson said it was 'eradicating the rotten culture' in the construction industry, including through the introduction of new powers for the Labour Hire Authority. Federal Workplace Relations minister Amanda Rishworth said the government was finalising a blueprint to improve the industry and was working on the implementation of a new labour hire system.
The Advertiser
9 hours ago
- The Advertiser
Trindall puts Sharks' season on track in crucial win
Braydon Trindall has helped put Cronulla's NRL season back on track, unleashing 10 minutes of torment on St George Illawarra to inspire a 30-18 come-from-behind win. Off the back of two straight losses and after trailing at halftime, Cronulla went from 18-6 down to 22-18 up between the 47th and 57th minutes on Thursday night. The hosts then did enough to hold on for victory at Shark Park, making it 10 in a row against their arch-rivals and keeping the Sharks fifth on the ladder. Trindall's kicking was at the centre of it all, while the Cronulla five-eighth also scored a double in the victory. Blayke Brailey was among the Sharks' best with his running out of dummy-half, while Sione Katoa bagged a double in the win. The winger's last try to seal the match will also go down as one of the best of the year. With the Dragons down 24-18 with five minutes to play, five-eighth Lyhkan King-Togia chipped ahead and went to toe the ball on again. But Katoa slid along the ground to catch the ball goalkeeper-style, before gathering his feet and sprinting 60 metres to score. The result makes it two losses in a row for the Dragons, with Shane Flanagan's men now 12th and at risk of sliding further south this weekend. For the Sharks, this was a desperately needed win. Beaten by an undermanned Sydney Roosters in Gosford and travelling Warriors in their past two matches, Cronulla travel to Brisbane and Melbourne in the next fortnight. "It's too big of a picture to look at it like that," Sharks coach Craig Fitzgibbon said. "We're where we're at, we haven't performed for a couple of weeks. Even the result today was irrelevant. "It was the performance that was needed. "We needed to see what we want to be and do. We just needed to play like the Sharks, that was the most important thing out of tonight." Cronulla looked at their best with Brailey running out of dummy-half, and the hooker laid on the Sharks' first when he sent Trindall over early. But after that, the Sharks defence began to break. Dragons veteran Damien Cook turned back the clock for one try and King-Togia beat four defenders for another. And when Jack de Belin went over with Sharks centre Jesse Ramien in the sin-bin for a professional foul it was 18-6. Then after the break Cronulla's forwards started to get a roll on, the wind picked up and Trindall chose his moments to terrorise the Dragons. The five-eighth first put Briton Nikora over with a short ball, before staying alive to score from one of his own bombs after Clint Gutherson and Tyrell Sloan failed to defuse it. The go-ahead try then came when Nathan Lawson dropped Trindall's next bomb, and Katoa skipped to the outside of Dragons centre Moses Suli from the scrum to score. "They ran a little harder in the second half, got good field position and all their kicks were contestable," Flanagan said. "You have to make them kick long, and they were all contestable kicks. And we didn't handle the kicks. "There's 12 points, there's the game off two kicks." The only concern for Cronulla came in the form of a calf injury for Mawene Hiroti, just a week after fellow centre KL Iro was ruled out for two months with a pectoral tear. Braydon Trindall has helped put Cronulla's NRL season back on track, unleashing 10 minutes of torment on St George Illawarra to inspire a 30-18 come-from-behind win. Off the back of two straight losses and after trailing at halftime, Cronulla went from 18-6 down to 22-18 up between the 47th and 57th minutes on Thursday night. The hosts then did enough to hold on for victory at Shark Park, making it 10 in a row against their arch-rivals and keeping the Sharks fifth on the ladder. Trindall's kicking was at the centre of it all, while the Cronulla five-eighth also scored a double in the victory. Blayke Brailey was among the Sharks' best with his running out of dummy-half, while Sione Katoa bagged a double in the win. The winger's last try to seal the match will also go down as one of the best of the year. With the Dragons down 24-18 with five minutes to play, five-eighth Lyhkan King-Togia chipped ahead and went to toe the ball on again. But Katoa slid along the ground to catch the ball goalkeeper-style, before gathering his feet and sprinting 60 metres to score. The result makes it two losses in a row for the Dragons, with Shane Flanagan's men now 12th and at risk of sliding further south this weekend. For the Sharks, this was a desperately needed win. Beaten by an undermanned Sydney Roosters in Gosford and travelling Warriors in their past two matches, Cronulla travel to Brisbane and Melbourne in the next fortnight. "It's too big of a picture to look at it like that," Sharks coach Craig Fitzgibbon said. "We're where we're at, we haven't performed for a couple of weeks. Even the result today was irrelevant. "It was the performance that was needed. "We needed to see what we want to be and do. We just needed to play like the Sharks, that was the most important thing out of tonight." Cronulla looked at their best with Brailey running out of dummy-half, and the hooker laid on the Sharks' first when he sent Trindall over early. But after that, the Sharks defence began to break. Dragons veteran Damien Cook turned back the clock for one try and King-Togia beat four defenders for another. And when Jack de Belin went over with Sharks centre Jesse Ramien in the sin-bin for a professional foul it was 18-6. Then after the break Cronulla's forwards started to get a roll on, the wind picked up and Trindall chose his moments to terrorise the Dragons. The five-eighth first put Briton Nikora over with a short ball, before staying alive to score from one of his own bombs after Clint Gutherson and Tyrell Sloan failed to defuse it. The go-ahead try then came when Nathan Lawson dropped Trindall's next bomb, and Katoa skipped to the outside of Dragons centre Moses Suli from the scrum to score. "They ran a little harder in the second half, got good field position and all their kicks were contestable," Flanagan said. "You have to make them kick long, and they were all contestable kicks. And we didn't handle the kicks. "There's 12 points, there's the game off two kicks." The only concern for Cronulla came in the form of a calf injury for Mawene Hiroti, just a week after fellow centre KL Iro was ruled out for two months with a pectoral tear. Braydon Trindall has helped put Cronulla's NRL season back on track, unleashing 10 minutes of torment on St George Illawarra to inspire a 30-18 come-from-behind win. Off the back of two straight losses and after trailing at halftime, Cronulla went from 18-6 down to 22-18 up between the 47th and 57th minutes on Thursday night. The hosts then did enough to hold on for victory at Shark Park, making it 10 in a row against their arch-rivals and keeping the Sharks fifth on the ladder. Trindall's kicking was at the centre of it all, while the Cronulla five-eighth also scored a double in the victory. Blayke Brailey was among the Sharks' best with his running out of dummy-half, while Sione Katoa bagged a double in the win. The winger's last try to seal the match will also go down as one of the best of the year. With the Dragons down 24-18 with five minutes to play, five-eighth Lyhkan King-Togia chipped ahead and went to toe the ball on again. But Katoa slid along the ground to catch the ball goalkeeper-style, before gathering his feet and sprinting 60 metres to score. The result makes it two losses in a row for the Dragons, with Shane Flanagan's men now 12th and at risk of sliding further south this weekend. For the Sharks, this was a desperately needed win. Beaten by an undermanned Sydney Roosters in Gosford and travelling Warriors in their past two matches, Cronulla travel to Brisbane and Melbourne in the next fortnight. "It's too big of a picture to look at it like that," Sharks coach Craig Fitzgibbon said. "We're where we're at, we haven't performed for a couple of weeks. Even the result today was irrelevant. "It was the performance that was needed. "We needed to see what we want to be and do. We just needed to play like the Sharks, that was the most important thing out of tonight." Cronulla looked at their best with Brailey running out of dummy-half, and the hooker laid on the Sharks' first when he sent Trindall over early. But after that, the Sharks defence began to break. Dragons veteran Damien Cook turned back the clock for one try and King-Togia beat four defenders for another. And when Jack de Belin went over with Sharks centre Jesse Ramien in the sin-bin for a professional foul it was 18-6. Then after the break Cronulla's forwards started to get a roll on, the wind picked up and Trindall chose his moments to terrorise the Dragons. The five-eighth first put Briton Nikora over with a short ball, before staying alive to score from one of his own bombs after Clint Gutherson and Tyrell Sloan failed to defuse it. The go-ahead try then came when Nathan Lawson dropped Trindall's next bomb, and Katoa skipped to the outside of Dragons centre Moses Suli from the scrum to score. "They ran a little harder in the second half, got good field position and all their kicks were contestable," Flanagan said. "You have to make them kick long, and they were all contestable kicks. And we didn't handle the kicks. "There's 12 points, there's the game off two kicks." The only concern for Cronulla came in the form of a calf injury for Mawene Hiroti, just a week after fellow centre KL Iro was ruled out for two months with a pectoral tear.
