Tiger_Torch
New member
@Basil Tiger said:Also Newcastle have sent out feelers to see if he is/was interested,looks like he might be on the move.
Both Newcastle and St George are in the mix, the stumbling block remains the $. Newcastle's offer is a straight swap for Uate which would effectively still cost us Farah's full $900k + a $50k binding TPA ( Uate is contracted @ $500k so it's being sold as only costing us $400k, but in real terms we would have to pay the $900k and we get Uate for free so to speak) The club is trying to finesse the deal by offering Rankin & Littlejohn in an attempt to actually save another $200k. Funny thing is Newcastle are keen on Kevvie returning, but Taylor not at all keen to release, also a major attraction to Uate is to play alongside Kevvie again at WTs. The St George deal is a straight 50% subsidy whereby we pay $450k + $50 tpa (its actually back dated short payments from previous years) This would mean we could effectively save $450k which would secure Elijah Taylor. This is a cleaner deal but was only raised the day after origin 3, the Newcastle deal has been on the table for a couple of months and included a guarantee that Mick Potter would not remain at the club. Danny Buderas will take an expanded role and is reasonably close with Farah. Farah's future remains the key issue for our 2017 recruitment. He is absolutely entitled to remain with the club and continues to enjoy strong support from 2 key sponsors. The playing group is largely behind Jason Taylor but this doesn't automatically mean there is a split in the club. For example Dene Halatau remains very tight with both Farah & Taylor and this is the case with the majority of the club, to my knowledge there are only a few exceptions. I will repeat both Jason Taylor and Robbie Farah are being extremely professional with each other and I still cannot find any substantive evidence of Robbie undermining the coach. They will never be close, and there's no doubt the club would be better off if one of them moved on, but its still a case of wait and see. I don't have an opinion or anything else to offer.
A very quick update on all other recruitment rumours which are predicated on the club somehow magically saving the entire $900k value of Robbie's contract ( read Fifita; Lewis; Hayne etc) this will not happen. Of all the info I have heard the best offer/s we have received this year or last is a 50% contract share ie $450k saving. The Leeds offer was genuine and Robbie was very keen but for reasons that have not been explained to me we were only prepared to pay $300k subsidy.
Addo Carr has tried to get out his contract with Melb but this is extremely unlikely unless we pay $200k compensation. Ryan Papenhuyzen has been earmarked as the next big thing and is spending countless hours practising goal kicking. He may start on the wing but will end up in the centres probably in 2018\. Curtis Sironen knuckling down at training and showing a good attitude. Ersan Marsters doing extras trying to prove he's an 80 minute player. Cherrington has signed an option with Penrith directly linked to whether Robbie stays or leaves. Heleta desperate for a crack in the centres, but with Taylor a huge fan of Kevvie unlikely to happen, he may look elsewhere, but has not received any offers to date. Local juniors continue to be a high priority with the 'born and breed, not bought and fed' mantra a cornerstone of the strategic plan. Not much else of substance to share the club continues to be a positive place albeit with a few loose ends. Human nature sees a void of information and rushes to fill it with rumours and innuendo, I accept and understand that is the case with Farah's situation. All I can accurately share is that Robbie's interests will be protected by Pascoe all the way down the line. Let there be no doubt about it, Elijah Taylor's retention is very personal to Pascoe, and also let there be no doubt that we must make the top 4 in 2017 or MAJOR changes will instantly occur at the club. I'm not hearing anything to suggest we won't retain Tedesco & Woods, but it appears unlikely we will keep both Brooks & Moses beyond 2017 - next year will determine many things not the least those linked to the expiration of the current strategic plan / Pascoe is now formulating the plan for 2017 -2020 - it will include virtually moving all games to 1 stadium.
Until next time don't be afraid of the dark….