If that’s true, that is idiotic by the club. Yes I get it, he was accused of a serious crime but he has been cleared of that by the courts. Whether you agree with it or not, the world and rugby league moves on.
He’s been out of the game for a year, but so have players who have had ACL or other serious injuries, and injuries take more time to get back to full strength. We also have his brother at the club who is a key player who constantly speaks about how important his family is.
Unfortunately this seems to be too much of a business approach and lacks a human and man management approach which is essential in todays game with todays players.
You need to find a balance as a club. Either take a hard stance and say no to Taylan up front and not even entertain signing him. Or if you are entertaining singing him, show it the respect it deserves and back him as a player you show value in (this doesn’t stop you from offering him a reduced rate and shorter term contact or adding behavioural clauses). But to offer a NSW cup player to a guy who, let’s be honest is a better player than at least 10 players in our top 30 is fairly disrespectful (putting his legal troubles aside). Let’s remember this is a player who a 4 time premiership winning club in Penrith was eager to retain over many other well respect and talent players.
If people are being honest, we’ve [This word has been automatically removed]ed up here. This has to potential to not only miss out on Taylan but also create disfunction with Terrell. We would have been better off not even perusing Taylan if this is true. We’ve just created the opportunity for animosity with a key squad member when we didn’t even really need to. That’s just my opinion.