Great club man, epic Origin footballer. Grew an extra leg in rep footy.
My story back during Super League, as 1997 was ending and the noise they'd re-merge the comps, the paper had a list of every club and their pros/cons for being cut from the new competition. Balmain's #1 pro was "Tim Brasher", that's how good he was and how dire the club situation was.
I agree with the folks that say Brasher isn't like Tedesco or Moses. He definitely played hard-ball with the club that year and you could reasonably forgive any footballer for trying to extend their contracts at that time - Super League had recently incited stupid spending on footballers in all quarters.
I knew the same story as @Tiger5150, he took too long to accept the offer and Balmain decided to play hardball with him.
We don't know how many warnings Brasher was given or how adamant Tigers were about not budging, but you would think after a 9-year career with Balmain, the club clearly struggling to compete and with Brasher being the clear best player in the team, they'd get over themselves and give him the deal that was on the table the day before.
Then, what, he goes to Rabbits, Cowboys, falls off a ladder dusting a fan and that's it, career over.
I met Brasher at a game some years back, nice bloke as others have said. Remember he ended up having a pretty cool post-league career as a golf caddy? He was working for Dick Smith Electronics or something as a rep when I spoke to him.
I am surprised at the number of posts comparing Brasher to Woods and Tedesco, they are miles apart. Brasher was made an offer and his manager elected to test his value on the market. From my memory things then began to draw out so the Tigers put a deadline on him to sign.
He let the deadline pass, and literally a minute after the deadline the tigers advised him that the offer was withdrawn. I was devastated. In hindsight I can't help but think dinosaurs put ego before the best interest of the club and the board bit their noes off to spite their face. Such a typical rugby league story.