Wests Tigers need to settle up with Robbie Farah so the NRL club can settle down

[NT_Tiger]

If it was as simple as that I'm sure it would have been over a long time ago.

 

[Needaname]

It's been spelled out enough for most to understand.
No-one thinks Robbie shouldn't get his money, his contract is an entitlement not a privilage.
He will be paid in full you can count on that.
It just will not be paid in full by the Tigers.

I like most, have enjoyed watching Robbie play for the tigers, some things he has done in the past are freakish, he has put his heart and soul on the line for the team for a decade.
However he also wears his heart on his sleeve and it shows when he plays.
He is a competitor, which is excellent, however, it just so happens to be unfortunate as to the position he plays in the team.
He is the hooker, the first person to touch the ball every single set, which regardless of what you expect him to do with it, still gives him the first choice to move with the ball.
When he gets emotionally invested in the game, he, as the first player to touch the ball starts playing his own game out there and starts making his own decisions against the game plan.
You see it in the origin games.

That is his style, he plays with a lot of instinct. The reason he became a first grader and a good one at that, it set him aside from other players and elevated him into the rep arena.

Our current coach, has identified the style that the tigers need to play moving forwards and as such see Robbie as not a compliment to this style due to the position he plays.

He could still be a very competitive hooker in this league, he could be very good for us playing off the bench and providing direct service to the halves and filling in at lock when required.
But,
What you are asking him is to change his natural game, the game he enjoys playing the most so that he can stay loyal to the club and the club can stay loyal to him.

I would love him to finish with us a one club player.
But
You are then paying a more than premium price for a player that no longer has the option of providing a premium level of service.
This in effect starts to affect the depth and quality of the total squad.

Would he really be happy with Playing in reserve grade.
Would he really be happy playing off the bench shovelling it to the halves and running occationally.
Would he really be happy starting all over again with another club, ending ties with the club his only known.
Would he really be ready to retire.

Only Robbie knows, we can only speculate.

 

[Telltails]

I really can't understand it. The tigers have always said they'll pay him his money.

Is this the ayoub media machine again twisting the facts as to why Robbie was dumped?

Not the full amount to walk out the door. He asked for a release last year to walk and they refused.
They want someone to pay part of the contract **<big>but they also want a certain amount that clubs are not prepared to pay. So he and the club stay in limbo</big>**
The smart thing would be to accept that and suck it up and use him.
Got nothing to do with Ayoib just another name people like to blame in this forum for this clubs dumb decisions.

What's the certain amou
Please provide a link for this

How do I know - what does it take to sign ET?
Isn't that what the push for Farah to get out campaign is about freeing salary cap space?
Have a crack if you wish - or please tell me why they havnt paid him and sent him on his way.

 

[diedpretty]

Pretty sure that Phil Gould speaks for himself (seriously, who in their right mind would think Ayoub would influence him to write an article) and knows more about how rugby league teams are run than anybody on this forum.
Saying that , he must know they could get the loot to pay him out - or he wouldn't suggest they did.
**The thing that surprised me most was him calling Farah a mate**.

Especially after his comments about NSW players being greedy - which most observers interpreted as a dig at Gallen and Farah.

 

[innsaneink]

I really can't understand it. The tigers have always said they'll pay him his money.

Is this the ayoub media machine again twisting the facts as to why Robbie was dumped?

Not the full amount to walk out the door. He asked for a release last year to walk and they refused.
They want someone to pay part of the contract **<big>but they also want a certain amount that clubs are not prepared to pay. So he and the club stay in limbo</big>**
The smart thing would be to accept that and suck it up and use him.
Got nothing to do with Ayoib just another name people like to blame in this forum for this clubs dumb decisions.

What's the certain amou
Please provide a link for this

How do I know - what does it take to sign ET?
Isn't that what the push for Farah to get out campaign is about freeing salary cap space?
Have a crack if you wish - or please tell me why they havnt paid him and sent him on his way.

Its OK…I thought you knew for certain.
You dont
This part of the whole saga is a bit vague
I thought i missed something

 

[Telltails]

Pretty sure that Phil Gould speaks for himself (seriously, who in their right mind would think Ayoub would influence him to write an article) and knows more about how rugby league teams are run than anybody on this forum.
Saying that , he must know they could get the loot to pay him out - or he wouldn't suggest they did.
**The thing that surprised me most was him calling Farah a mate**.

Especially after his comments about NSW players being greedy - which most observers interpreted as a dig at Gallen and Farah.

Gould has been a supporter of Farahs charity Mates on a Mission. .

 

[2041]

agree !

i just dont get the level of spite
people hate him enough to want him out of the club but dont want to pay him his contract or want him playing for another club….?

whislt this coach is at the club
theres more of a downside to having Farah here so why not just pay him out and be done with it

the upside is the nonsense stops
the other "possibilities" allow for the drama to keep rolling on and on and on.....

or is it a case that everyone loves drama and this is the nest distraction or conversations the club and supporters can have whilst the team isnt up their with the storm and cowboys ?

again, i dont get it

I'm sure they don't love the media storm but they would've made the decision to take this approach knowing it was coming and prepared to weather it. It's not motivated by spite or hatred, it's about managing the salary cap. Paying him out right now is a straight up bad business decision, which is why you don't see other clubs doing it.

oh i get the club has taken on the storm and seem somewhat prepared to let the tigers brand cop a hammering….

thats part in parcel of what i dont get

its fine for all of us here to pick a side and carry on with whatever we see as fare and righteous etc
but as a club, the tigers are embarrassing themselves as a whole
its very public, its very messy. neither the captain or the coach is dealing with it in a dignified manner
it looks poor all across the board
wether you like Farah or not, outside of the club politics he is seen as a club legend...
the manner is which this whole thing has and is being handled is ......
its not a great representation of the club at all

people want to comment its not in the clubs best business interest... well sometimes in business you pay the money you need to - to end dramas.
its a unexpected cost. you dont like it ... but you bite the bullet...pay it and move on.
drama over chapter closed...

That would all be fine and fair enough if the club just wanted rid of Farah. But they don't: they want rid of Farah AND in doing so get enough cap relief to sign Taylor.

The club's gamble is that an offer will eventually come in that is acceptable to Farah (or at least is one he prefers to spending a year in limbo at the Tigers) and offers the requisite cap relief. The cost of the gamble is everything you lay out above. If the gamble loses they have all that cost, miss out on Taylor and probably can't patch things up (for a second time) with Farah.

 

[Telltails]

Not the full amount to walk out the door. He asked for a release last year to walk and they refused.
They want someone to pay part of the contract **<big>but they also want a certain amount that clubs are not prepared to pay. So he and the club stay in limbo</big>**
The smart thing would be to accept that and suck it up and use him.
Got nothing to do with Ayoib just another name people like to blame in this forum for this clubs dumb decisions.

What's the certain amo
Please provide a link for this

How do I know - what does it take to sign ET?
Isn't that what the push for Farah to get out campaign is about freeing salary cap space?
Have a crack if you wish - or please tell me why they havnt paid him and sent him on his way.

Its OK…I thought you knew for certain.
You dont
This part of the whole saga is a bit vague
I thought i missed something

Ha - a bit testy. Anything I have read is all speculative mentioning the Dragons and a very low offer. There must be a figure in mind I guess - just doesn't look like anyone is prepared to pay it and there is always the chance that Farah is true to his word and is refusing to go.

 

[bobo125]

That would all be fine and fair enough if the club just wanted rid of Farah. But they don't: they want rid of Farah AND in doing so get enough cap relief to sign Taylor.

The club's gamble is that an offer will eventually come in that is acceptable to Farah (or at least is one he prefers to spending a year in limbo at the Tigers) and offers the requisite cap relief. The cost of the gamble is everything you lay out above. If the gamble loses they have all that cost, miss out on Taylor and probably can't patch things up (for a second time) with Farah.

Big gamble
Split the supporters
Drag th club brand and name through the ringer
We are the looked upon as a utter basket case in th NRL
Next to parra, the Tigers are crackheads !
the club has embarrassed everyone associated with the Tigers

I said it before, doesn't matter what side you sit on, this is embarrassing for the club
Every single person that has anything to do with the NRL says the same thing - th club has handled this dreadfully

I'm so over all the for and against and the spite …. That to me, rather than continue to have the club name associated and talked about the way it is th upside of ending the drama ASAP trumps any and all gambles and waiting games.....

Annnnnnnd if it continues or backfires with the coach getting the punt, it's going to get worse..... The the truth of the matter !

 

[supercoach]

My 5000th post about half have been on Farah, no Sheens took up a few!!

Anyway I do not think many if any NRL clubs will want to fork out much if any for Farah, and he seems unwilling to go ESL, so it might be reserve grade in 2017 if Taylor can survive, or first grade if another coach comes into the joint. Although with the board,Pascoe and Oniell all backing Taylor, its hard to see them backing down and I guess any new coach would be told Farah is off limits

 

[2041]

That would all be fine and fair enough if the club just wanted rid of Farah. But they don't: they want rid of Farah AND in doing so get enough cap relief to sign Taylor.

The club's gamble is that an offer will eventually come in that is acceptable to Farah (or at least is one he prefers to spending a year in limbo at the Tigers) and offers the requisite cap relief. The cost of the gamble is everything you lay out above. If the gamble loses they have all that cost, miss out on Taylor and probably can't patch things up (for a second time) with Farah.

Big gamble
Split the supporters
Drag th club brand and name through the ringer
We are the looked upon as a utter basket case in th NRL
Next to parra, the Tigers are crackheads !
the club has embarrassed everyone associated with the Tigers

I said it before, doesn't matter what side you sit on, this is embarrassing for the club
Every single person that has anything to do with the NRL says the same thing - th club has handled this dreadfully

I'm so over all the for and against and the spite …. That to me, rather than continue to have the club name associated and talked about the way it is th upside of ending the drama ASAP trumps any and all gambles and waiting games.....

Annnnnnnd if it continues or backfires with the coach getting the punt, it's going to get worse..... The the truth of the matter !

I 100% agree. This has been handled phenomenally badly from beginning to end - arguably by all parties, but given the Tigers have the most to lose by the club in particular.

Having said that, the past can't be undone and having got into this situation I agree with earlier posters that simply releasing Farah, losing nearly a million dollars and getting no cap relief at all would also be a terrible decision. There aren't really any obvious good decisions at this point, but that doesn't justify making an objectively bad one 'just to get it over with'.

My hunch is that this time round Farah will leave the Tigers, but that the club will have to pay waaay more of the freight than they assumed when this whole situation blew up a year ago. I know for a fact that the board was convinced he'd leave after the end of last season when he calmed down, and my gut feeling is that they reckoned someone would pick up half to three-quarters of his deal - they had early interest from Souths and the Raiders, believe it or not, and I think they were expecting some kind of bidding war. At this stage they'll be lucky to get a third of the contract covered, but I think they'll take even that to get out from under.

 

[cochise]

One thing I found funny in the article is that he claims he and Rob are friends even though it was widely reported that Farah was one of the targets of Gould's spray after Origin 2\. Lol its an agenda-a-thon at the moment.

That said, i agree with him as to why this is happening and after the past year, he may well be correct that a payout is the only viable option presently.

I can quite easily believe that Gould would happily comment on performance as he sees it regardless of his personal connections with players. That's one of the reasons why I still like him as a commentator - unlike most of the old pro crowd he's not just pumping up his mates.

Anyway, I think we all spent enough time reading garbage about how Marshall and Farah hated each other - which has clearly proved to be arrant nonsense - not to worry too much about who is or isn't supposedly friends.

agree !

i just dont get the level of spite
people hate him enough to want him out of the club but dont want to pay him his contract or want him playing for another club….?

whislt this coach is at the club
theres more of a downside to having Farah here so why not just pay him out and be done with it

the upside is the nonsense stops
the other "possibilities" allow for the drama to keep rolling on and on and on.....

or is it a case that everyone loves drama and this is the nest distraction or conversations the club and supporters can have whilst the team isnt up their with the storm and cowboys ?

again, i dont get it

Because this situation isnt just about gettin Farah out of the club. They want to free up cap space to spend on other players.

 

[bobo125]

That would all be fine and fair enough if the club just wanted rid of Farah. But they don't: they want rid of Farah AND in doing so get enough cap relief to sign Taylor.

The club's gamble is that an offer will eventually come in that is acceptable to Farah (or at least is one he prefers to spending a year in limbo at the Tigers) and offers the requisite cap relief. The cost of the gamble is everything you lay out above. If the gamble loses they have all that cost, miss out on Taylor and probably can't patch things up (for a second time) with Farah.

Big gamble
Split the supporters
Drag th club brand and name through the ringer
We are the looked upon as a utter basket case in th NRL
Next to parra, the Tigers are crackheads !
the club has embarrassed everyone associated with the Tigers

I said it before, doesn't matter what side you sit on, this is embarrassing for the club
Every single person that has anything to do with the NRL says the same thing - th club has handled this dreadfully

I'm so over all the for and against and the spite …. That to me, rather than continue to have the club name associated and talked about the way it is th upside of ending the drama ASAP trumps any and all gambles and waiting games.....

Annnnnnnd if it continues or backfires with the coach getting the punt, it's going to get worse..... The the truth of the matter !

I 100% agree. This has been handled phenomenally badly from beginning to end - arguably by all parties, but given the Tigers have the most to lose by the club in particular.

Having said that, the past can't be undone and having got into this situation I agree with earlier posters that simply releasing Farah, losing nearly a million dollars and getting no cap relief at all would also be a terrible decision. There aren't really any obvious good decisions at this point, but that doesn't justify making an objectively bad one 'just to get it over with'.

My hunch is that this time round Farah will leave the Tigers, but that the club will have to pay waaay more of the freight than they assumed when this whole situation blew up a year ago. I know for a fact that the board was convinced he'd leave after the end of last season when he calmed down, and my gut feeling is that they reckoned someone would pick up half to three-quarters of his deal - they had early interest from Souths and the Raiders, believe it or not, and I think they were expecting some kind of bidding war. At this stage they'll be lucky to get a third of the contract covered, but I think they'll take even that to get out from under.

I have also heard the same thing
And yes I also understand the notion that some cap relief is better than none ….

I keep coming back to the same question though - if this is what the club has wanted since late last year, why have they waited till this late in the season to once again do this knowing most clubs have little to no space
They would have also been aware there has been no offers etc

He should have been playing from the bench much much earlier in the season to trigger the contract discussions and therefore also give themselves the best chance of an offer from another club that would have been better than what they may end up getting now
?

If this is really what they were hoping for - timing again has been dreadful
Who the hell is running the club and what kind of business nouse has that person got
Brand damage / public humiliation of th club / supporters turning on each other....
Awesome calatoral damage due to "hope this stubborn club legend walks away"
\
\
And ps - can you put a dollar value on the damage this whole drama has done to the club ???? Or is everyone comfortable to follow a team lead and managed by incompetent people that through their choices are allowing this matter to drag on ??

 

[Longhorn]

Gould is just offering his opinion on what is happening. So Gould's conclusion is that this is just about the money.

I honestly am not 100% sure but here are the options:-

1\. Robbie is a vile person with a low character.
2\. He is overpaid and the club want his contract off the books.
3\. JT has no idea.

I don't think it is option 1\. That doesn't sit well with me.

So it is option 2 or 3\. If it is option 2 then paying him out doesn't help. It just means we pay him and get nothing for it. It it's option 3 then JT should be sacked.

I'd love to hear a rational argument stating anything differently but I don't think that is going to occur.

These days its the irrational who are allowed to speak and the rational dont argue with fools. At home you may be able to rob Peter to pay Paul but in business a deals a deal. Anything else is bad for business.

 

[Harvey]

Then again why would you even consider doing such a thing after such events ?

Because as Robbie keeps telling us, he loves this club. Bleeds black an gold. Would do anything for the club.

He could announce that he wants to retire at the end of this year. Forgo (supposedly) the last year of his contract and then take on some form of non playing role at the club that he could be paid for. He wants his 950k next year with the option of then signing in super league or elsewhere.

 

[TYGA]

Destroying a players brand, reputation and name in order to manage a salary cap shows the lack of integrity within our leadership/management team. Questioning Farahs love for the club after 247 games and a premiership when he could have left many times for bigger dollars is a joke.

Pay the man and lets move on.

 

[Nelson]

Destroying a players brand, reputation and name in order to manage a salary cap shows the lack of integrity within our leadership/management team. Questioning Farahs love for the club after 247 games and a premiership when he could have left many times for bigger dollars is a joke.

Pay the man and lets move on.

How have the club destroyed his brand, reputation and name?

 

[Black_n_White]

Destroying a players brand, reputation and name in order to manage a salary cap shows the lack of integrity within our leadership/management team. Questioning Farahs love for the club after 247 games and a premiership when he could have left many times for bigger dollars is a joke.

Pay the man and lets move on.

To be entirely fair, camp Ayoub/Farah chose to play this in the public domain, that was their choice. Once they unleashed the media monster, it was never going to go away… and what was initially a weapon of theirs has now become a microscope which blows up the smallest insignificant development.

I will defend Robbies right to dig his heals in and stay...
Just as I will defend the clubs right to play him where ever the see fit, even reggies...

And as distasteful as it is, its commonplace for clubs to shop players under contract around as long as they guarantee their entire contract value.

Though it is undeniable that Robbies "brand destruction" is a direct result of his own attempts to attack the WT's brand.

 

[TYGA]

Destroying a players brand, reputation and name in order to manage a salary cap shows the lack of integrity within our leadership/management team. Questioning Farahs love for the club after 247 games and a premiership when he could have left many times for bigger dollars is a joke.

Pay the man and lets move on.

How have the club destroyed his brand, reputation and name?

By dropping him to reserve grade to force his hand so he quits the club. Its a disgrace I want Farah to move on but the way its being done is terrible. if you are okay with it then that's your prerogative i'm not.

 

[TYGA]

Destroying a players brand, reputation and name in order to manage a salary cap shows the lack of integrity within our leadership/management team. Questioning Farahs love for the club after 247 games and a premiership when he could have left many times for bigger dollars is a joke.

Pay the man and lets move on.

To be entirely fair, camp Ayoub/Farah chose to play this in the public domain, that was their choice. Once they unleashed the media monster, it was never going to go away… and what was initially a weapon of theirs has now become a microscope which blows up the smallest insignificant development.

I will defend Robbies right to dig his heals in and stay...
Just as I will defend the clubs right to play him where ever the see fit, even reggies...

And as distasteful as it is, its commonplace for clubs to shop players under contract around as long as they guarantee their entire contract value.

Though it is undeniable that Robbies "brand destruction" is a direct result of his own attempts to attack the WT's brand.

This is entirely WT's doing as stated by most experts out there. Farah is not blameless I hold him responsible for Potters axing however, this is on the club. He was never moving on unless paid out.