Kieran Foran and Daly Cherry-Evans drive the same coloured club-sponsored Mazdas, they often park next to one another at training – and on the day that DCE was making his announcement, Foran was driving slowly behind the media pack as they were walking to the press conference. It wasn't his scene – the pair took different roads on their quest to secure their futures. DCE went public, teased the media and the fans and was paraded – and backflipped.
Foran was silent and did a deal without ever meeting with the boss of the Eels – and was sideswiped by the club he trusted.
His agent at SFX, Paul Sutton, handled the negotiations and the media with aplomb. And his colleague George Mimis produced the most famous clause since Santa. Sutton ensured Foran knew about the snake pit he was jumping into.
He wanted Foran to understand the political atmosphere and how it had the potential to be toxic for years. But as the Eels' prized signing, Foran never thought that the club would bite him. Not because he has an ego, rather because he committed to them for the prime of his career.
Because, corny as it may sound, he wanted to make a difference.
I spoke to Foran last week – his head was spinning and he simply could not understand why the club had acted as it had.
He did not know why this had happened to him when he took every step to ensure a smooth transition. He gave respect, but did not get it back.
That the Eels wanted to change his deal was bad enough. What was worse – the suggestion that the Eels waited until the Wednesday after the backflip round to tell Foran in a deliberate attempt to jam him.
Worse still – Brad Arthur seemed to be part of the plan. Arthur is the principal reason that Foran signed.
The coach has hit back, saying he would never be part of a plan to deceive Foran.
"I had planned for several weeks to have dinner with Kieran and we had to delay it a few times, and in the end we decided to do it in a week where he didn't have to play football because we wanted to respect Manly and it just happened to be that date," he said.
"I was only made aware of the problem with clauses on the Monday before the Wednesday. They asked me to discuss that with him and I thought the best approach would be face to face, not over the phone, and since we had booked in dinner I thought that would be the best approach.
"If I am guilty of anything maybe I should have told him that straight away. The dinner was with his wife and my wife and kids and I brought it up. He took it on board and he didn't know anything about the clauses."
What happened next was the insistence from Foran that a coach clause was inserted.
The only glue holding Foran to Parramatta though that time was Arthur. His head was the anti-adhesive. His family was questioning the Parramatta move. And then it was explained to him that if they stuffed the deal with him, how would other players be able to trust the club to honour deals – let alone sign them up. It got to the point on Friday that he wanted his agent to put him out of his misery. But it always had to be his call.
Replies
What a bunch of slime balls.
"I spoke to Foran ....yada yada yada"
Of course you did weider youre such a hero.
Foran obviously said nothing quote-worthy, Fathead.
Sadly Weirdler didn’t go into details about what the Forans and Arthurs had for dinner. That would have made infinitely more interesting reading.
As usual you only wrote half the truth Danny Weilder and forgot to mention these important facts.