Hindsight is a wonderful thing but the entire saga could have been avoided had the club been successful in its pursuit of North Queensland football manager Peter Parr three years ago, around the period when the $3 million of salary cap promises began to filter from the club.
It is understood chairman Steve Sharp, who temporarily fought off deregistration when he took action in the Supreme Court on Tuesday afternoon, was actively pursuing Parr in late 2013.
Parr was at a barbecue at the home of former North Queensland coach Neil Henry when he was first called by Sharp. Parr agreed to meet Sharp when the Cowboys flew to Sydney on the condition that it was done on the quiet.
They arranged to meet at 6.30 on a Sunday morning but Parr was then inundated by calls on Saturday night while he was at a function to present Cowboys rookie Jayden Hodges with his maiden first-grade jersey.
When he answered, Sharp told him he was waiting in the lobby. Any prospect of Parr, one of the sharpest salary cap operators in the game, moving to Parramatta ended that night.
Ironically, Parr is the sort of person the club desperately needs right now as they attempt to piece together their cap for the remainder of this season.
He has been able to put together a premiership-winning squad in North Queensland, his cap acumen summed up by the club’s retention of fullback Lachlan Coote last week despite the Sydney Roosters weighing in with more money and a longer-term deal.
The Cowboys could do worse than look north as they attempt to rebuild a club which is at the crossroads. For the time being, Schubert is the man in the hot seat with the club’s finals hopes contingent on their ability to manoeuvre themselves under the salary cap in less than two weeks.
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