MOST of Monday the man with the headache, Wests Tigers general manager Kelly Egan, was locked in conversation with Isaac Moses.
The headache was not Isaac Moses’ pounding Egan but the circumstance.
The clue was at Monday’s training session when all the Tigers except one took to the paddock.
Mitchell Moses was not there. He was told not to attend.
Moses’s head is clearly not in the game. Photo: Mark EvansSince Moses signed with Parramatta in early April his release to the Eels has become a weekly argument on building sites where they know their footy and at other places where they don’t.
After Moses’s performance on Friday it is no longer a discussion, though. He was poor and played like his thoughts were all about playing outside Corey Norman.
So on Monday Egan negotiated with his manager, Isaac Moses, the uncle, about Mitchell’s release.
The difficulty was it was a three-club conversation.
The Tigers were willing to release Moses if the Warriors agreed to release Tui Lolohea to them immediately. You let nobody go unless there is somebody to fill the hole.
Lolohea’s release, however, was said to be dependent on Penrith releasing Te Maire Martin to the Warriors. Yet the Warriors don’t necessarily see it as a like for like replacement, so money is involved.
What Penrith gets out of the deal is salary cap space, the reason dependant upon your paranoia.
It’s either because the Panthers overshot next year’s proposed salary cap and are looking to get themselves into shape before the NRL forces it upon them or, something far sexier, hello Cooper Cronk ...
By midafternoon just how difficult it was going to be became clear. The Warriors denied Lolohea another release.
“He’s contracted with us until the end of 2018 and until we’re ready and found a suitable replacement he will remain with the Warriors,” development manager Tony Iro said.
Iro said nothing of Martin, so the Tigers wait.
Regardless of what happens with Martin and Lolohea, Moses has played his last game for the Tigers.
He was poor against South Sydney and his lack of interest at training has irritated coach Ivan Cleary. So much Cleary came out strongly after Friday’s loss, saying the game needs to find a solution to the player market.
Cleary is favouring a transfer window.
“A transfer window, whether we have two, one mid-season and one at the end, that speculation is good for fans, but the fact it’s a window and not the whole time, that’s something to look at,” he said. “I don’t think it’s healthy at the moment.”
Transfer windows don’t work. For the very basic premise that nobody honours them.
There used to be a clause in this game called the June 30 clause which stated, very clearly in big bold letters that were easy for managers and clubs to read, that contracts were unable to negotiate a contract until after June 30 in the final year of the playing contract.
It did not work.
No club had the discipline to wait until after June 30 because they could not trust other clubs were not already negotiating.
Moses was excused from Tigers training on Monday. (AAP Image/Dean Lewins)Since contracts were not considered legal we tolerated the charade of players signing letters of intent to confirm their intention to sign a contract after June 30. There was debate about whether they were binding but they were never tested in court.
Then July 1 rolled around and suddenly a fistful of contracts, which we are led to believe can take months to negotiate, were lodged at NRL headquarters.
The NRL knew what was happening but could rarely follow through with big penalties because what, exactly, constituted a negotiation?
This fails Cleary’s first test: to end speculation.
Trade windows will not work without a draft accompanying it. It is the only way players could not negotiate with clubs before any trade period because they could not be certain where they would be going.
There are alternatives to the current system but not solutions. No system is perfect.
It is easy to sympathise with the Tigers at the moment, battling to keep their season together.
It is easy to sympathise with Moses, his head now elsewhere.
Easy with Cleary, too, but nobody has the solution.
Replies
Should be playing his best for the tiggers, instead he's diplaying sandow symptoms.
Poor form from him i agree.
Norman is injured for at least four weeks, Moses coming this week would be a very nice gift right now and it's only the usual dikkheads who would argue otherwise. No surprise really.
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