The 7th Tackle - with Josh Massoud and Jim Wilson
7News Sports Presenter Jim Wilson and Chief Rugby League Reporter Josh Massoud run through the burning topics from the rugby league world you may not know about.
From plans to reduce the interchange confirmed, to Canterbury's inability to snare Kieran Foran, it's all in this week's edition of The 7th Tackle.
BONUS TACKLE
Parramatta coach Brad Arthur has secretly agreed to a new two-year contract extension, tying him to the Eels until the end of 2019. Just when the Keiran Foran saga appeared over yesterday, Seven News revealed the development, which caught several officials at Eels HQ by surprise.
Arthur originally joined Parramatta on a two-year deal at the end of 2013, but extended his stay a further two seasons after a reasonably successful first-up campaign in 2014. Parramatta duly confirmed Arthur was staying put until the end of 2017 in a press release, but have not issued any formal statement about his latest deal. We can reveal it was struck earlier this year, as Parramatta ramped up its bid to sign Foran. The star playmaker made it clear he was desperate to link with Arthur, which gave the coach’s management extraordinary bargaining power.
Foran’s current club - Manly - realised the importance of Arthur and launched a clandestine bid to poach him mid-contract. Knowing Arthur was the key to luring Foran, Parramatta did what it took to keep him and extended a further two-year deal that also included a salary upgrade. The extension was negotiated by former CEO Scott Seward.
Eels officials who were unaware of Arthur’s new extension might claim Seward kept them in the dark - a similar accusation pointed at the former CEO over two generous clauses in Foran’s contract that forced the deal to be renegotiated over the past week. But just as he did with Foran, Seward is likely to rebut any such suggestion and maintain at least a select number of board members knew because they were desperate to get Foran signed prior to the May elections.
We understand Arthur’s extension needs three signatures to be ratified - and currently there are two. They belong to Arthur and Seward. Because all head coaching appointments must be made by the board, the final signature must be that of a director. It appears that space was unsigned before the election, and its uncertain whether any member of the re-elected Eels board has put pen to paper. At the very least, Arthur’s contractual situation is instructive of why Foran has only committed to the Eels for two years, with an option in his favour for 2018 and 2019.
These are the same two seasons that Arthur’s extension covers, however, it remains to be seen whether that will have any force. Foran also enjoys a clause allowing him an unconditional release should Arthur no longer be coach. That gives Arthur tremendous power in the Eels football office; a place where he has not always enjoyed unanimous support on recruitment decisions.
Tackle One - Eight-man interchange confirmed
The NRL has decided to take a less drastic approach to speeding-up the game, opting for an eight-man interchange model from next season. While there's been calls for the number of bench rotations to be slashed from 10 to six, we can reveal concerns over a global disparity have convinced the NRL to be more conservative. The interchange is currently set at 12 for Test matches, and power brokers felt half that number would have created too wide a gulf between Australia and other league-playing nations.
But make no mistake - there was a strong push for six interchanges from the rules committee for 2016. While their wish won't be granted until 2017 at the earliest, the NRL is set to introduce more measures that are designed to speed-up the action and ensure the ball remains in play for longer. We're told they will be announced very soon.
Tackle 2 - How Canterbury let Foran go to the Dogs
Despite the typical denials, Canterbury were sniffing around for new ways to persuade Keiran Foran to Belmore right up until the death on yesterday morning, when the Kiwi ace finally agreed to a newly-structured deal at Parramatta. What might pain the Bulldogs even more than missing-out again is the fact the club waived a free shot to sign Foran a decade ago.
We can reveal Foran was recommended to then-coach Steve Folkes and his assistant at the time, Kevin Moore, as a 15-year-old playing Harold Matthews with the North Sydney Bears. The scout who made the tip was working for the club's junior league, but has since left Belmore. “I tipped them Keiran Foran and two other players - Aiden Tolman and Chris Lawrence,” he said. “I never heard anything back. All three were quickly signed elsewhere, and obviously Aiden is the only one they've managed to eventually get there.”
The Bulldogs were in the thick of negotiations for Foran in March, when he initially decided to join the Eels. And once news began to leak of a break-down in dealings with Parramatta two weeks ago, Bulldogs coach Des Hasler was right on the scent. On Wednesday night there was wild speculation that Hasler had been in talks with his old coach from Manly, Bob Fulton, now overseeing the Sea Eagles' recruitment, about a complex swap that would have seen Josh Reynolds released to Brookvale to make room for Foran at Belmore. We couldn't get any confirmation of that the following morning and it soon became moot when Foran decided to honour his word with Parramatta.
Tackle 3 - Uncertain times for Big League
The game's official match day program, Big League, is under review at present after the NRL decided to take team lists online from next year onwards. Digital rights holder Telstra is demanding more exclusive content to drive eyeballs to its sites and wants sides to name their teams on Wednesdays, instead of Tuesdays, as has been the case for decades. The move to Wednesday will prevent Big League from carrying the team lists.
The realities of production and distribution mean it must be sent to the printers on Tuesday night at the latest, in order to be on newsstands by Thursdays. Telstra actually wanted the shift to be made this season, but the NRL decided to hold fire, giving Big League a 12-month reprieve. It's understood Telstra is keen to move to Wednesdays, to fill a mid-week void of traffic. With an ominous digital reality on the horizon, talks have been taking place for months over how Big League can progress to a 97th season without team lists. As all printed mediums would appreciate, it's a scary time.
Tackle 4 - Topless Inglis in party mode
Seven News' exclusive vision of Greg Inglis dancing on a bar room table topless last weekend certainly showed a different side to one of the game's most introverted characters. With a bye ahead of them following last Friday's win over Manly, Inglis and about a dozen Rabbitohs teammates decided to let their hair down in the Eastern Suburbs last weekend.
There was nothing untoward about their behaviour - just a little bit of old fashioned fun. After some non-too-subtle persuasion, Inglis hopped onto a table, ripped off his shirt and performed his signature 'Goanna' celebration on the tabletop. Predictably enough, onlookers went berserk. “All the Souths players were in very good spirits and it was a bit of harmless fun,” said one patron. “I didn't actually think GI would be that extroverted!”
Tackle 5 - Richards helicopter grounded
Wests Tigers fans might have noticed that Pat Richards' popular 'helicopter' kick-offs have been few and far between in recent weeks. Last year under Mick Potter, the Tigers were deploying the tactic on just about every re-start in a bid to regain possession. But new coach Jason Taylor has crunched the numbers and actually realised the kick-offs were less effective than they seemed, resulting more often than not in opposition teams starting their sets in ideal field position.
The Tigers are now instructed to send their kick-offs deep and to the corners, with the helicopter only cleared for take-off in a must-win situation. The growing army of critics might point to the change as further evidence that Taylor is being too conservative with what was once the NRL's most flamboyant outfit. Taylor has been accused of trying to turn the Tigers into his old club, the Roosters, but without the benefit of huge forwards and halves that can play to strict structure.
In Taylor's defence, the current roster is not of his making, and he has inherited a salary cap disaster, which is preventing any meaningful purchases for at least another year. Back-ended contracts have resulted in the release of players such as Blake Austin, Adam Blair and Bodene Thompson - and the Tigers are still footing part of their wages at other clubs.
The form of five eighth Mitchell Moses typifies the painful transition. Moses is a naturally flashy player being asked to inhibit his instincts. He is struggling with that evolution and at times his confidence has suffered, particularly last Sunday at Leichhardt when Tigers fans turned feral. Moses this week told us he understood the anger, but pleaded for patience as the transformation in the entire team's mindset is a massive task.
Part of that transformation appears to be the exit of Richards. The 35-year-old has received a big offer to rejoin the UK Super League with Les Catalans. The Tigers cannot get anywhere near the Francs on offer and are likely to farewell him with their best wishes. In other signing news, Panthers hooker Api Koroisau has secured a release from the final 12 months of his contract to join Trent Barrett at Manly next year.
Tackle 6 - Fa'aoso at the crossroads…again
Impending shoulder surgery has once again put Richie Fa'aoso's career under the microscope. Having completed a successful comeback from a broken neck with the Eels, the prop injured his shoulder during the Tonga-Samoa Pacific Test in early May. He played on for another three weeks at Parramatta but the agony became too much following the loss to Souths in Round 13.
Fa'aoso hoped the injury might have settled over the past month, enabling him to return later this year. But he's now been told surgery is the only option, destroying what was supposed to be a fairytale comeback season. With no guarantees at Parramatta beyond this season, it remains to be seen whether the 31-year-old can yet again haul himself from the depths of physical despair.
Tackle 7 - Melbourne's painful walk down memory Lane
Bulldog rookie Shaun Lane's man-of-the-match performance on Monday night was torture for the Melbourne Storm, which knocked-back the chance to sign the towering forward for just $60,000 this season. In just his third NRL appearance, Lane terrorised Melbourne's edge defenders and made International opposite Tohu Harris look second rate. Canterbury's heavy representative toll and a pectoral injury to Tony Williams have given the 22-year-old an unlikely opportunity.
Before the start of the season, he couldn't fathom a way to break into the Bulldogs' all-star pack with Frank Pritchard, Greg Eastwood, Josh Jackson and Williams all in his way. Lane's management held discussions with other clubs about quitting the final year of his Bulldogs contract, and Melbourne weren't quite willing to come to the party. It now looks as though Lane - a Roosters junior - is set for a long career at Belmore. He's now studying to become a physiotherapist and is the little brother of Brett Lane, a former Bulldogs centre.