Luke Brooks rejection exposes major mistake from Wests Tigers

Luke Brooks' decision to reject a lucrative two-year contract extension with Wests Tigers came as no surprise to NRL supremo Phil Gould, however the Bulldogs heavyweight says it's not guaranteed the star halfback will eventually walk away from the club. Gould has long maintained that the Tigers' fateful decision to let three key teammates walk away from the club in 2017 sparked a years-long slump both for Brooks and the Tigers, adding that comments from the club earlier this year about finding a replacement for the 28-year-old club veteran would hardly have helped.

Brooks has knocked back a two-year extension reportedly worth just over a million dollars in total, with Tigers chairman Lee Hagipantelis labelling the move 'sad and disappointing'. The open market now beckons for Brooks, who has reportedly attracted interest from the Super League in England as well as from the North Queensland Cowboys.

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Gould believes that after more than 200 games for the Tigers, with relatively little success to show for it, Brooks could simply be after a change of scenery. But he maintains the 2017 departures of James Tedesco, Aaron Woods and Mitchell Moses played a key role in him becoming the whipping boy of the Tigers for several years.

Boasting a contract in the vicinity of $1 million a year, many felt Brooks' form wasn't matching the money he was being paid. But Gould believes the Tigers have consistently failed to build a team around him to maximise his talents and fully justify such a price tag.

“I think he just needs more thinking music, I don’t think it’s a fait accompli that he won’t stay at the Tigers, he just needs more thinking music,” he told Channel 9. “At a very important time in his career, and the Tigers history, they lost Tedesco, Mitchell Moses and Aaron Woods ... three of them went, and left him in charge.

“Not only did they leave him in charge they went out and bought really badly, didn’t they? They screwed up their salary cap with a heap of buys that did nothing for them and he was the front bat and I kept saying during that time, Luke Brooks is not the problem with Wests Tigers, Wests Tigers is the problem with Luke Brooks.

“I think at a very important time in his career he was left on his own, that could’ve been a really formidable young group with Tedesco and Mitchell Moses and Luke Brooks who were coming through as kids together and I think that was a real opportunity lost for that club, they should never have lost those players.”

Wests Tigers chairman 'disappointed' by Luke Brooks rejection

Gould said the decision was one that would put the Tigers 'on notice' without it being one that would foreshadow a departure at the end of the season. He said the Tigers ought to wear some of the blame for publicly suggesting they were considering shopping Brooks to rival NRL clubs.

However Hagipantelis told SEN that the club was saddened that their 'genuine' offer hadn't been enough to retain Brooks' services from mid-season. He later said it was a 'commercial reality' of the NRL that the in-form halfback would test his value elsewhere.

“As reported, the club made what we believed to be a fair market value offer,” he said. “It was a genuine offer because our intentions were to retain Luke and keep him as a one-club player.

“Unfortunately on Sunday morning, Luke let Benji (Marshall) know that the offer wasn’t acceptable which he is perfectly entitled to respond to. He wants to test the market and it is sad and disappointing.

“I know that Benji and Tim were very keen on him being in their plans moving forward. It’s just a commercial reality.”

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