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THE Titans are preparing to play hardball on Tyrone Peachey’s contract despite the Penrith player confirming he had instructed his manager to get him out of the deal.
Talk of Peachey’s discontent has been brewing for some time, with player agent Sam Ayoub confirming last month his client was “jittery” about a move away from family support.
But with any provision to backflip on a deal removed from player contracts in 2015 in the wake of Daly Cherry-Evans reneging on his Gold Coast deal, Peachey has no ability to simply walk away.
Titans chief executive Graham Annesley, who will leave the club next month to take up a senior role at the NRL, said the situation was straightforward.
“It’s a very simple matter from our perspective,” Annesley said.
“He’s signed a legally binding contract with the Titans and we expect him to honour it.”
“We’ve made other recruitment and retention decisions on the basis of his signing.”
Peachey agreed to a threeyear, $1.5 million deal with the Titans in March.
“You could imagine if the situation was reversed and he was desperate to come and we decided we didn’t want him any longer, how that would be perceived by Tyrone and his manager,” Annesley said.
Peachey fronted the media in Sydney yesterday afternoon as he prepared for the Panthers’ semi-final clash against Cronulla.
The Origin utility, who hopes to expand his young family, said he and his partner wanted to stay in Sydney. “We’ve just built in Penrith and the missus is real comfortable in that place,” he said.
“I spoke to my manager and told him what I want to happen. I also told him I don’t want to worry about anything until the end of the year.
“I just want to worry about Penrith for the moment and we’ll figure the rest out at the end of the year.”
Peachey, who reportedly denied talk he was seeking to back out of his deal over a representative payment dispute, cannot terminate his deal with the Titans simply because he has changed his mind.
Following the CherryEvans fiasco, the NRL changed protocols to allow a 10-day cooling off period but even this was scrapped in the last collective bargaining agreement.
The Titans would have to agree to release Peachey for him to get out of his deal, something they are unlikely to do given the dearth of quality players on the market during the off-season.