Foran fool returning to Sydney

A question and answer session, delving into the whacky world of troubled Kieran Foran who is quitting the Warriors, almost before he started.

Have the Warriors done enough for Kieran Foran?

Clearly not. He's buggering off, after one season? Ungrateful sod.

What about his decision?

He's a fool going back to Sydney so soon. The pressures and temptations there are enormous, and he's a headline magnet. Foran has been disloyal to the Warriors, who have gone to quite extraordinary lengths to rehabilitate him, when his career and life were in tatters last year.

He is going back to be with his kids — does this make sense?

Not if he has another emotional collapse, gets suicidal again, starts hanging around with controversial gamblers like Eddie Hayson and risks suspension. This was the moment to play the long game, to keep his life on track. His kids would be the winners in the end, and he would have had reasonably significant access in the meantime.

What's the most intriguing join-the-dots exercise about this saga?

Veteran Sydney sports journo Phil “Buzz” Rothfield was bang on last month predicting that Foran would sign with the Bulldogs (despite protests from Doyle). Rothfield is so close to Hayson, he had to quit his Telegraph column for a month last year over their gambling association. Rothfield was cleared of impropriety but will “no longer be punting with Eddie Hayson”. So how did Rothfield know what Foran was doing? We can only guess.

Have the Warriors got egg on their face?

Some will applaud their madcap humanitarianism, but they have been used as a willing doormat. Nobody I know in the media, or their contacts, thought he would stay in Auckland.

Does anything about the Foran saga make you angry?

It sure does. According to Doyle, Foran met ex-partner Rebecca Pope, the mother of his kids, and their respective lawyers in Sydney in the build-up to last week’s Anzac test. So he had time for this sort of emotionally draining business, one with an uncertain outcome, when the Kiwis were on very limited preparation time?

Any wins for the Warriors?

There's a validity to Doyle's repeated claim that his squad has things to learn from Foran. His presence offers a oneseason, top-eight lifeline, and many Warriors fans would probably settle for that. At the very least the Foran saga and publicity show that the underachieving Warriors still matter.