Whanau always comes first and star recruit owes club nothing
port in helping him to address and deal with numerous personal issues.
The Warriors are fuming over what they claim were incorrect media reports that Foran had slipped through their grasp and was set to join the Bulldogs next season.
Their worst fears were eased when Canterbury chief executive Raelene Castle sent a text message and made a late night phone call to managing director Jim Doyle to apologise for the brewing media storm and clarify they had not yet come to any agreement with Foran.
“I got a text message from the Bulldogs CEO after midnight last night saying ‘ despite what’s on the back page of the newspaper, we’ve got no agreement with Kieran’,” Doyle said in a video address to club members.
“So he may go back to Sydney and he may still stay here. He’s obviously finding it very difficult to make a decision because his kids are there.”
The Warriors believe they are close to confirming a contract extension for Foran’s off- contract halves partner Shaun Johnson.
Retaining both players has always been their priority but the Warriors have also made discreet enquiries about the potential availability of numerous replacement options as a contingency plan.
St George Illawarra five- eighth Gareth Widdop, and Bulldogs pair Josh Reynolds and Moses Mbye are understood to be among several offcontract halves on the Warriors’ radar.
Out- of- favour Newcastle captain Trent Hodkinson has also emerged as a possible recruit, after the Knights’ highest- paid player was sensationally dropped ahead of tonight’s clash against the Cowboys.
“We’d like to have him [ Foran] for longer as well but we’re moving on,” said Doyle.
“We’re talking with other people externally and considering all of our options, not just putting all of their eggs in one basket.
“We’re talking to players out there, like we did with Tohu Harris, but we’re talking to other players about joining us for next year and beyond as well.” he fog is clearing over the Kieran Foran exercise. The nonsense of the past few weeks — will he stay at the Warriors, will he go, to whom will he switch his allegiance — appears to be being sorted. Sort of.
The champion, but troubled Kiwis halfback, is shooting through, back to Sydney, most likely to the Canterbury Bulldogs. So the stories out of Sydney go.
Let’s be clear: in life, family should trump all. Therefore, with his children in Sydney with his former partner, that’s where Foran should be.
Here’s a hunch: he was only coming to the Warriors for one
Warriors managing director Jim Doyle on Kieran Foran
season. Would he even have contemplated multiple seasons three hours flying time away from his children? Doubt it.
There is talk the situation with his children is more complicated, that there are other relocations in the wind. So where did the notion that he might fancy another couple of seasons gain traction?
Now there are whispers that the idea of Foran staying one more season at the Warriors is not a dead duck just yet. Still with me? Watch this space.
Warriors’ officials maintain one year was the plan when Foran arrived, and they said as much, but the waters have been muddied.
Instead the swirl of rumour and counter- rumour, which helps no one but keeps the Sydney league media in a feeding frenzy, has taken hold.
And, Lord help us, we had the spin that Foran somehow owed the Warriors some loyalty for having given him a lifeline out of a deep hole back into the NRL.
Spare me. Loyalty is a fine thing, often undervalued, but unfortunately when it comes to sport it’s basically in the past. Sad but true.
The modern sportsman, or woman, by and large, is not given to flights of “doing the right thing”. They are governed by factors such as “where’s the money” or . . . well, “where’s the money”.
What the Warriors’ faithful make of all this — if they feel dudded by the club’s management, or by the player, or both — will first be seen in their reaction to him in eight days’ time when the Warriors host the Sydney Roosters.
On Anzac Day the Warriors are in Melbourne, supposedly one of the clubs Foran was reported to be sounding out. Problem is Melbourne isn’t Sydney. If it was true then it casts Foran in a poor light. A MelbourneSydney commute is still a commute.
Among the most painful labels that can be affixed to a professional sportsman or woman is that they have behaved in an unprofessional manner.
But before slinging it at Foran, consider the fury of noise which has surrounded him since he arrived at Mt Smart Stadium. The word is he’s playing pretty well and is helpful in his work bringing the younger players up to speed. In other words, it’s hard to fault him on the park, or within the confines of the players’ work.
You could, by contrast, throw it at Sonny Bill Williams and his latest piece of headline grabbing, around what he will and won’t wear on his collar for the Blues. Wasn’t it lovely how every relevant party jumped over each other to pronounce his behaviour was just fine with them.
Here, there’s no issue with Williams and his religious beliefs. But if, as is understood to be the case, no one knew he wouldn’t accept a bank logo until the day of the game against the Highlanders in Dunedin ( when he ran out with tape over the offending brand) — that is unprofessional in the extreme, and disrespectful to those who pay his substantial salary.