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Robbie Farah has been offered a lifetime contract at the Wests Tigers after initially being told he was no longer wanted at the club after 2015.
This will see Robbie Farah finish as a one-club player, meaning he will outlast many of his Tigers teammates – or rivals depending on your point of view.
This includes coaches Tim Sheens and Mick Potter (please hold for the pending departure of Jason Taylor) and star players or players Benji Marshall, Beau Ryan and Chris Heighington, among others.
The reason for the retention of Farah is less about his perceived value but rather than due to his current salary, which is a roster-destroying $900k p.a.
They can simply not shoulder the cost of another club picking him up at his current market value, with some clubs only willing to sign the 32-year-old hooker at the minimum wage of $80,000.
Coach Taylor and new CEO Marina Go were well aware of all the risks associated with advising Robbie that he was not wanted at the club and the potential for it to blow up in their face. However, they were still willing to proceed, both of them for understandable reasons
Taylor was more than aware of how instrumental Farah was in the departure of the two previous Tigers coaches. First the decorated and long term Australian coach Sheens, as well as the talented Potter – who most pundits agree was on the receiving end of a pretty raw deal at the end of 2014.
Whether you agree with Jason Taylor’s coaching ability or not, any coach wants to have control of their team before any other party – be they owner or player. With Farah’s influence, track record and the fact he is in the latter stages of his career, you can understand Taylor’s willingness to move Farah on in order to take control of the team.
CEO Marina Go was more blunt and simply stated that in order for the Wests Tigers to build a winning culture, Robbie Farah would have to move on. Now that it appears that Robbie Farah will be going nowhere, the same can’t be said for Taylor and Go – or the Tigers future prospects.
Supporters of Farah will show how vital he is to the club, as evidenced by the outpouring of support he received at the Warriors versus Tigers this year game where a crowd of 6,711 people let their feelings know where their loyalties lie.
While this is admirable, the fact that only 6711 are showing up to a Sunday afternoon game at Leichardt Oval after another failed season is more of an indictment than an endorsement.
They will also look to his decorated careerm spanning 12 years to date including Origin appearances and Tests for Australia. The Tigers have only seen finals football three times in this period. Again, echoing Go’s sentiments, it doesn’t paint a picture of a winning culture.
While not entirely fair to put the blame on one party, the absence of any other person of such influence at the tigers makes it hard to ignore.
The final nail in the coffin should be the current hesitancy of the young halfbacks Mitch Moses and Luke Brooks to commit to new, long-term contracts. These two players are crucial for the Tigers to have any hope of playing finals football over the next few years. Without the funds to retain them, there are plenty of clubs interested.
The reality is that the other clubs will be more than happy for Farah to remain at the Tigers, as it provides them with one less team to worry about in the race for the premiership.
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