Parra's loss of Folau is Parra's gain

With Filau Parramatta tried to get under the salary cap on a "lay-bye 'basis.- $100 000 deposit for 2013 and $500 000 for 2014- guys the salary cap does not work that way. Rugby will get them -selves a player who is 8 kgs lighter, 10 metres quicker and can now kick a footbal 65-70 metres. The NRL and Eeels lost out big time with Filau- I cannot believe they were so incompetent in their efforts to get him back into their game. At the end of 2013 Sydney F.C. will probably sign him as their marquee player !! Ricky - why did a legend like your -self wish to join the losers from Cumberland ??

He stated ru was an option ,when the Broncos negotiations were going on(his modus operandi ).He came to the Eels wanting out.He stated he only decided late in the piece.You have got to query his credentials.He stated one of his ambitions was to play whith his brother at the Eels.Just how many roads can one person take . And guess what if I were involved I would be throwing out my toys,being sold a dump.Gould blamed Schubert for a fair swag of it.. And if a top line AFL player did something similar during negotiations,you would be one of he first to whine. If the guy was genuine enough to say,I want to play ru as my ambition is to play for the Wallabies,no problems.He did not, voila he is a user. The same rl journos that have been bagging the NRL off and on this year,eg today's R Wislon back page effort. Sometimes rl journos get it right,but of course AFL journos are never wrong.

The reason why rugby league has been such a basketcase is the toxic culture built by the western Sydney clubs. Gus Gould, The Roosters handshakey deals. Benny backdoor deals, Panthers toxic deals, Parra has been gone since Sterling's days, now they have Stuart who has already shown he can not be trusted. . This whole area has been run by amatuers, let's be honest. Supported by NSWrl. If this mob somehow stuff up this commission , i dont think rugby league will ever recover. The fans had been pushed to the limits, every day it is a new story of how badly league is being run. They wont let the commission do their job, they are scared of losing theirs;;

At his very first press conference after GWS Folau did mention RUnion as an option. This is just RL journos and RL identities (Gould) throwing their toys out of the pram because they didn't get what they wanted. Very childish.

Correct.League per se is a competition of teams from any code.I refer to the NRL,or rugby league ,league rarely.

And I prefer to trust the story in the Australian ,than you.You appear to have complete faith in his manager,who is hardly coming out of this in glowing terms. Yet on many occasions you are quite happy to quote a news article,when it suits LOL.But no no.I don't trust journos. Doing something wrong and messing people around(not making up one's mind,using codes in deals), are two diferent stories. Has he(Stuart) gone under a rock? ,please provide evidence.Perhaps out of respect to his brother playing with the Eels and his family, they have decided to close the case.Seems to me the club is getting on with life,they were made to look mugs. Do I need to repeat myself,the salary cap increase was being investigated.It was not ATT set in stone. The Eels should apologise to Willie Tonga agreed ,and Folau should apologise to the Eels for the time wasting exercise.And schubert should give himself an uppercut.

Folau and his manager are part of the story,unless you are living on another planet. The other guy stuffed a club around therein lies a similarity. It would be just as sad ,if the position was reversed,and a top line union player did something similar. So called one eyed fans,accept players moving here there and everywhere,they just find the way a couple do it as ordinary. When Mat Rogers moved over to union,on his last match at Cronulla he received a warm wlecome and goodbye.He did it the right way,not the underhanded way.

You dont 'know what Folau said to the NRL and neither do I.We do know he got the ball rolling getting the eels involved.To suggest he is a cleanskin in this mess,is ludicrous.

Because his brother and close mates play for the Eels is one reason.So he has an affinity with the club.Secondly he knows Stuart and Edwards is not the sort of CEO to play silly bs... If as suggested that he had been speaking to the Tahs beforehand and was interested,the Eels would be even more justified to go ballistic andtell him to go then. Because there have been precedents called back ended deals,where a player starts off with a lesser figure and in the later years,secures a far biigger figure.Eg Gasnier. "Why would the Eels go chasing after him if he was giving both parties a shot,especially now as he observed it was not until last week, that he had made up his mind to change codes.Meaning prior to that his mind was on the Eel,if that was true.. Rubbish !The code was in throes of looking into increasing the cap,it was a case of how much,which was decided last Friday,the day Folua had already made his mind up.So he decided at the very last minute,I would like to be a Wallaby. You can blame the code for the delay with the cap,you can blame his manager in particular ,but he has to take some of the blame/repsonibility for stuffing the Eels around,when it appears his heart was not really in it. The mess started with a guy,who started a mess with GWS,then was too impatient waiting for an Eels deal.If you want to be a Wallaby,a Hockeyroo,a Socceroo.just spell it out,and don't stuff a club around.I don't blame the Tahs one bit,for trying to secure his services.

Or NRL has many refer to it.

I think I prefer to trust Folau than you or any other RL journos. He said he didn't do anything wrong so I trust him. Funny how Stuart has gone under a rock and hide now that all this is out in the open. Folau may or may not have contacted the Eeels for help but the Eeels could have said sorry no money bro and all this would have avoided but no they try to off-load Willie Tonga so much for been loyal counts.

We started of with Folau and then you move to his manager and now SBW. Let the kid do what he wants to do with his life. Its sad watching one eye fans who just can't handle players switching to other codes. Its 2012 and he'll be back in no time.

Folau never said anything to the NRL apart from rugby league was his first choice. The NRL were slow in doing the deal so Folau made the switch and good luck to him. I hope he takes him brothers with him when comes back to the NRL and play for Penrith or another club. Its the Eels who will lose out.

According to who? He might have done the same thing to both codes just letting them know that he's interested in playing rugby (both codes) but why would the Eels and Stuart go after him knowing they don't have the money to pay him under the cap. Its a mess created by them in the first place all they had to do was tell Folau there's no money and let him deal with other NRL clubs. Maybe they fear Folau turning out for other NRL clubs but it has let him into the hands of the opposite code.

It's rugby league.

I wouldn't be writing for the Telegraph then Mr T if I am this so called great defender,as that rag spend it's lame hours looking at bagging the code,see Titans,see new CEO,see offfield minor incidents etc etc. You have a historical tendency not to read my posts in full,but extracting portions for whatever reason .I stated quite clearly the code and Schubert in particular took too long.But his mgr was also playing one against the other. The press conference told us nothing new,just a hardly convincing effort IMO. The Eels had to work under a salary cap,that was inflexible,not of their making.They were the mugs who were contacted initally by Folau,he wanted out and wanted to play for the Eels.To say Folau has no fault in this is utter BS. When did the guy suddenly decide he wanted to be a Wallaby,before breakfast,after the movies,watching Skyfall.He has more club/code movements than a Gangnam dancer. You should work for the ARU,the spin starts right now.

Nothing wrong with challenging oneself.It's the way the challenge is orchestrated.They both haved that methodology in common,the backdoor approach. It is very hard to get through.I do not criticise people for wanting to earn as much as they wish.I have done it.It is the way things are done that needs to be addressed,and both these guys ,or at least SBW now admits.His was the wrong way to go about it. Of course $250,000 fior a player of his talent is not a lot of money.he has already ammassed $3m from GWS.Not a bad treasure chest for a rainy day.So 1 year contract is short term ain ,for long term gain. Ask yourself why his mgr,was not accreditted by the NRL.

What the clubs may or may not do down the line is one thing.He stuffed the Eels and the NRL,by saying one thing and doing another.The NRL clubs will be very cautious of this guy ,especiially if he retains this lees than honourable mgr. And I am sure his teammates at the Tahs who wanted an increase,and where knocked back,due to sal cap limitations,will be thrilled to bits. If he wanted so much to be a Wallaby,then he should have told the Eels he was not interested.Unless of course it was a spur of the moment thought. One doesn't have to be a mind exert,to see the kid led people a beauty. The guy's track record from the moment he left the Storm to the Broncs,to GWS.to no man's land,smacks of someone easily led ,naive and needing direction by a manager with I deem integrity.

And he contacted the Eels first ,saying he wanted out and wanted to play for the Eels. Learnt a valuable lesson!!!! Yes .,appears to be never trust a man at his word or perhaps his manager needs a lesson(the unaccreditted one)or Folau needs a new manager.He was the one coming out looking the flip flop man.

Scott totally agree mate, the hypocrisy of sticky is galling, and I don't even think he realises it. He should look closely and think about his views on Folau and think of the stuff he did to try and get Folau, and mucking around players like Willie Tonga, before he rambles on about stuff like good culture, and integrity. Ricky wants to win a NRL title pure and simple and will do whatever it takes to win one within the rules of the salary cap.