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Moses' motivation for Eels move? Finals footy

Roar Pro
15th April, 2017
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Mitchell Moses (AAP Image/Action Photographics, Grant Trouville)
Roar Pro
15th April, 2017
24
1396 Reads

With seemingly endless bad press dropping like nightly bombing raids at Concord, the sirens have sounded that Mitch Moses’ mid-year switch to Parramatta is all but certain to happen.

Moses’ move to the Eels will be a tough pill to swallow for many Tigers fans. Many will argue that he owes the Tigers some loyalty as the club has invested considerable resources into him and moved on other players to accommodate him.

However, the taxing nature of the Moses episode and the on-going contract indecision surrounding James Tedesco, Woods and to a lesser extent, Brooks, has taken its toll. In truth, most fans will be happy to see it over, whatever the outcome.

But casting the spotlight on Moses for the moment, is his decision to move across town such a bad move?

As a club the Tigers are a in a deep hole. In most pundits’ eyes, the joint-venture has easily usurped Parramatta as the league’s top kook-house where the inmates run both the boardroom and the footy team. These two entities of Wests Tigers lead parallel existences of landmine hopping, bullet dodging and petrol dousing.

For the last five years, the place has been a cracked mixing bowl of a rotten eggs and sloppy seconds. It’s no wonder that Mitchell and his talented yet jaded band of goons are wanting to slip out the back door to more stable establishments.

The Tigers are in the midsts of an unfortunate bind at present. Mitchell is one of four big name off contract players managed by Isaac Moses. Brooks is reported to have signed, but there are rumours he may backflip.

In the eyes of a lot of fans this Isaac Moses has turned out to be the devil reincarnated. The dude has skillfully manoeuvred himself right under the Tigers’ noses to unquestionably hold all the aces at the negotiation table.

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Currently, the foxy operator has the Tigers’ club over a barrel. Having reportedly secured Mitchell Moses’s deal at Parramatta, Isaac is now moving his pawns and positioning his strings at the Bulldogs and the Roosters to try and land a Woods-Tedesco package deal.

To what extent Mitchell and his apparent not so merry men are being manipulated by Isaac is up for debate. But manipulated or not, they all have the ability to make up their own minds on decisions their player manager is making on behalf of them.

Wests Tigers fullback James Tedesco

Tigers CEO, Justin Pascoe, described the current contract situation as a ‘perfect storm’ with Isaac Moses its chief wind-maker. If the contract issues are not dealt with quickly, the storm may well cripple the Tigers’ 2017 season and fog the goggles of good judgment for the four young men at the center of it.

Some poor judgment has unfortunately already surfaced. Very recently, Moses had publicly said that he wanted to play semi-finals footy.

No doubt this was just another lever pulled by Moses and his manager to either force the Tigers’ hand into paying considerable overs for his services, or it’s part of a plan to pad-out the impending announcement that he has signed elsewhere. Either way, the collateral damage and unintentional recipients from this statement are his Tigers’ teammates.

In other words, his comments are a verbal booting into his current team’s abilities, and it inadvertently blames his finals footy no-show on his fellow tigers; underlining them as being the ones who are sub-par.

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True? Maybe.

Tigers player Mitchell Moses

But whether the comment was intended to sound like it did or not, the poor word choice from Mitch could be very damaging in a team environment.

Suspicions that original media puff piece about Mitch had been carefully scripted by his player manager most certainly looms large to those watching closely.

The many different versions of the events which have gone down between Tigers’ management and Moses regarding his Parramatta contract have somewhat muddied the waters. Dollars negotiated between the two parties and Moses’ price at Parramatta appear speculative at the moment.

However, what seems to be true is that the Tigers’ offer was more than Parra’s and it was Ivan who nuked the original offer tabled by the Tigers.

In any case, what’s becoming clear, is that all parties including the media are being regularly pantsed by player manager Isaac Moses. He is using every side in these negotiations to generate as much coin as humanly possible for his clients and, ultimately, himself.

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For Tigers’ supporters, Mitch’s impending jumping of fences to perceived greener pastures is another unwelcomed distraction to an already bashed fan-base. For Mitch, the move could well be his making as a footballer, or it could end in further tears for the finals searching pivot.

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