So it's official!! James Tedesco will stay a Wests Tiger afterall! In news that will polarize opinions, Tedesco last night officially backed out of his deal with the Raiders, citing he never felt comfortable with the deal signed for 2015 and beyond.
There's no doubt that James Tedesco's sensational U-turn decision in deciding to stay at Wests Tigers caught everyone off guard. Barely a week ago the 21 year old fullback had himself a hefty 3 year deal down at Canberra, however it appears his heart and mind have countered back at him over the past 7 days as the realization of what he was getting in to dawned on him.
The news is brilliant for Wests Tigers and their fans who'll now keep the highly rated fullback on their books for at least the next few years. Full disclosure of the deal with the Tigers will be worked out in the coming days but it's believed to be the 4 year deal discussed previously.
Whilst the news is brilliant for the Tigers, it's obviously a very different emotion for the Canberra Raiders who had every reason to believe it was done and dusted - that they had their man! There's little doubt that it is unfair on the Raiders, but the rules have been adhered to. Ironically it was the Raiders in the opposite position barely 12 months back when Josh Papaali performed his U-turn and decided to stay at the Raiders and abandon plans to move to Parramatta.
It all begs the question though. Is this the way the NRL and its players should be conducting business?? How is it that a player can sign his future away and then within a "cooling off" period decide to back out? It's not so much that the process should be thrown out the window and that the contract signed should be honoured. It's more the process of how it's dealt with.
Surely a better way to conduct business would be for both club and player to keep quiet during this part of the process and announce nothing and allow the cooling off period to take its path without the controversy. The Raiders club are not the losers here. They know the rules. They know there is a chance this could happen. The only losers are the Raiders fans who see Tedesco trumped as their own player all whilst the possibility exists that it's not 100% a sure thing to happen.
So the cooling off period is one area to lay the blame at. Another would be the player manager. To call this a murky area would be an understatement. In the case of James Tedesco, James admitted he was never comfortable with the contract signed. Now surely Sam Ayoub (Tedesco's manager) should've noticed this! Throughout the whole process he must surely have known that Tedesco's heart was with the Tigers. He must surely have gotten the vibe that it was never about the money and that James only wanted to be happy playing his football? So why push forward with the Raiders deal? Those same questions also hold James fully responsible for this mess too. He doesn't get away with this.
Some will accuse Ayoub of trying to reward himself with a bigger slice of pie (the manager's cut of the negotiated deal) and perhaps there's some truth to it. However the biggest red flag flying over the way contracts are negotiated these days appears to be in regards to some (not all) player managers. In the case of Tedesco, Canberra's offer was well above his market value, Ayoub knew this and whilst some 'concern' was probabaly shown for his client's welfare, it appears Ayoub only had one destination in mind for Tedesco the whole time.
It's disappointing.........
The NRL seriously needs to look at the whole process more thoroughly than they are. What occurred throughout this process was not in anyone's best interests. The end result is a club who feels victimized and cheated on and a player who's gone through the ringer when he didn't need to. In my opinion the role of the NRL player manager needs to be scrutinized heavily in this case. Here, Tedesco's best interests were clearly not looked after.
Wests Tigers may've kept Tedesco in the end but who really won here?? The Raiders didn't. Neither did Tedesco. Certainly it wasn't Ayoub who won. Rugby League wasn't the winner either. Wests Tigers were the only party who did win here and even then it's a bad look for the club and the game in general.
The NRL MUST sort this out!
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