I can't keep up. Seriously, I thought the Klemmer/Napa saga would be the end of the off-season madness, yet here we are again now discussing a possible Johnson to the Sharks story and the chance Gareth Widdop will walk away from the Dragons.
This comes after Valentine Holmes left his club, and the game to head to American to chase an NFL dream.
The less said about the current coaching carousel the better. It's MADNESS!!!
Fans have taken to social media to do everything from celebrate to vent to ask when will this madness end?
I totally get the frustration. As a Sharks fan I bought my 2019 membership on the thoughts of Valentine Holmes splitting defences apart and scoring 20 plus tries again, leading the club back to the promised land.
Now he won't.
I'm sure Panthers fans were expecting to see Trent Merrin lead the team out in 2019. Nope.
Dogs fans had their Klemmer jerseys ready. Time to upgrade those.
Roosters fans only just saw Dylan Napa change out of his Grand Final jersey last week yet now he's wearing the blue and white of Belmore.
Shaun Johnson, the Warriors marquee man, has now officially exited the club that nearly everyone just assumed would be his home until the day he hung up his dazzling boots.
At the time this was written Johnson's future was not yet officially decided, although it is widely reported that he will sign for the Sharks for 2019 and then look to his long-term future in time.
Looking at all these moves though, especially the Johnson shift, the clubs really have no one but themselves to blame.
Fans are angry, and rightfully so, at just how easy it is for players to walk away from their club.
Even though it looks as though the Sharks will ultimately benefit from the ease of contract breaks, I still maintain that any player who breaks contract should not be able to seek a pay rise anywhere else.
For instance, David Klemmer, who cited personal reasons, for his leaving the Dogs, signed a monster deal for the Knights leading many to assume the move was money related. Good on him, I certainly can't say I wouldn't do the same thing, but at if the reasons for leaving were purely personal, honour your contract value at the new club.
So, yes, I absolutely agree that it is too easy for players to leave, for whatever reason, to seek a new club.
It's tough for fans. It can completely change the complexion of the next season. The clubs on the other hand just have to take it on the chin.
Clubs have made it very clear that they will move players on if it benefits the club.
Taking the spin out of it, Josh McGuire was allowed to leave to the Cowboys so that the Brisbane based club could retain their young crop of talented forwards.
The Roosters, for all their talk, released Mitchell Pearce to the Knights. Yes they said they'd play him off the bench etc etc but there was never a chance that Pearce would accept that.
Roosters management knew this and happily let him walk away to sign Cooper Cronk.
Good business. They literally won a premiership on the back of that decision.
There are probably a hundred other examples of players being tapped on the shoulder in order for clubs to make moves elsewhere. Michael Lichaa is reportedly going through this exact instance right now.
Clubs cannot complain when players and their agents walk in and ask for released based on huge opportunities elsewhere due to the fact that they barely think twice when doing the same thing in reverse.
The Warriors came out yesterday and sunk the boot into their best ever player, saying that they had no choice but to release Johnson as they wouldn't allow anyone who wasn't 100% committed to play for their club.
Fair shout if not for the fact that they very publicly stated that Johnson could look around for 2020 basically telling him to find another club as his services would not be retained.
Tell a player he's not in the plans then turn it around and play victim when said player asks for a release a year early to sort out his long-term future!?
The Warriors made their bed and now they have to lie in it.
So to have other clubs who are more than happy to play fast and loose with contracts when it suits them, but are quick to blame players when the tables are turned and roles reversed.
I'm not saying that I'm enjoying all these players switching clubs, it's exhausting, but this is the world we live in now and clubs have to accept it.
Again, I wasn't happy to lose Valentine Holmes a week ago but I'm also not naive to the fact that if a chance to sign Latrell Mitchell came up that the Sharks would look to shift players to get it done.
This is a situation the game has created for itself.
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