A good read below, enjoy guys. Was my last free article off SMH for now.
So 700k for Arrow a season, I’m stoked with that. I do trust what Andrew Webster writes about us too he’s very fair on us and tends to be right.
Rugby league bingo! How much did Souths pay for Jai Arrow?
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If you ever wanted to understand the confusion of the NRL player market right now, with its smoke and mirrors and subterfuge, you only need to start asking how much South Sydney paid for Titans forward Jai Arrow.
It’s been reported that the Rabbitohs will pay him $3.2 million over four years, with the deal starting in 2021. Souths say that figure is wrong. Try $2.8 million.
They were confident of finally securing him the week before Christmas but were suddenly thrown off course by the Wests Tigers, who tabled a late, massive offer.
Ah-ha! So, the Tigers were the ones who offered him $3.2 million — not Souths?
Not so fast, say the Tigers. They say that figure is wrong. Try $2.4 million. Souths blew them out of the water, they say.
As for the Titans, they reckon they’ve missed out on Arrow by just $100,000 a season. So that makes their offer $2.8 million.
Which Souths signed him for. According to Souths. But not the Titans and Tigers.
Don’t think about any of this too hard because there is every chance you will brain your damage!
But it does give an insight into the strangeness of the off-season player market, which has been particularly punishing this summer because of endless speculation about the futures of Arrow and Roosters centre Latrell Mitchell — and what both mean for each other.
Those two players are contracted to their current clubs until November 1, 2020, yet negotiations are on in earnest to get them to another club a season early.
It could take some weeks before we know if Souths get Arrow for 2020.
And that, in turn, will help determine if Souths can get serious about signing Mitchell — despite coach Wayne Bennett telling News Corp they won’t be signing him. I'm having deja vu all over again.
The Titans say reports that Arrow has already asked for an immediate release are wrong, but you can bet it’s not far away: he would be doubling his current yearly salary if he came to Redfern a season early.
Souths also need him. Arrow is no Sam Burgess, whose salary cap space he is gobbling up after Burgess was medically retired with a serious shoulder injury. But he’s the hard-working, dependable middle forward Bennett needs.
The question is who wants to cough up the money and when?
Normally, players who sign with another club with a season left to play will ask for an immediate release — and usually their club will let them go immediately, ripping off the Band-Aid to cause the least amount of pain.
Yet more players — and the clubs who sign them so early — are stalling, sitting idle as a rival club pays their wages through the docile months of November, December and January.
The more one club pays in the off-season means less off the next club’s salary cap when they eventually secure him.
Mitchell is a case in point. The Roosters have been playing hardball with the 22-year-old but he’s not budging.
The club has been desperate to get him off its books before January 1 but threats of playing him in reserve grade next season have been brushed off and the longer Mitchell digs in, the more the Roosters have to pay him each month.
If he ends up doing a deal with Souths in late January, that could be more than $200,000 off what Souths — or any other prospective club — would have to pay him. The Roosters are so keen to get rid of Mitchell, they could even tip in some more.
Whether Mitchell is prepared to risk signing just a one-year deal with Souths, before working out what he does after that, remains to be seen. It would seem like madness given he's knocked back enormous offers from his own club and the Tigers.
Complicating the Mitchell situation is who is actually managing his affairs: his accredited agent, Wayde Rushton, or Matt Rose, who says he doesn’t manage Mitchell but has been doing his bidding at several NRL clubs.
Mitchell is expected to meet with Rushton early in the new year. He is also expected back at Roosters training on January 6.
His future is now inexorably linked with Arrow’s and whether he joins Souths early or not.
The Titans aren’t overly keen to let Arrow go a year early because they don’t have a readymade replacement. They've signed boom Storm rookie Tino Fa’asuamaleaui, but he doesn’t arrive until 2021 and he wouldn’t be ready to fill the breach even if released early.
And, unlike other players, Arrow’s worth ethic and professionalism are considered so strong that the Titans can't see him having a flat year with his head already at Souths.
Confused? Me, too.
PlayStation 4 and XBox might be the game of choice this Christmas but in rugby league it's old-fashioned Tetris.
