Of course the other side of the coin is, do we want the club to put so much emphasis on a situation where a player has to perform only when the money/contract is on the line, rather than basing our offers on performance s up to that time?
Our original offer to Tony would have been based on what we thought was decent in the scheme of things and development goals of the club/squad, and if Manly happen to come along and have more salary cap cash free at the time, should that really budge our judgement on these things as a club? In doing so we risk showing our younger talents a culture where they'd better have a blinder in their most important week in contract negotiations, and screw how you go the rest of the time (eg perhaps like Hayne last week, the big money now comes in regardless)?
Interesting dilemma...