Further to your last point Ricky Stuart himself got out of a a contract with parra to go “home” as he put it for him to take the high road with Williams is crazy.
Every club is guilty of encouraging coaches and players to try to get out of contracts, they all do it when it suits them.
Agree with this, the only thing I’d add is that the balance of power is probably too much with the players/player managers at the moment.
If a club wants to give the player the flick, the player will never be out of pocket (unless they agree). Essentially the club has to find another club to take the player, and then agree the split on who pays what, but ultimately, the player will always receive the value of their remaining contract. (Eg player has 2 years left on contract at $500k per year, club pushes them out to another club who only agree to pay $300k per year, the selling club would have to ‘top up’ the extra $200k per year; and have that come out of their cap too).
If the player wants out with 2 years to go (whether that’s because they’re agent has got a better offer elsewhere or homesick etc), currently if the club isn’t happy to let them go, the player starts causing problems, not putting in, agent starts causing other issues in the club with other players/potential recruits. Essentially, other than forcing them to stay and feeling the consequences of an unhappy player and player manager, the club has to either bump up their pay, or let them go. There needs to be stronger controls to protect the clubs to stop players/managers being able to chase a better deal during a contract. As things stand, if a club makes a multi-year deal and the player starts to become more valuable; the club will end up having to do something before that contract is due for renewal.
