Mogg may ditch French deal to stay in Canberra

[Panjabi]

Mogg may ditch French deal to stay in Canberra
Peter Fitzgerald
Friday, 14 July 2006

Canberra Raiders general manager Don Furner has held informal discussions with Origin hero Adam Mogg about the possibility of retaining him at the club next season.
Mogg signed a letter of intent, not a contract, with French Super League club Les Catalans last month which was set to see him leave the Raiders with one year of his contract remaining. But when speculation of captain Clinton Schifcofske's departure to rugby union flared up again earlier this week, Furner sounded Mogg out about how official his commitment with Catalans was.
Schifcofske confirmed yesterday he would leave the Raiders to join Super 14 club the Queensland Reds.
Furner confirmed he met with Mogg on Monday to gauge whether he would reconsider moving to France and remain with the Raiders.
"I asked him would he entertain the thought of staying and he said that he would," Furner said.
Mogg announced his Catalans deal the same day as Queensland State of Origin selectors announced him as a shock call-up for the second match of the series against the NSW Blues in June.
Yesterday the 28-year-old said he would be happy to listen to any counter-offer the Raiders put to him.
"I'm pretty excited about going to France but I'd certainly sit down and listen to what [Canberra has] got to say. It'd be the polite thing to do.
"I think the Raiders thought they had things covered," he said.
"But with the players they've lost I think they need to recruit someone."
Mogg may not be the only player with a one-time Raiders link to be issued a new offer to play with the club in 2007.
Forward Ian Hindmarsh, who played in Canberra from 2003-05, contacted Furner this week about the possibility of a return to the NRL next season. Depending on the success of other recruitment targets, Furner said he would talk to incoming coach Neil Henry about Hindmarsh's position.
The Raiders announced their second recruit for next season yesterday, with Parramatta youngster Tony Pamatangi signing a two-year deal with the club.
The New Zealand-born player has spent two years in the NSW Premier League with both the Eels and Sydney Roosters. Pamatangi joins St George Illawarra centre Colin Best as the only new faces on the Raiders' 2007 player roster.
Furner denied the club had a significant amount of money left in the salary cap to lure high-profile players to Canberra in 2007.
"There's a lot of guys here who are due for decent pay rises which will take up a lot of our spare money," he said.
http://canberra.yourguide.com.au/detail.asp?class=sport&subclass=rugby%20league&story_id=494587&category=Rugby%20League&m=7&y=2006

 

[Panjabi]

I for one am not a believer that all our current problems lie with management but quotes like this from Don Furner Jr make me wonder.

"We will be fairly active in the market place over the next couple of weeks. We're in a position now that we haven't been in for a while with a few players leaving so we need to and will replace them" CT 25.6.2006

Then after securing the services of Colin Best, Tony Pamatangi, and extending the contracts of Marshall Chalk and Ben Jones, and losing Clinton Schifcofske in the 3 weeks proceeding that I wake up to this in the Canberra Times today.

Furner denied the club had a significant amount of money left in the salary cap to lure high-profile players to Canberra in 2007.

"There's a lot of guys here who are due for decent pay rises which will take up a lot of our spare money" CT 14.7.06

Now if he is talking about players that are 'due' for a pay rise I invisage he is talking about the players that are coming off contract next year. The list includes.

Michael Dobson
Craig Frawley
Marc Herbert
Ryan Hinchcliffe
Andrew Lomu (Possibly retiring pending surgery)
Jason Williams

Aside from the untested Dobson and Herbet, I can't see any players that are 'due' for a pay rise? Or maybe Furner has his sights set on the 2008 off contracted players which include Adrian Purtell and David Howell.

Where has all our money gone??

 

[Boing Boing]

It would be good for Mogg to stay.

 

[Roy Rover]

I agree with Panjabi.
None of it makes any sense.
Why say one thing and then a few weeks later have a total turn around.
It's like when they came out and said that we'd be hiring a high profile coach with experience at the highest level.

 

[Paullyboy]

I think that was in reference to Warren Ryan.

 

[hrundi99]

A little birdy tells me that many of the players are on higher salaries than you would expect.

It's not just a matter of management handing out extra money for the sake of it. This is what needs to be paid for players to join the Raiders.

The sooner people accept this the better.

Management can adjust their strategic outlook on how they pitch and run the club as much as they like (and they should), but despite countless protestations from the locals, Canberra is just not that appealing to players.

 

[thickos]

I really hope Mogg stays too. And yes while players at the Raiders may be being paid 'overs', there should be a lot of money free with all these departures... surely.

 

[Edwahu]

At the very least we know for a fact they have about 600k available. Schifs money + Myles offer. Thats a fair amount of cash in my book.

 

[PRKLCD]

Yep - chuck some extra money mogg's way......

BUT maybe the club shouldn't have let him go in the first place!!!!!

 

[Edwahu]

Yeah, it will be a bit embarassing if we do him a favour and let him go to France, then we end up having to pay overs to keep a guy we had on contract.

 

[shear_joy9]

Danny Wiedler said on the footy show last night that the Roosters had about
$400,000 left to spend.

That's just crazy when you compare their playing roster to ours.
I remember a while ago in the SMH, they stated that on average here in Canberra we have to pay around 10-15% more that others clubs for players.

Also in relation to the Furner turnaround, I did recall him saying after the CFMEU sponsorship that it "assured the Raiders would stay in Canberra"
Oh no!!

 

[Edwahu]

Its not really suprising that Furner isnt coming out and saying we are loaded. We are in the middle of a bidding war for Myles and are still negotiating with heaps of other players. I wouldnt read to much into it.

 

[aussies1st]

Oh please stay Mogg. Would be a real boost and we shouldn't have nuffies Howell and Purtell in our backline anymore

 

[Paullyboy]

Yeah, it will be a bit embarassing if we do him a favour and let him go to France, then we end up having to pay overs to keep a guy we had on contract.

That's a really good point, that would make us look like an absolute joke and dont think for a second that player managers wouldn't try it again in a flash if they thought they had a chance of doing the same thing with a player on a lowish contract.

 

[aussies1st]

That's a really good point, that would make us look like an absolute joke and dont think for a second that player managers wouldn't try it again in a flash if they thought they had a chance of doing the same thing with a player on a lowish contract.

Call it a contract top up.

 

[hrundi99]

I don't think it would be an "absolute joke". The Raiders played the cards in front of them. If they'd known for sure that Schif was leaving then they probably wouldn't have let Mogg go in the 1st place.

 

[Paullyboy]

You'd probably be a good person to speak about this with Hrundi as you've got experience in the area - do you not think that if we were to 'top up' Mogg's contract to prevent him from going, we wouldn't be seeing it again in the very near future from some other player manager?

(I just realised I used way too many double negatives in this post, but you get the drift)

 

[hrundi99]

To repeat the situation the manager would have to ensure that an ESL side would offer a contract.

It could happen but I wouldn't be overly concerned. It's an "extra"-ordinary scenario really.

 

[Raider Azz]

Its not really suprising that Furner isnt coming out and saying we are loaded. We are in the middle of a bidding war for Myles and are still negotiating with heaps of other players. I wouldnt read to much into it.

thats the impression i got from reading the article this morning. its most likely a smoke screen to try and help with recruitment.

 

[Bay56]

I agree with Panjabi.
None of it makes any sense.
Why say one thing and then a few weeks later have a total turn around.
It's like when they came out and said that we'd be hiring a high profile coach with experience at the highest level.

I'll tell you why ... once more he has failed to produce the goods and is now looking for an excuse to once more cover up his poor attempt at managing a football club.

It is obvious to me why Don Furner Jnr holds the position he does ... and it has nothing to do with ability.