No chance of Papalii slipping Eels' net
Date
February 24, 2013
Danny Weidler
PARRAMATTA chief executive Ken Edwards has slammed suggestions the club's star recruit Josh Papalii will turn his back on the Eels amid speculation that he signed with the club under duress. The young Raider put pen to paper with Parra on a three-year deal during the week but the Raiders have been trying to get him to change his mind. ''We are fully aware of suggestions that he signed under some kind of duress but that's totally wrong,'' Edwards said. ''Those kind of comments wouldn't be coming from the kid himself. There's no way that would happen and I can understand if the Raiders are upset because he is a very, very special talent. We did this by the book, to the letter of the law, and then some. I can tell you how far we went to make sure he was comfortable even after he agreed to our terms. Ricky [Stuart] told him to go back to the Raiders one more time to see if they could match our offer and keep him but they didn't get anywhere near it. To say he signed under duress is almost laughable. His mum was there when he did the deal and, like him, she was delighted that he signed to come to us.'' This column understands that Papalii and his management actually approached the Eels to see if they were interested in signing the 20-year-old forward. ''What I want our fans to know is that Josh will be at Parramatta and we are delighted to have him join the club,'' Edwards said. ''It's an indication that the club is moving in the right direction that a player of his ability and obvious potential wanted to sign up with us.'' Several attempts were made to contact Raiders boss Don Furner but he did not respond.
