Robbie Farah shapes as a bargain acquisition for an NRL team after South Sydney, who had been described as early favourites to recruit the discarded Wests Tigers captain, ruled themselves out of picking him up next year.
The 31-year-old's future beyond this season remained uncertain on Wednesday despite the efforts of his management behind the scenes in the past month when it became clear the Tigers premiership player was not in the club's plans.
Blasting the Tigers for an "outrageous" decision, Farah's agent, Sam Ayoub, said he had received offers from several English Super League teams but the NSW State of Origin hooker wants to remain in the NRL and preferably in Sydney.
The agent said the Tigers needed to "look up the word respect in the dictionary", accusing them of moving Farah on in an effort to deflect attention away from their poor performance this season.
"The club is in the position that it is because of, I suppose, an incompetent level of management over the years," Ayoub said. "I can't be criticised for being honest. That seems to be carrying forward at the moment.
"Everybody in management there has been there the best part of six months at most. They're not aware of the structure of his contract; you would have thought that they would have looked into things a little bit more before making such an outrageous decision."
Souths were the first club linked with Farah after news broke of the Tigers' desire to offload him, with the pending departure of New Zealand international Issac Luke to the Warriors and the presence of Farah's brother Eddie at Redfern - he is the club's physio - mentioned as contributing factors.
However, the premiers distanced themselves from a move for Farah on Wednesday, insisting they would retain faith in their two dummy halves, Cameron McInnes and Paul Carter. McInnes was in May re-signed until the end of the 2017 season while Carter was a mid-season arrival after being sacked by Gold Coast Titans. Titans coach Neil Henry also ruled out his team as a new home for Farah on Thursday.
The timing in which the Tigers-Farah split came to a head complicates the process of him finding a new home for next season. Most clubs already have their rosters for next year finalised. But with the Tigers so desperate to see the back of him that they told him he would be playing reserve grade and training part time next year if he stayed, they will be prepared to pay a large share of his $950,000 contract, creating a bargain for any interested rivals.
Ayoub said there had been offers made from abroad as he laid into the management at Concord Oval.
"We have been approached by a number of Super League clubs in recent weeks. Those that are seeking to place him where he deserves as a marquee player," Ayoub told the Big League podcast. "Robbie has got a lot of football left in the NRL."
Ayoub also refuted suggestions that Farah had played a role in the departures of previous coaches Tim Sheens and Mick Potter.
"Robbie was involved in neither of them - and that's a fact," he said. "Again this comes back to management. When you have poor management they need to fob attention for decisions that they make onto others and unfortunately that club has been littered with those sort of decisions over the last few years."
Manaia Cherrington, who made his NRL debut this season, is likely to be Farah's successor at hooker next year. Origin prop Aaron Woods, who has deputised for Farah as captain this season, is expected to assume the Tigers leadership
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald
