Wives hold the casting votes as Price and Tahu decide on their futures
By Brad Walter, James Gardiner and Alex Brown
July 5, 2004
Dumped NSW Origin winger Timana Tahu has given the best indication yet that he intends to leave Newcastle at the end of the season by revealing that he and partner Kasey were planning to go house hunting in Sydney today.
Tahu, who was a controversial omission from the Blues side for Wednesday night's series decider at Telstra Stadium, met Manly and Parramatta officials last week and will look at real estate in each area in coming to a decision.
The 23-year-old international and father of three is negotiating a four-year deal with both clubs and has set tomorrow as a deadline to settle his future.
"At the moment it is not looking good with the Knights," Tahu said after yesterday's 34-26 loss to Cronulla, which he missed with an ankle injury. "The hardest thing is that clubs struggle with the salary cap.
"I want to stay in Newcastle and extend my football career here. All my mates are here and I grew up in Newcastle. [But] my family comes first. If my wife likes it in Sydney, which she does, we will move down there.
"I've got training early in the morning and I'll probably go down to Sydney after that and have a look around some suburbs. I've got to see if my girl feels comfortable living around Manly or Parramatta. We will have a look at some real estate and go from there."
The Sea Eagles are hoping that the signing of Knights forward Ben Kennedy and Tahu's relationship with coach Des Hasler from his two years as an assistant to Phil Gould at the Blues will work in their favour. But Tahu said he had also played under Eels coach Brian Smith when he had charge of Country Origin and was friends with hooker John Morris from his days at Newcastle.
"It is going to be a tough decision to make, it is going to be what suits my family," he said.
Manly, meantime, are also speaking with Canberra centre Joel Monaghan, who was on hand at Brookvale Oval with his parents yesterday to watch brother Michael skipper the Sea Eagles for the first time in their 50-32 loss to the Bulldogs.
"We're looking for a class centre," Manly executive director Paul Cummings said. "We've had some talks with Timana and we're seeing Joel tonight and his manager tomorrow."
Meanwhile, the New Zealand Warriors will today show Queensland Origin prop Steve Price's wife, Jo, prospective schools in Auckland for their children in a further bid to convince the Bulldogs captain to accept a lucrative three-year deal.
Bulldogs president George Peponis last night conceded his club could not compete with the Warriors' offer of up to $400,000 a season, but said that he hoped the possibility of a job with the club after retirement may sway Price to stay.
"We've made what we think is quite a good offer," Peponis said. "We've increased his base salary from last year but we're restricted by the salary cap.
"We won't be able to match the Warriors' offer and Steven realises that. What we can offer is a career after football and, whether it be in marketing or coaching, I think he would be an ideal person for either job."
Warriors chief executive Mick Watson said he thought the club had made a good impression so far on Price's wife after flying her to Auckland for Saturday night's game against Parramatta. While in Auckland, Jo Price has also been looking at real estate.
"One thing she commented on, which I hadn't really thought about before, is how young our organisation is," Watson said.
In other news, word of Melbourne re-signing two forwards was overshadowed by fresh speculation that the club would be relocated to the Gold Coast following last Friday night's disappointing attendance of 9042 fans at Olympic Park for the match against premiers Penrith.
NRL chief executive David Gallop yesterday dismissed the rumours, saying no decision was due on whether the 2006 premiership would be expanded to 16 teams until the end of this month at the earliest
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