Prince Buster wrote:
Prince Buster wrote:
I would not trust Saints one inch , if they fancied signing Murphey they would not abide by the rules and would have nipped in early long before now. Maybe other clubs out there are more honourable and are waiting for the official time to make their move.
I am with Homme Vaste on this one, have a frank conversation and if he is not interested put him on the market now. This would kindle interst from other clubs and at least we would get some compensation.
I am not suggesting Murphey would not give us his all for this season, but i have seen too many times in the past of players moving on and just going through the motions. Plus we have plenty of wing cover.
I suggest you read the statement Barrow put out about our conduct around Ritson, and our willingness to work with them to find solutions that worked for all parties. As a rule we will work around the rules the RFL set out because as a club we have a relatively low opinion of those running the game at the moment (another debate for another time) but continue to work very hard at our relationships with other clubs both here and in the NRL. The club got stung a bit from the Lance Hohaia episode and have been looking to be seen as the good guys for players and club officials ever since.
As for Murphy, we absolutely are interested, and approached Wakefield before we approached Barrow (or so is my understanding). However Wakefield were not interested in any sort of negotiation, and with Murphy out of contract this year we decided to play the long game, which also played into the loan deal for Ritson rather than buying outright. We can’t declare any interest until May, at which point we will then be making a decision about whether Ritson is worth the transfer fee due vs making a play for Murphy, or Tom Davies whose also out of contract next year, and we’re also interested in (I’m sure we would make an offer to Dom Young as well, but that’s somewhat more unlikely). We have quite a few fringe players who may well be leaving next year with Hopoate, Norman and Bell all out of contract for us, so we should have quite a bit of cash to play with. Of course, if Murphy signs a new deal then great Saints will continue to monitor our options, but Will absolutely see Murphy as a strong option in May if he’s still available