Wests Tigers and Ivan Cleary deny Mitchell Moses a release, but loyalty’s a two-way street

CRAWLEY FILES: You wonder if the Tigers realise how hypocritical it sounds to hear anyone who holds a position of power at this club talking about “old school” loyalty.

West Tigers coach Ivan Cleary. Picture: AAP

IVAN CLEARY has drawn his line in the sand with Mitchell Moses.

Now let’s see him stick to it the next time Wests Tigers need to move a contracted player so they can bring in someone from outside.

Will Cleary adopt the same principles he did with Moses who wanted an immediate release to join Parramatta?

You wonder if the Tigers realise how hypocritical it sounds to hear anyone who holds a position of power at this club talking about “old school” loyalty.

What about when the Tigers board decided to move on Jason Taylor a few weeks back to bring in Cleary, even though Taylor had a contract for the remainder of the season?

I’m pretty sure Taylor would have preferred to coach out the season.

Or Robbie Farah last year, Tim Sheens a few years back?

They had contracts too.

Of course, Cleary sounds like he is trying to change what has gone on in the past. But it has to go both ways.

That will be Cleary’s test from here.

Wests Tigers coach Ivan Cleary. Picture: AAP

While most agree in principle with Cleary’s call not to let Moses go to the Eels immediately, it can’t be only when it suits the club, not the player.

This is a big problem happening at too many clubs right now.

Players being portrayed as money-hungry grubs when in actual fact the clubs are as much at fault as anyone for the lack of loyalty that is angering fans.

And Cleary is kidding himself the way he went about making Moses beg to him, without his manager, to ask for the release.

Why didn’t Cleary initiate the meeting as an act of goodwill, given it was the club who pulled the rug from under Moses in the first place?

I seem to remember the Tigers made Moses an offer and then took it off the table because, when Luke Brooks signed, they determined James Tedesco and Aaron Woods would be the club’s priorities.

Mitchell Moses of the Tigers. Picture: AAP

That was Cleary’s call, we were led to believe.

Moses was left with no option but to find a new home.

It is completely understandable that his management then requested a release on Moses’ behalf.

Put yourself in his boots. And to then make Moses plead for a release, without his manager, is simply bullyboy tactics.

Remember, players do deals through managers. As do coaches.

So it is the manager who is employed to look after a player, and the coach, when times get tough.

As Cleary should well know given what happened to him at Penrith.

In this case Moses’ manager is Isaac Moses, who happens to look after Tedesco, Woods and Brooks.

Somehow Moses has been framed as being the root of the Tigers’ troubles, when it was the club that allowed all four players to come off contract together in the first place.

Yes, we all get that Cleary wants everyone at the club on his “bus”.

But what if the player doesn’t want to be on the bus?

Or Cleary decides he doesn’t want someone on the bus, regardless of if that player happens to have a contract in place?

Cleary also did himself no favours when he spoke in riddles after the Easter Monday loss to Parramatta.

One minute Moses was outside talking about how he didn’t have a clue who he would be playing with this week.

The next minute Cleary was sitting in front of a media conference pretending that the entire controversy hadn’t crossed his mind.

“If a request comes in then I guess I will consider it and that’s what will happen,’ Cleary said, straight faced.

Wests Tigers Mitchell Moses. Picture: Gregg Porteous

Reminded that Moses’ management had asked for the release, Cleary conceded: “Well, that was a couple of weeks ago.

“I think, I don’t know. I don’t know what is official.”

Really? How about telling fans straight, so things aren’t misconstrued?

The fact it emerged within hours that Cleary was waiting for Moses to front him only showed the contempt the club continues to treat everyone with.

The media might lap up Cleary’s Clint Eastwood impersonation, but real fans see through the fiction.

And they have every right to know what is going on at their club because clubs ask them to be members and spend their hard-earned to support the team.

Anyone who is still supporting Wests Tigers after events of recent years surely deserves at the very least honesty, and nothing less than complete respect.

“Old school” loyalty is a noble concept in the modern game.

But it is not a one-way street.

DRAGONS DILEMMA TO KEEP HALVES

HINDSIGHT is a wonderful thing.

At the start of this season, Gareth Widdop looked gone. Finished as a footballer, at least in the NRL.

And you couldn’t blame St George Illawarra for paying a fortune to secure Ben Hunt for 2018.

They needed a playmaker, and they needed him yesterday.

But fast forward seven rounds and there isn’t an off-contract player in better form than the Dragons skipper.

Artwork: Scott “Boo” Bailey.

On top of the ladder heading into the big Anzac Day clash against the Roosters at Allianz Stadium, I can’t wait to see how Widdop and his unassuming partner Josh McCrone stack up against the Roosters’ all stars in Mitchell Pearce and Luke Keary.

As good as the Dragons have been so far, this is shaping as their biggest challenge.

The Roosters are sure to be up for it given the standing of this game, and the fact they had a two-match losing stumble before beating Newcastle.

It was obvious to everyone last year that the Widdop-Benji Marshall combination just didn’t work, and Widdop always seemed to be at his best when partnered with the reliable McCrone.

Fox Sports Stats show that Widdop played a total of 53 games with Marshall, winning 24 and losing 29, for a strike rate of 45.3 per cent.

While he has only played 14 games with McCrone, they have won 10 and lost only four, a 71.4 winning percentage.

Gareth Widdop in full flight for the Dragons. Picture: Toby Zerna

St George Illawarra fans are growing increasingly impatient to find out if Widdop will be staying next year. Melbourne and Wests Tigers have expressed interest in him.

Interestingly, McCrone is also off contract, though his situation has not received nearly the same exposure.

You can’t help but wonder if the Dragons made the right call coughing up so much money for Hunt.

The fact is they could have kept Widdop and McCrone for less, and probably still had money left over.