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By all accounts up until a couple days ago, JOC had verbally agreed to the EWF offer and had since been waiting for the ARU side of the deal to come through.....
Do you think theres any chance that an offer from the ARU may have had extra incentives for JOC to switch teams? Thus the change of mind and request for more $$ and other conditions from rugby WA in order to stay? It would be in the ARU's interest for the Rebels to be successful in Melbourne and high profile players like him can be used to raise the profile and market the code in melbourne.
I know im grasping at straws but it seems wierd we've been stung twice with digby agreeing to the force contract verbally and it was during the ARU contract negotiations that all of a sudden he decided to go to the reds, who at that time were still crap while the Force seemed to be on the up.
I could use Berrick Barnes as another example where he requested the Reds management to move mountains for him and when they did and it appeared he was content to stay at the reds, he changed his mind during the ARU side of negotiations and switched to the tahds. Maybe the reds have Barnes to thank for cleaning out the dead wood in management.
By all accounts he had told all suitors last week he was only considering the Force.