After one of the most public, overplayed, over covered contract negotiations, former Wests Tigers superstar Benji Marshall has signed for … the dollars.
The name of the club, The Dragons for the record, almost seems irrelevant. After all but agreeing to join former teammates Beau Ryan, Bryce Gibbs and the rest of the Tigershark clan at the Cronulla club, the Dragons have ‘won’ the race with a late, big money deal.
Benji, who claimed multiple times he was coming back for the love of the game, not the money, held out to the final moment and bled every cent from the Dragons.
Having issued the joint venture club with an ultimatum, the Dragons beat their imposed deadline by less than two hours.
Cronulla CEO Steve Noyce summed it up on his statement on the Sharks website: ““We have strong values surrounding mateship here at the Sharks and with a collection of his good friends at the club thought that may have swayed him. As it turned out that obviously wasn’t the priority for him with his final decision. We can accept that and we wish him well.””
Tigers fans have already started flooding social media with jokes that Benji has, once again, made a club all about him.
Best of luck to the man, no one can blame him for making the most of his opportunity, how many could say they would turn the bigger dollars down if in his position?
You get the feeling that both Steve Price and Mr Doust will live or die by this decision. If Benji fires, they will be lauded as brilliant, but if not … watch out
