Penrith Panthers general manager Phil Gould has refuted claims made earlier today by journalist James Hooper that Wests Tigers youngster Mitchell Moses took a tour of the Panthers facilities as he considers a possible move to the foot of the mountains.
Reports Mitchell Moses is coming to Panthers & he has toured new Panthers facility are totally incorrect. We will develop our own halves.
— Phil Gould (@Gus10Gould) March 12, 2016
That is pretty straight forward. Do you believe Gould though?
There have been a number of times in recent years when Gould has rubbished claims that the Panthers were looking to move players on, only for those players to leave the Panthers soon after.
I can see why a clubs general manager would be looking to keep things like players looking at facilities under wraps. It doesn’t help a club when hysteria is raised in the media with these sorts of things, and all that type of focus does is raise the price of the players the club is chasing.
These sorts of things are normally pushed into the media sphere by player managers, who like to see a media circus surrounding player movement because it helps drive up players salaries, and that helps the manager get a bigger cut.
I don’t think most people care too much when players check out what else is available out there when they are coming off contract, but it is a bad look for any club when a quiet look around their facilities ends up being part of the media cycle.
