BY DAN

An unsettling noise emerged from Parramatta this week when the settling of the collective bargaining agreement gave the Eels a hope they might keep future King of Canberra, Ethan Sanders, at the club. But the push and pull factors that brought him into the Raiders’ arms remain. All that has happened at this stage is the delay of our date of celebration.

The key facet of the deal that has created anxiety is that development players have to wait until round six of the year of their development deal’s expiry before signing with a new club. It’s a weird rule to separate development players from the usual signing date (1 November – the first ‘official’ day of the NRL season in the last of their current contract). It’s theoretically meant to give home clubs a chance to retain talent they’ve developed.

In this circumstance it means the agreement the Raiders had reportedly reached with Sanders will have to wait to next year to be formalised, instead of becoming the summer footy present we all wanted. It’s why Don Furner or Ricky Stuart will never publicly say they’ve signed Sanders, much like they never admitted to having signed Chevy Stewart until they had. I guess this is where rugby league reporters really earn their money. We’re trusting they’ve done their due diligence and spoken to all parties.

The unofficial nature of these discussions and the delay to its formalisation has inspired Parramatta’s renewed hope they could keep Sanders at the club. Of course who could blame them. Sanders is a quality talent, a Chevy Stewart style ‘head of the class’ player. ‘If league had a draft he’d be first pick’ kinda gear. This is doubly influenced by the fact that the Raiders deal with Sanders is, like Stewart before him, informal. You can’t sign players this far ahead of time, and so all matters right now are presumably handshake. You can always get out of a handshake.

Of course the reason that Sanders is leaving Parramatta and chose Canberra over the Panthers remains. Mitch Moses is the Eels halfback and will be for the foreseeable future, much like Nathan Cleary is going nowhere. Jamal Fogarty, as much as I genuinely love the player and the man, is not the obstacle those two are. Given the CBA also limits how much development deals are (as opposed to the presumably top 30 position the Raiders are offering him), and unless the Eels are about to try and blow their wad on their backup halfback when they’re paying big money to a host of players, still trying to steal back Isiah Papali’i and retain their existing outside backs, there’s no reason for Sanders to stay (unless he really like Parramatta. Each to his own I guess).

The more likely reason for Parra pushing out the idea that they might keep him is they want Canberra to come to the party with a version of last year’s player swap for an outside back. You may not remember this but late last season the Raiders nearly traded Harley Smith-Shields to the Eels in exchange for the early release of Sanders. It got kiboshed by Eels management (after agreement by Brad Arthur), presumably a response to also letting Jake Arthur go and Dylan Brown being suspended. The Eels are still in that predicament of finding talent to fill out their backline (there’s already rumours that rugby is coming for Bailey Simonsson, which I mean get that cash Bails).

Harley would be a fair deal but really it’s just trading promising depth for promising depth and opportunity. You could pick any number of Canberra backs that the Eels would want. The key thing from their perspective is to create a sense of urgency so the Milk show a willingness to part with talent. Everyone is looking over the top of their cards right now, waiting for their opponent to blink.

The intriguing variable in all this is the Raiders’ negotiation with Jamal Fogarty. The sticking point in that deal appears to be years rather than money. If the Raiders relinquish and give Fogarty more time at the club it may be the disincentive Sanders needs to start listening to Parramatta’s overtures. But if they don’t and Sanders turns on his heels anyway they’re kinda fucked. They could push a Fogarty deal out beyond round six next year in the hope of confirming Sanders before working out Jamal. That discussion is on the clock, and if the Raiders need to be smart how that’s managed. Let it fester too long and someone might swoop in a poach Fog, and you might be sacrificing short term success for long term hope. Commit to hard to Jamal and you might provide the reason for Sanders to think twice.

This of course is all speculatory naval gazing. I don’t have a line to the Sanders camp, the Raiders camp, the Eels or even your Mum (call me Doreen we used to have something). We’ll keep a close eye on this over the summer. But for now the situation is unchanged. Sanders is still coming to save the day. The formalities are just happening a bit later than anticipated.

Shouts to Charles for inspiring me to write this, and sorry it took me two days to get up. I’m as lazy as I am handsome. Do me a favour and like the page on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, or share this on social media because love is true and heaven is a Raiders victory. Don’t hesitate to send us feedback (dan@sportress.org) or comment below if you think we are stupid. Or if we’re not.