Deafening Silence

At the beginning of last week the Canberra Times reported the Canberra Raiders would try to meet with Hudson Young.

The hope was that they could reach an agreement to pay him a million plus dollars a year through his prime and beyond.

It’s a fair deal, but it likely pales into comparison to tax-free money he’d get from Papua New Guinea, which is why Hudson wants to go there. The rub, as you are aware, is that the Chiefs need to match the salary not the bank account. So they’re 50-100k short, and not willing to make the jump. Instead they’re trying to crater his market value. You’d think that would feel insulting to Huddo, but green eyes don’t realise bad vibes.

But Canberra held out hope of bridging the gap to Young; an olive branch offered of comfort, leadership and the goodwill of a city. A hope that non-financial incentives could sway his heart rather than his wallet. Perhaps it was naïve, but it’s the only thing they can offer.

And we have heard nothing.

That is not a good sign. Young was actually in Bali – at least that how it seems on Chevy Stewart’s Instagram post suggests. Maybe they were going to talk to Young’s management. Either way Hudson doesn’t seem in a rush.

Maybe he is intent on this deal in Port Moresby. More power to him. As someone who far too often thinks about how much he’d need to win in the lotto in order to own where he lives, the idea of being able to solve those problems is appealing. That’s what this deal would offer Huddo. $1.1m over four years is life changing. $900k tax free, and the endless streams of opaque cash from transnational corporations seeking to influence a nation with ongoing governance challenges…well. That’s a lot of personal problems solved.

That it follows on from his best mate, Tom Starling, reportedly seeking to get out of Dodge increases the ongoing bad trends with this whole shebang. That of course depends on whether you think Tom’s management, or Manly, is pushing the media narrative about player swaps. But it’s hardly comforting to see an entire ‘wedge’ of the team start to crack.

Unfortunately, we’ve nothing further. Given Huddo has gone to ground since his last comments about totally loving the club and not a jacuzzi in his backyard, there’s nothing to sway us from the view that this is going to not just take a long time, but is also going to end in tears. Specifically, mine. And maybe Stick’s.

But that’s also reflective of our own pessimism about the situation. The truth is that no one knows anything. All we’ve got is speculation, and now we’re speculating about nothing being said. It’s a weak situation, highlighting the Milk’s unconvincing belief that they will keep him, if only because the Chiefs won’t match the market value. I guess we’ll only know when someone speaks up.

Until then, the idea that the Raiders were going to try to meet him last week hangs in the air like stale cigarette smoke. It might have felt good at the time, but now it’s just the tainted smell of a pillow after a night out in 2002. The Raiders are still in the race for Hudson Young, but until we hear otherwise, the silence is deafening.

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