Only a handful of Eels officials knew of Hopoate negotiations

[ManlyBacker]

THE desire by William Hopoate's representatives to restrict knowledge of contract negotiations to a bare minimum of people is said to have suited Parramatta's representatives, amid concern that yet another leak might blow the deal.


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[BOZO]

If our board WAS a bit of a circus the parramatta board IS a Lunatic Asylum.

 

[Berkeley_Eagle]

shows how underhanded these managers can really be, we talk about no loyalty some manager have never heard that word

 

[lsz]

Bozo not sure of the past tense used....

This reminds me of what Ernie 7 always says...not to believe what is coming out of players mouths....

 

[tookey]

Rubbish article as people here have posted back in June that Hopoate was overheard talking to a Parra player about signing with Parramatta.

It is insulting Manly fans to suggest that he didn't agree to go to Parra until after the grand final. About as much credability as Osborne

 

[WAMF]

This bigger story is that the club didn't trust their own CEO to be part of the negotiations.

 

[ManlyBacker]

Do they have a committee that oversees signings and who OKs the amounts that are offered? Is this the way Manly operates as, based on what has been in the papers, it seems very close? I don't care either way but is hard to believe that huge amoints for a signing or a retention aren't scrutinised as part of a club's operations.

 

[bob dylan]

Tookey is right.

Hoppa was an eel when he played origin. Everyone knew it then it's just some didn't want ro believe it.

 

[swoop]

The disappointing thing about the situation is that Hoppa had indicated that he was staying when he was asked after the GF.

 

[Masked Eagle]

I always had a concern with his manager. Not exactly a player who knew the benefits of sticking at one club could have on a players career.

 

[WAMF]

I always had a concern with his manager. Not exactly a player who knew the benefits of sticking at one club could have on a players career.

That's giving too much credit to Tyron Smith.
We all know that Hoppa Snr was the real brain behind brokering Will's deal.

 

[swoop]

I always had a concern with his manager. Not exactly a player who knew the benefits of sticking at one club could have on a players career.

That's giving too much credit to Tyron Smith.
We all know that Hoppa Snr was the real brain behind brokering Will's deal.

Using Hoppa sr and real brain in the same sentence is stretching it a bit. I reckon the only thing Hoppa sr was looking at was who was paying the most dollars. Once sr gets hold of the cash it will be squandered and Will won't see much of the payolla.

 

[MadMarcus]

The disappointing thing about the situation is that Hoppa had indicated that he was staying when he was asked after the GF.

Hoppa Jr has always struck me as a decent, relatively intelligent guy, so it really is difficult to understand how he could make those comments so convincingly when he had signed with Parra.

A bit left field I know, but "those who needed to know" may not necessarily have included Hoppa himself. If Hoppa Sr has as much control over Hoppa Jr as many on here say he does, Hoppa Jr may have just said to his dad "sign me up to whatever you think is best" and given Hoppa Sr the authority to do so. Hoppa Sr may have thought it best not to discuss the Parra deal with Hoppa Jr until after the GF.

Most clubs would want to know that their star recruit is interested in the club and wants to play for them so they would not want to proceed on that basis, but we are talking about Parra here so anything is possible.

For what it's worth, I believe Hoppa Jr was telling the truth when he said he would love to come back for Manly and that he would love to play for Manly. All things being equal I have no doubt Hoppa Jr's preference would be to play for us. But as we know in this case all things were not equal (to the tune of many hundreds of thousands of dollars per year).

The fact is that if Hoppa Jr or his management turned down Parra's offer it would have been the most stupid thing anyone has done since Parra made the overinflated offer in the first place!

 

[OneEyedEagle]

Yes it hurts, it hurts how it was done and what was said by Hoppa however he is gone now and we have to ask, do we really care????

I can't see the slime have much room under the salary cap with Hoppa Jr, Willie Tonga and Sandow there.

We will keep plucking their juniors for $30 or $50k and turn them into superstars that want to keep playing with our great club.

 

[Brookie4eva]

That leads to an important question, who are Parra donating to us next year ? Have they forgotten their annual donation ?

Perhaps they should donate two players now.