The Raiders have moved quickly to dismiss Fox Sports’ report this morning that the Raiders had allowed the 2018 option for Dave Taylor to lapse, saying that they could still activate the option if they choose to.
Speaking to The Canberra Times, Raiders recruitment manager Peter Mulholland has said that the offer on the table for Taylor is “basically an option that we could take up at any time if we wanted to”.
“We’re just uncertain, we’re just going to sit on our hands a little bit longer now and just wait and see what goes on with where we need to go, that’s all,” Mulholland said.
“We’ve never done anything. That’s been sitting on the table now, neither party has taken it up.”
“We’ll just sit back and wait.”
In fairness, that situation is distinctly different from the original report, which specifically stated that the Raiders “let their option on Taylor expire“, and as a result, painted the Raiders management as a group who were set to lose a player they may have wanted to keep, because of their own inability to recognise Taylor’s value in time.
Instead, it appears that the Raiders could keep Taylor if they choose; they may yet elect to do so; and they’re giving Taylor all the time he needs to decide whether or not he’d like to remain in Canberra.
Which, in contrast, sounds like excellent player management.
Taylor has played 175 first grade games for the Raiders, Titans, Rabbitohs and Broncos, 8 Origins for Queensland, and 1 Test for Australia.
He’s #63 on The Obstruction Rule’s Free Agent Top 100.