Kieran Foran has not committed to the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs according to Warriors CEO Jim Doyle.
Channel 7 in Australia reported on Thursday night that the 26-year-old has signed a three-year deal to reunite with his former coach at Manly, Des Hasler at the Sydney-based club.
"I had a text message last night from the CEO of the Bulldogs (Raelene Castle) that despite what was reported in the paper they have no contract in place with Kieran Foran," said Doyle.
Foran is understood to be keen to re-locate back to Sydney to be closer to his two young children, and the Bulldogs is his expected destination for 2018 and beyond.
However, Doyle refutes the reports that a deal is done with the Bulldogs, claiming that Foran is still in the process of weighing up his future and may still choose Auckland over Sydney.
Doyle hit out at the media for creating hyperbole over Foran's contract situation, noting that the star halfback has been linked to multiple clubs in the last seven days alone.
"The media has created a circus around Kieran. One week he is going to the Broncos, then the next week he is going to the Storm, then he is not going to the Storm - it's quite disappointing."
The decision by the club to bring the talented one-time Kiwi captain to Auckland on a one-year deal has been criticized by some observers, but Doyle said it was more about assessing the benefit of having a player of his calibre at the club – even if it is just for 12 months.
"We made a decision a little while back that we wanted Kieran Foran as a part of this club. It may be that he came here for a year – but we made the decision that even if he came here for 12 months it would help us be a more successful club and he would help our younger halves develop."
He also noted that the club is close to securing the long-term services of star playmaker Shaun Johnson, who is also off contract at the end of 2017.
Doyle believes Johnson is just one part of the ongoing process to both retain their current talent, while simultaneously looking to add the pieces required to build towards long-term success.
"There are 238 players, across the NRL that are not signed beyond the end of this year (2017), so that is very significant.
"We have a group of players in that category. We are working with players that we have made offers too that we are working through, from our point of view some of those players will stay with the club and we will finalise those agreements pretty soon."
"We are also out there talking to external players – not with this club – like we did with Tohu Harris.
"Just because we don't talk about it, it doesn't mean we are not out there talking to other players. We are very much finalizing putting together a roster for next year and beyond - we are trying to create a really strong and successful way but we want to do it professionally."
At this point, Melbourne based Harris is the only recruit for the Warriors 2018 season – but Doyle expects most deals to be in place in a few weeks-time – although the media speculation around where players might end up doesn't help matters.
"What's been going on the last few weeks, I think it's been quite disgraceful the way the media has been speculating about everything."
"Lots of clubs are looking at other players as well as their own ones – and they are offering players from our club contracts. It's bad from our point of view but it's also good that other clubs are interested in our players so we are working with these players as well."
"There are some players on our present roster that we will not be offering contracts too – we have had those discussions but we are not out in the media telling them that because that is not something we need to talk about."
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