He might be one of Canberra’s most loyal servants ever but Jarrod Croker doesn’t fault Jack Wighton for his decision to leave the Raiders in search of greener pastures.
Croker, second on the Raiders’ all-time games list after 294 appearances for the Green Machine, said he’d be mates for life with Wighton who is sixth on that list with 225 caps.
Wighton knocked back big-money offers from the Raiders and the Dolphins to sign a four-year deal starting next season with South Sydney, where he’ll hunt for a maiden premiership and play with close mates Latrell Mitchell and Cody Walker.
Croker said he’d make the most of his final remaining games with the star five-eighth.
“I speak to Jack every day, we’re really good mates, country boys that have both come through the same sort of pathways,” he said.
“At the end of the day, Jack needs to be happy and whatever Jack’s decision was I’m here as Jack’s mate.
“I’ve told Jacko I’m going to be mates with him for the next 30 or 40 years, regardless of where he is.
“I don’t talk to Jack about what he’s going to do with his career, I just told him I was going to be a mate for him regardless.”
Croker wouldn’t be drawn on speculation the Rabbitohs were hoping to secure Wighton’s services before the July 30 deadline, saying his only thoughts were on securing a vital victory against the Dolphins in Wagga Wagga on Saturday afternoon.
Dolphins coach Wayne Bennett said Wighton had notified him he wasn’t coming to the club.
Wighton was disappointed he was not able to do so before his move to the Rabbitohs was announced.
“That is the reality of the NRL. Everything gets out before you want to tell somebody,” Bennett said.
“We spoke so that’s OK. All good.
“It is over. It is done. He is moving on. We are moving on and getting on with life.”
Bennett reiterated his long-held view the NRL should have a contracting system akin to the one used in AFL where a player movement window opens in October each year after the grand final where free agents can join other clubs, while other players move via trade deals.
He said the current system where players sign with other clubs while under contract with the teams they are playing for was “wrong”.
“It doesn’t give us the look we need as a game. There is some great football being played at the moment but we get distracted by all these contract negotiations that shouldn’t be happening,” Bennett said.
Despite Bennett’s disapproval of the current system, a new club like the Dolphins would have to be given dispensation from any transfer window rule if it was brought in, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to field a side.
“We are playing under the rules that are here,” ‘Bennett said.
“If the (contracting system) was to change then obviously the NRL if they had another new team would have to take that into consideration and they may have to get some exemptions for a while.”
By Alex Mitchell and Joel Gould in Canberra
