Its not every day that a guy who goes by the alias: ‘Supergrass’, can be taken seriously. However, in a world that is filled with so many ‘in the knows’, names and reputation don’t seem to matter anymore.

“It was just about me making a decision that I thought was best for my footy and my life and when I added those things up it was to stay at Manly.

“This is a great footy club. I have great mates here, blokes I hope to be mates with for years to come and I just didn’t want to walk away from that.

“That is the culture I’m talking about. Blokes like ‘Choc’ Watmough, Jason King, Brent Kite, Glenn Stewart, Brett Stewart, Jamie Lyon and Steve Matai – they have built this culture and that is who I give the credit to.

“They have built this up for eight or nine years and now all of a sudden us young guys are coming through and we feed off that.’’

That was a quote from Kieran Foran found in his interview with the Daily Telegraph published only two weeks ago.

However, that didn’t stop the ever reliable ‘Supergrass’ – Triple M’s insider when it comes to NRL gossip – to come out and declare Foran could now be following Hasler to Belmore, with a deal likely to announced by Friday.

The first thing I asked when this information was passed onto me was ‘how?’

How could a guy who is contracted for a further two seasons, one year into a three year extension, and two weeks removed from declaring ‘he couldn’t leave the club’, now be ALLOWED to join a rival team coached by a person who walked out on the club?

How does that even make sense?

Especially when you consider that it’s no secret that his halves partner-Daly-Cherry Evans has been approached by the Broncos on a number of occasions and Manly has ensured he will serve out his contract.

Yet, they will let his halves partner walk out and play under Hasler?

Now, it’s assumed that Foran has a get out clause, however that clause was inserted into the terms of the old deal that was signed off by Hasler. Since then, Foran has received an upgrade which removed the get out clause and ensured the Sea Eagles would hold onto one of it’s prized assets.

In that very interview, which was published on the eve of the Grand Final, Foran also discussed Hasler’s influence on the club, and how close he came to leaving.

“And then when he left I just thought it would never happen, not in my wildest dreams.

“I thought I would play at Manly the rest of my life and Des Hasler would be the coach.

“So when that happened it was a big change to my life.

“Look, that was a tough time.

“I’ve got so many great mates, I didn’t want to leave them.

“I just needed time to sit back and think what this club was about and what actually made it so special.

“And when I got down to the finer points it was about this culture.

“The players, the boys that have been here for so many years, I didn’t want to walk away from that.”

So what’s changed?

Has Foran really had such a change of heart after losing a Grand Final with his closest friends, that he would walk out on the club?

Not likely – especially when only a day later he reteirated his feelings to The Australian when discussing the likelihood of ever pairing up with the Roosters’ Mitchell Pierce,

“But I think we both want to be one-club players. I can’t ever see the Roosters letting Mitch go or Mitch wanting to walk away from the Chooks.

“And I don’t think I could ever play for another club.”

But even with all this, I don’t doubt that the Bulldogs haven’t given up on signing Foran, and why would they?

I’m pretty sure he still values Des Hasler as a coach and a mentor, and the Bulldogs still have a young formidable forward pack signed up for the 2014 season, however, the sticking point would be – would Manly even agree to this?

I don’t think they would – in fact – I KNOW they wouldn’t, but that doesn’t stop so called ‘insiders’ within the media to come up with lies in order to increase hits on their social media accounts and  increase ratings.

It’s the lack of background information and shear lack of respect demonstrated to fans that irks me. Triple M has just assumed that we as fans had forgotten what had transpired during the 2011 season – that Foran was re-signed to a new deal which subsequently removed the get out clause – and finally we would simply believe that Manly would just let Foran walk away.

Thankfully sanity prevailed and a few different reliable sources came out to refute such claims with the Sportal’s inside man –‘The Lurker’ stating:

‘Foran going nowhere
I read with interest that Kieran Foran is supposedly signing with the Bulldogs, possibly by the end of the week. My BS radar was instantly up on this one but I checked it out just in case – and it’s not right. Apart from the fact Foran is not even in the country at the moment, he is committed to the Sea Eagles despite his affection for Dogs coach Des Hasler. “We’d love to have him here but it’s not happening,” a Belmore insider told us’. 

Another source – Rugby League News backed this up by stating via their Twitter account:

I can confirm that Kieran Foran is staying with @manlyseaeagles in 2014. Not a chance he will be anywhere else. #NRL

— Rugby League News (@RugbyLeagueNews) October 15, 2013

To me, without being bias (Manly fan) – that would seem to make more sense, as a club is not allowed to sign a player that still has two years remaining on his contract, but rather would have to wait until the final twelve months of the deal before confirming the signing.

Until we get to that point – unless there’s something that I do not know – I cannot see this deal happening – certainly not in 2014 as previously reported.

But then again, what would I know….I’m just a fan.