If RFM doesn't move on, I just hope he's ready to go to his limits to get back in the good books. He can cover prop if needed. Probably his best position these days in my opinion. So unless recruitment changes things, I'd be expecting him to line up as a prop more often than not.
As far as I know, Rothfield dropped him in the shit by publicly announcing Ray as his source on tv. I don't know exactly what was said to buzzard. And it's not entirely certain that Ray has ratted to Buzz. I'll get into my thinking on that shortly, but there's potentially circumstances that might've forced his manager to start this circus.
I don't particularly like that we've been dragged through the mud over our training methods. Given that players have died in/after training in recent years (at Warriors, Manly and one other club I can't recall), it's reasonable for Mariner to bring concerns to the club. But if he's deliberately gone to the most hostile media personality with it, it detracts from my opinion of his loyalty to the club. But at this point I've only read articles from media sources I wouldn't trust as far as I could throw a 5 tonne boulder. So it's all thrown shadow over a player that might not deserve it.
Perhaps his manager has orchestrated all this. Ray is on a fresh 3 year contract. Given that it was touch and go on whether he was able to avoid retiring, Mariner has possibly accepted a smaller contract than he might have been able to if he hadn't shown signs that his body isn't holding up as it needs to. The talent available on the player market is thin this year due to
(1) Cap rises. Very few clubs have lost players they really wanted to keep. Usually by this time there's a flurry of clubs trying to shuffle out players to retain/recruit others. That's reduced greatly by the fact that there's a higher cap this less cap pressure.
(2) Dolphins pulling 30 players out of a market where many were already paying high wages to solid players. RFM's manager might have evaluated the situation and thought he could get a bigger commission for himself if he agitated for more money or a release with experienced players thin on the market. But the fact that he's had this injury scare threatening his career might mean that the plans to jump ship for bigger money haven't come to fruition as it's scared clubs off. The media attention has probably done that too.
At the end of the day I'll still hope for the best from RFM if he's still here next season. He's never been my favourite player. I just hoped he'd have improved a lot by now. He's capable but has rarely excelled. So redeeming himself in the eyes of fans will hopefully mean he plays his best football next season.
