BRISBANE: Gold Coast Titans captain Scott Prince says the club must kill off speculation of a deal with the Bulldogs to secure representative prop Ben Hannant before it creates disharmony among players.
Origin and test prop Hannant has asked the Bulldogs for a release from his three-year contract so he
and his young family can return home to the Gold Coast.
There's been speculation of a trade deal being done between the two NRL clubs to facilitate the move.
But Prince warned in his weekly Gold Coast newspaper column yesterday that the club didn't need the disruption of players fearing they may be the ones to go.
"Ben Hannant. Not here, not now," wrote Prince.
Prince warned if the speculation was allowed to continue, players would begin looking around at each other.
"That's when the questions start - 'Am I the one who will be asked to go'? So instead of a united team focused on one goal, there's a distraction."
"I don't care if it is the best player in the world who is knocking on our door, the flow-on effects in this situation don't make it worthwhile."
"I can understand deals being done during the off-season or end-of-season ... but this started after one game."
Titans chief executive Michael Searle is understood to be holding talks with Hannant, one of 11 children whose wife also has a large family on the Gold Coast. He is in the second year of his three-year deal. Prince said he understood Hannant's situation.
"Hannant's a family man and family comes first but the time to do this was during the off-season," he wrote.
"To do really well in this tough comp means total focus and camaraderie, this adversely affects both."
"Benny, we would love to have you here [but] come and see us for a coffee mid-October."
- AAP
