Henry Convinces Carney To Stick Around

Sydney Morning Herald

Saturday March 15, 2008

Brad Walter

RAIDERS halfback Todd Carney sought an assurance from coach Neil Henry that he was not planning to walk out on the club before agreeing to a new four-year deal.

Carney, who turned down lucrative offers from Penrith and Manly, re-signed until the end of the 2010 season with the option of extending his stay at Canberra for a further two years after that.

The decision ended months of speculation about the future of the 21-year-old considered likely to be the next NSW Origin halfback - and may also have helped put paid to rumours that Henry was poised to quit to join North Queensland.

A former assistant to Graham Murray at the Cowboys, Henry has been offered a five-year deal to replace the 2006 and 2007 Blues coach, but he remains under contract to the Raiders until the end of next season.

Canberra officials have made it clear they are not prepared to release Henry, and the club's general manager, Don Furner, will sit down with the highly regarded 47-year-old next week to offer him a contract extension.

Despite the massive bid by the Cowboys to lure Henry to Townsville, the retention of Carney suggests he intends to stay in Canberra, where the former Raiders lower-grader began his coaching career with the club's Jersey Flegg side in 2001.

"I guess there's been a lot of stuff going around about Neil leaving, and I just got his word that he was going to stay and that's really promising for me," said Carney, who approached Henry on Thursday to advise him he was about to re-sign.

Henry also revealed that he had assured other players he intended serving out his contract. "There has been an expression of interest from another club but I'm contracted here for next year and I told the players that," he said.

With Carney's future settled, the Raiders can concentrate on re-signing some of the other 13 players off contract at the end of the season, as well as boom fullback William Zillman and Queensland Origin forward Neville Costigan, who have get-out clauses in their contracts.

Carney said part of the reason he rejected a $2 million offer to join former Canberra coach Matthew Elliott at Penrith was the loyalty he felt towards the Raiders after they stuck by him last year when he was found guilty of two serious driving offences.

"At the end of the day, it wasn't going to come down to money because if it was, the deal could have been done a long time ago," he said. "Penrith seems like a great club and Matty offered me probably a fair bit of money to go there but, at the end of the day, my heart was here and I guess money doesn't buy you happiness. I feel like I've got my happiness here."

It is understood the four-year deal with Canberra is worth $1.6m, but the majority of that money is for the latter two years if Carney chooses to stay.

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

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