To say that the news of Robbie Farah's impending departure from the Wests Tigers was a bombshell is a an understatement. While it's an understatement upon first glance, dig a little deeper and you start to find some sort of logic or common sense in the decision to let Farah walk. Dig a little deeper, let your emotions and ideals about loyalty flow down the river that is professional sport and you will find a very intriguing situation.

My immediate reaction was to lay blame on the Wests Tigers who could possibly give the Parramatta Eels are run for their money in the 'shambles-stakes'. The Tigers are a young side with three very young players in four of the spine positions; James Tedesco, Luke Brooks and Mitchell Moses and have seen a group of young forwards step up nicely into the first grade picture led by New South Wales prop Aaron Woods. Names like Sauaso Sue, Ava Seumanufagai and Curtis Sironen might not be well-known to the casual fan, but everyone knows Martin 'Kapow' Taupau right?

With all young sporting teams, you need a few savvy veterans to guide the team. Veterans to ensure that the values and ethos of the team is passed on, to help mould youngins' into hearty NRL players. From the outside, it looked like the Tigers had exactly that in Farah, Chris Lawrence, Keith Galloway, Pat Richards and Dene Halatau.

However, that is an ideal situation and ideal situations rarely include the salary cap.

Richards is returning to Europe next season, while Galloway has been released to join the Super League as well. Lawrence is reportedly being shopped around to NRL clubs and Farah, well he could be running around in reserve grade next year. The number of former Tigers players who have left the club in the past 5 years is also extensive.

Farah seems to have fallen victim to a problem that has caused numerous issues in the NRL recently and it could be seen as a reason as to why Benji Marshall had to leave the Tigers as well. Farah's contract with the Tigers is reportedly heavily back-ended, which means the last few years of his current contract are worth much more than the first few years, with the reported figure being thrown around close to $1 million a season. But that deal was done with between Farah and previous club officials, not the current Tigers bosses who now, understandably, see this deal as being excessive.

Marshall faced that problem and was forced to leave as he wasn't going to get the deal he was 'promised'. On the topic of back-ended deals, we have seen Manly be sent down a club-changing spiral thanks to back-ended deals which saw Anthony Watmough and Glenn Stewart leave and get that ball rolling.

According to Farah's agent Sam Ayoub, Tigers management have been in their positions for roughly six months. In combination with what we have heard from Tigers management where they have openly stated what a predicament they find themselves in thanks to horrible running of their salary cap, there's not much choice for the Tigers. Especially as the Tigers can't tell Farah to accept less dosh on a yearly basis for the remainder of his contract - Marshall didn't accept that and Will Hopoate is balls deep in a legal situation with the Eels right now over his contract.

At this point, it must be said that the Tigers are clearly looking to start a-fresh and fair enough. Farah appears to be a prickly character and he is obviously the top dog at the Tigers, but the time has come to hand over control to Brooks, Moses and Tedesco, which I agree with. Had the Tigers really wanted to keep Farah around, I'm sure they could have worked something out with Farah instead of giving him the ultimatum of leaving or playing reserve grade.

Sidenote - What's the difference between Daly Cherry-Evans' decision to not go to the Titans and clubs deciding not to pay player X what his contract says? ... and if player X doesn't like that, he's shunned to reserve grade?

The 'what now' portion of this story is the most exciting bit. Farah now has to find a club at a time when most clubs have already sussed out their squads for 2016. Case and point being the Rabbitohs who were said to be in the mix for Farah which was more of a convenient rumour as opposed to a logical rumour - Issac Luke's leaving and Farah's brother is apparently the physio at the Rabbits.

But the Rabbitohs re-signed Cameron McInnes because Luke was leaving. Had Farah been available earlier this year, the Rabbitohs could have let both McInnes and Luke leave opening space for Farah. But now, it's too late.

A spanner in the works is Farah's contract - who has that much money to splash on a hooker right now? The first part of this answer is that the Tigers will definitely find themselves in a position where they are paying yet another player to play for another NRL club - just not paying him $1 milly a season. The second part to that answer is that I really don't know.

The Gold Coast Titans get thrown into the mix because people think they have money, but they don't have that much and have just let Beau Falloon leave because they have put their faith in young Kierran Moseley with Nathan Friend to offer experience. That means #NoDeal.

The Cowboys have Jake Granville and a log-jam which saw them release back up Cameron King.

The Broncos have Andrew McCullough and Kodi Nikorima.

The Knights have Tyler Randall and Daniel Levi.

The Roosters have Jake Friend and have just bough Jayden Nikorima.

The Panthers have James Segeyaro and the Junior Kiwis hooker Sione Katoa.

The Eels have Nathan Peats and Issac De Gois.

The Bulldogs have Michael Lichaa and now Damien Cook ... and Josh Reynolds.

The Dragons have Mitch Rein.

The Sea Eagles want to let Matt Ballin leave because they have signed Apisai Koroisau.

The Sharks have Michael Ennis.

The Storm have Cameron Smith.

And the Warriors have Issac Luke.

Farah is a 31 year old dummy half, who wants a lot of money. There isn't much of a market for that in the NRL. Farah could take the smart option and want less money, well, he might have to really.

While the Tigers will probably have to fork out some dosh to pay part of Farah's contract, they will find themselves in a position which they want. The have a young group, similar to what the Tigers (and Farah lol) had in 2005 when they won the Premiership and their salary cap should find itself under less pressure. I would suggest that Brooks, Moses and Tedesco are among the Tigers' top earners and rightfully so as they are key players in key positions, but I doubt they are on anything north of $400,000. The rest of their squad won't be on much either besides Aaron Woods and these players will know that they should be able to cash in once their current deals finish with the salary cap increasing. That also allows the Tigers - in a few years when they aren't paying opposition players - to sign a few quality players to mix in with their young guns who will then probably be known as the NRL's best. This is a pretty good long-term move from the Tigers.

Hey, at least for us kiwis we will see more of Manaia Cherrington who has filled Farah's spot for much of this season.