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Message: [QUOTE="Big Pete, post: 3311458, member: 1899"] Yeah I can understand why you'd draw that conclusion and thanks for finding a source. It's been an ongoing situation that dates back to 2019. Clifford was meant to be the heir apparent to JT, but Green felt Martin/Morgan was the better combination and went with it. When that failed to yield results, Green moved Martin to fullback since the Barba and Kahu signings hadn't panned out. However, the Cowboys still lost and Green threw Clifford under the bus. From that point on it became clear that Green was struggling to work with Clifford and Clifford wasn't keen to stick around long term. Clifford was actually off contract at the start of the 2019/20 season but signed a one year extension just to monitor the situation. Despite Green being given the boot his form was still erratic and their future was still looking bleak. With that in mind, Payten didn't fight to keep him at the club and he jumped at Newcastle who have former Cowboys staffers involved in recruitment. I don't think the sequence of events is right, Clifford knew there was interest from Newcastle and the Cowboys just gave him their blessing. Initially it was discussed as an immediate release, but as Payten became more familiar with the squad and the wellbeing of Morgan he realised he needed to keep him if only as an option. To me that suggests that Payten didn't especially want him to leave, but if he didn't want to be here he wasn't going to create another uphill battle for himself. To say they preferred Dearden over Clifford isn't really accurate. Clifford was gone and they had to find a long term replacement. Dearden just happened to be the most available so they went with him. [/QUOTE]

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