My personal belief is that someone has to be a pretty special player to receive dispensation from the no cocks policy. What we see and what is produced on the playing field is only part of the employment equation, everything in the background [ultimately] has an effect on what we see up front. If he wasn't such a cock [and I don't know if he actually was] maybe the team would have performed better when the chips were down?
The guy topped our assists chart while not playing anywhere near the top of his game - that is special enough to warrant more effort being put in to get him happy, in my opinion. Most of the players of his type are difficult to deal with.
Being 'top 6-12' in the league is a moot point - he was our best creative player; that is a fact. He was the player that other teams were scared of. He could also create more on one leg than any other AM we've ever had.
Of course, if we did put the effort in and he's still not happy being here - then see ya later.
I'd rather have good players who strop about a bit than a team of Ross Aloisi's. We've got big holes to fill with Stein and Carlos' departures. But hey, moving on - maybe we will get a blue-collared playmaker who doesn't cause no ruckus.