Two days prior to meeting my now wife I distinctly remember telling my best friend, with utmost sincerity, that I didn’t want to be in a relationship for a good long while.

About five minutes into conversation with the now Mrs Griffin I had completely changed my mind. Sometimes some things are too good to pass up. Sometimes things change.

When Liam Pickering informed the GIANTS of his client Tom Boyd’s last minute decision to seek a trade to the Western Bulldogs the GIANTS were adamant that he would not be traded.

The GIANTS wanted time with Boyd next year to give him further exposure to the great culture and testament the club had provided him with in his debut season.

Boyd was seen as a player with a strong upside, who given time could develop into a future club champion.

The GIANTS believed that there was nothing the Bulldogs could offer, nor a reason from within the club, to make them entertain getting rid of Boyd.

But things changed.

The Bulldogs – who had already put their dual best and fairest winning captain on the trade table for Boyd – increased their offer.

Despite the Bulldogs president’s public position that a straight swap was an acceptable trade, the Bulldogs also offered the GIANTS pick six in the 2014 draft.

Simultaneously it appears that conversations with Leon Cameron and the players’ leadership group exposed that Boyd was no longer seen as essential at Homebush.

The playing group wanted a buy-in culture – where those who did not want to play for the club should be shown the door – no matter how talented they were.

The landscape was quickly changing.

As if the statement from the playing group and coach wasn’t enough, one final event seemed to seal the deal.

The Age has reported that the Bulldogs are also willing to contribute $250,000 of Ryan Griffen’s contract at the GIANTS, per year, for each of the next four years.

Combined with an increased understanding of Boyd’s motivation for leaving, the club did a very public, but important backflip.

For the nine gamer Boyd, the GIANTS were to receive an experienced player that Peter Gordon labelled days earlier as the best player available in a trade period since Garry Ablett Jnr, an opportunity to replenish their talented stocks of young players with pick six in the national draft, and one million dollars over four years in salary cap relief.

Things had changed.

With this change the GIANTS set a dangerous precedent.

For the Greater Western Sydney GIANTS, the onus is no longer on the club to convince young players of staying or going; the player must now take that responsibility on themselves.

The little GIANTS from Homebush are growing up fast.

Some have interpreted this to mean that the GIANTS have laid out the welcome mat to other clubs to come and poach their talent – they are wrong.

Since the moment Jeremy Cameron first stepped foot on an AFL ground for the GIANTS, the clubs young players have been in the sights of other clubs promising riches and glory – no strings attached.

But the players have been working hard. The players have made sacrifices. And now the players have demanded that only those who believe in the club should experience its impending success.

The club hasn’t laid out a welcome mat; it’s installed an exit sign.

Players who genuinely do not believe in the club – who do not want to be at the club and who not want to work for the success at the club – it’s time those players should leave.