Taylor finally followed through with his pre-season threat to drop Farah to reserve grade after cutting the former club captain for Sunday’s crucial clash with the Dragons.

The mentor cited a lack of cohesion between Farah and young halves Luke Brooks and Mitchell Moses for his decision.   

 “The cohesion is something I’ve been concerned about and looking at for a while but it’s only been on the back of the way the team has played the last seven games, where we’ve got to the point where I believe we’re better with Robbie not in the team,” he said.

“It’s a tough call. We had moved him to the bench. We moved him to the bench to enhance that cohesion again and I believe it did that.

“I’m comfortable taking that next step now because I do think it’s in the best interests of our team.”

Taylor said Farah’s exclusion was not an indication of his intention to push the club legend out the door as the star No.9 sits just three appearances shy of his 250-game milestone.

 “Robbie’s got a contract for next season ... At this stage, yeah (he will be here),” he said.

“Robbie will be considered for selection every week. We’ll get through this week’s game and assess how this decision went.”

The coach has come under fire for the announcement’s timing after originally naming Farah on Tuesday’s team lists before changing his mind.

 “We gave Robbie and Aaron Woods five days off after Origin,” Taylor said. “So they weren’t required to come into the building until (Wednesday).

“Tuesday was a day off for everybody ... and I wanted to be able to communicate the decision to Robbie clearly, I wanted to be able to communicate the decision to the whole team clearly.

“To do that on Tuesday wouldn’t have worked for us. I understand how it looked but it certainly wasn’t me hiding away from anything.”