Cashed up Europe will leave our NRL at second best
Roar Pro
By Matthew Wilson, 27 Apr 2009 Matthew Wilson is a Roar Pro
- Tagged:
- Mark Gasnier, NRL, Rugby League, Sonny Bill Williams
265 Have your say
Mark Gasnier and Sonny Bill Williams are the first to pack their bags for a little fortune. The previous St George and Bulldogs stars left the NRL for lucrative deals to play rugby in France.
Gasnier and Sonny Bill are both paid around a reported $800,000 to $1 million per year. The real question is how many other players will pick money over club honour?
It’s no secret French rugby teams are watching the NRL very closely. It was only a couple of weeks back Stade Francais had one of its men at a Roosters training session. He admitted that clubs are keeping a close eye on the NRL.
But what can we do to fix this problem?
Footy show host Matthew Johns said “We gotta work out new ways of generating money other than just league clubs.
“We’re running the risk at the moment of just becoming a feeder competition to everybody else,” says Johns. “Particularly European rugby, the amount of money in European rugby is phenomenal particularly in France.”
It seems the days are gone when players were honoured to just be out there on the field, I guess in sport nothing comes for free.
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- Explore:
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sheek said | April 27th 2009 @ 8:54am | Report comment
Matt,
I have perhaps an accompanying article in which I suggest that for Australian rugby to grow, we must firstly contract & consolidate. For whatever reasons, the structure of australian rugby appears to have collapsed, with some elements (a national comp) non-existent.
We can’t compete with the money on offer in Europe. Like a sailing ship of old ravaged by a storm, Australian rugby has to plug the leaks (departures) & rebuild the structure (national comp, juniors to Wallabies pathway). Then hopefully we can grow again.
How long the re-structure of Australian rugby will take before we see prosperity remains to be seen. But John O’Neill’s top-down financing doesn’t appear to be working. The Wallabies are still the salesmen, & will probably have to play 12-13 matches per year.
But the structures below have been left alone too long. In the meantime we can only try to slow down the number of departures from Australian rugby to Europe & Japan.
Southernwaratah said | April 27th 2009 @ 9:22am | Report comment
Gasnier only left because he was getting paid two thirds his contract, is there a reader amongst who wouldn’t your job if your boss reduced your salary by a third? The good players have 10 years to make their money, who can blame them?
The Link said | April 27th 2009 @ 9:53am | Report comment
Sheek good call. Many Rugby types in this country were too busy patting themselves on the back re SBW and Gaz to realise that Aus Rugby faces the same if not bigger threat from European cash. Aus Rugby would not be in a position to withstand the exodus that NZ Rugby has experienced recently. Watch for it after the 2011 RWC, the ARU’s surely got a massive challenge trying to tie players down beyond 2011.
Cracker said | April 27th 2009 @ 10:31am | Report comment
I understand that there is less money being thrown around at the moment due to the economic crisis. The Heineken Cup in Europe (which is contested by the best club sides from various European countries) attracted total crowds of over one million people which is a record, but their bottom line was not quite as healthy as it had been previously. It may be that there are fewer big name Australian players heading north in the next couple of years, although the plunder could resume with even more force when global economics stabilise.
oikee said | April 27th 2009 @ 11:13am | Report comment
To me it seems like letting SBW and Mark Gasnier go overseas is the best thing to happen to the NRL. The dragons and bulldogs are going great guns this year where as when these 2 players were here it was forever drama and contravercy.
You dont have to be a genious to see that the best rugby comp in the world is the NRL by a long long way. Are we ever going to stop watching this game to follow a euro comp of rugby union. ? Not likely.
The NRL has lost a few top class players yet has not missed a beat, if anything it has improved as a spectical and is growing in popularity even in this downturn. Still has a few issues which need to be sorted out over the next 5 years.
I really dont know what rugby union is trying to acheive but with 15 tests this next year i think people will be a little bit weary of the wallabies. I have said that the Union is flogging its international game, they need to get a decent Australian comp going where they can attract a following, at the moment its diabolical with 3 nations involved.
The NRL production line is in full swing and they probably need a 20 team comp just to keep up with the talent and numbers of young players on offer. The 8 games played this week-end was the best i have seen for many a year. I am yet to see the last game, yet i know it will be good tonite.
Superstars aplenty in the NRL, there only seems to be a couple of ex-league superstars in Union. Your hard working ruck and maulers dont get any recognition in Union, this is another problem, game structure does not allow for natural brilliance.
True Tah said | April 27th 2009 @ 11:31am | Report comment
oikee
fair enough comments, but Sonny Bill was hardly let go by the Dogs.
John Ryan said | April 27th 2009 @ 1:46pm | Report comment
Yeah well True Tah there was a little matter on a contract,but then we al know contracts are not worth the paper they are written on,in Australia,if might have interesting if it had gone to court.
Siren's Call said | April 27th 2009 @ 3:39pm | Report comment
Shouldn’t this article have been written about August 2008? The world has changed since then and the ARU and NZRU have equally, if not moreso, the same issue!
el_capitan said | April 27th 2009 @ 3:55pm | Report comment
As long as the two codes are similar (defence) there will always be a place for players to move to the rival code. With the NRL salary cap in place some players may see the opportunity to jump ship and get as much cash as they can within their average 10yr career cause lets face it once they can’t play football anymore, most players have nothing to fall back onto, and thats in both codes.
The best thing the NRL can do is continue to produce the best they can and hope that players believe that the Comp is worth staying and no being tempted with big money to see out their career in Europe.
JimC said | April 27th 2009 @ 5:50pm | Report comment
The real strength of the NRL is the rivalry between clubs, the excitement and evenness of the comp. The player pool is deep and new stars will always come along when old ones leave.
As S14 has shown having Tuqiris and Steyn’s and Carter’s doesn matter if the competition itself is lacklustre.
Similarly if all the foreign stars left french rugby, Toulouse vs Agen would still be a big game.
I think Sheek’s analysis of Australian rugby is correct. It’s time to go back to basics. For example as the NRL gets ever more complicated (2 refs!!) and divorced from it’s roots, maybe there is space to reinvigorate a suburban ARU club comp
in Sydney. It might prove popular!