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Roosters captain Braith Anasta during NRL Round 3, Wests Tigers v Sydney Roosters, Sydney Football Stadium, Friday, March 27, 2009. (AAP Image/Action Photographics, Renee McKay)

Roosters captain Braith Anasta during NRL Round 3, Wests Tigers v Sydney Roosters, Sydney Football Stadium, Friday, March 27, 2009. (AAP Image/Action Photographics, Renee McKay)

As primarily a rugby league fan I always find this time of the European football season fascinating. Players are traded across the continent as huge sums of money is transferred from one brimming account to another and players seemingly find themselves with the need to find an apartment in Wigan pronto. And all this, while everyone is meant to be on their summer holidays.

Despite being in recess football still dominates the headlines (especially as Man City’s new owners find out that oil wealth is one thing but the lure of being a galatico another) and the hype only increases as the transfer deadline approaches.

So if the transfer window works well for football, why can’t it work for rugby league?

Why can’t all player dealings for the following season be restricted from October 4 to say January 4?

The current chaos where players are “tapped up” at any time during the season and players can announce they are heading elsewhere at the drop of a hat does little for the game as a whole.

However, I’d argue that it also may sell the players short.

Players and managers drive the current chaos. They claim it is too hard to move in a short period.

I’ve always found this argument a bit weak. First, if you are moving from one Sydney club to another you hardly need to move and if you are moving cities, well you hardly move until the end of the season anyway.

It is not like a player, who knows he’ll be playing in Brisbane next year, will spot a good rental deal in July and decide to move up there and commute.

As it stands though players and managers like the freedom of having the time to shop themselves around and look for the best deal, but does it really work out that way?

It seems to have a parallel with the housing market, and in that instance those selling the product seem to prefer a short tense selling period.

People selling houses like to capitalise on the adrenalin of the deal. They don’t want people mulling things over and constantly looking for a better deal. They like auctions when people need to up the cash or miss out.

So why aren’t players the same? If you an in-form player, why wouldn’t you want to have a nice bidding war going on over a short space of time as panicked clubs look to fill a roster.

Why give clubs the opportunity to shop around for a cheaper option?

It seems that the current approach of “the good of the game” isn’t working at present, so maybe it is time we try and appeal to their self interest.

Furthermore, seeing the English Super League is run at largely the same time there should be no reason why it couldn’t be an international window.

I mean is there any real benefit in Mark O’Meley knowing he’ll be eating fish and chips in Hull next season rather than Bondi now rather than at the end of October? The same applies to Craig Fitzgibbon.

And doesn’t it give the impression to Roosters fans that the team’s leaders, who you would hope are still looking to fight their way out of this mess, are already eyeing next season.

In the end no matter how you pitch it, something should be done.

The AFL system, despite a survey by the AFL Players Association showing that 93.5 percent of players would prefer the NRL system of free agency, might be a good start.

But surely anything would be an improvement.

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