Player recruitment? I’ll have mine poached, thanks
Roar Rookie An over-used word by rugby league fans at the moment is ‘poached’. Coaches who have moved on from clubs are being accused of poaching the very players that helped the team try and reach premiership glory.
When Wayne Bennett arrived at the Dragons and inherited a team craving success, he filled it with quality by ‘poaching’. Now he will try to do the same thing at Newcastle.
Des Hasler is being accused of doing the same thing to Manly at his new club the Bulldogs. Mal Maninga and Ricky Stuart are taking it to another level in Origin, with the Tamou and Kassiano sagas.
Let’s not pretend anymore.
It’s not really poaching is it? Its actually called recruiting. Smart managers align player contracts with good coaches. Good coaches are now looking outside the parameters of their respective states, offering young impressionable New Zealanders the lure of State of Origin football and a big pay day.
Loyalty is dying in footy. I am now fine with players leaving. I wear my club badge on my heart, but I don’t put players’ names on my back. I wouldn’t take the $160 risk of my jersey becoming irrelevant, nor should players take the risk of not earning to their full potential by turning down better offers from other clubs.
We cheer a club, we cheer players while they are there and the majority forget them when they are in other colours.
I was astonished to hear the avarage number of games a first grader plays is just 49, over 4.2 years. Knowing this now, wouldn’t you want to earn as much as you could before your career ended?
The Crowd Says (10) | Page 1 of Comments
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June 26th 2012 @ 8:04am
JazzyJase said | June 26th 2012 @ 8:04am | Report comment
agree, this is how the modern game works, it is a business for players and clubs. It is both ways.
At risk of sounding like a dinosaur, the days of the club import rule when recrutiment was limited to players outside of the zone has lone gone. At least then most teams had a nucleus of players who would have a career with one club.
Clubs got around the rule by having imported players live in the boundary of their club.
Nowadays it is obviously to hard with inter regionall, state and international teams.
All sports have gone down this road now – loyalty in sport is on it’s last legs
June 26th 2012 @ 8:32am
Andy said | June 26th 2012 @ 8:32am | Report comment
Recruiting is such an ugly word, poaching sounds much more legal. Loyalty is not dying there are plenty of players that stay with a club for more than three years. Also, the majority do not forget the good players that leave your club and continue to be successful. Lastly, if you know you are an average player, you do not want to be in an average team with expectations of winning the premiership even if they pay you more money to be there.
June 26th 2012 @ 10:11am
steve b said | June 26th 2012 @ 10:11am | Report comment
Fix the salary cap and you will see more loyality !!!
June 26th 2012 @ 11:29am
MemberforDobell/PLANKO said | June 26th 2012 @ 11:29am | Report comment
Steve not sure this possible the cap salary is like the GST the more exemptions you put on it the more useless it is. I think raise it after the next TV DEAL then say goodbye to Third party deals… Make it simpler … How would you make it better ? I will give you an example of what some people are talking about … One Team Player or Local Junior which is most important …. Glenn Stewart is my example unwanted by his local club St George/Illawarra. Manly persisted with him for years before he cracked it ? So under a local junior rule St George would get an advantage over Manly is this fair ? Your thoughts ?
June 26th 2012 @ 11:59am
steve b said | June 26th 2012 @ 11:59am | Report comment
Planko i would first separate the u 20s from the firsts having their own salary cap ,,we need to increase the cap get rid of third and in some cases fourth and fifth deals,,The rules regarding the cap are so complex you need to be a lawyer to understand the ins and outs of the whole deal..The new commish has said this is one area that they will be looking hard at,, and changes will be made where necessary .How many times have we seen a jnr come through the grades only to be let go by the club because they cant fit him in under the cap ,,this must change ,,their must be some sort of benifit allowed if you produce a player through jnrs to allow him to stay on..i think if the player has come through from jnrs his cap to stay at the one club should be higher than an import this would allow loyality to come back into the game…
June 26th 2012 @ 12:06pm
MemberforDobell/PLANKO said | June 26th 2012 @ 12:06pm | Report comment
But Steve your missing my point St George Illawarra did not want him they should NOT GET ANY benefit AT ALL but under a local junior concession they would benefit ? Why ? U20 is rubbish seriously bring back U23 and reserve grade…. Play more games on Sunday during the day !
June 26th 2012 @ 12:26pm
steve b said | June 26th 2012 @ 12:26pm | Report comment
Planko i couldn’t agree more but the same old argument comes up mate WHERE IS THE MONEY COMING FROM..and mate my point is if the player wants to stay at the one club,, not if he is disgarded. Back to my original statement fix the cap..
June 26th 2012 @ 1:24pm
Rabbi said | June 26th 2012 @ 1:24pm | Report comment
I get a bit sick of this “footy has changed it’s not like the old days” crap that people carry on with. Recruitment has always been part of rugby league. The first stars of Aussie rugby league such as messenger and mckivat were poached from rugby union. From the 1910′s to the 1950′s there were numerous controversies about clubs flouting the residency rules and recruiting players from outside of their districts. In the late 50s Wests recruited a side known as the “millionaires” while St George secretary Frank Facer stockpiled the talent that would go on to win eleven straight premierships, frequently featuring representative standard players in reserve and third grade because they had that much quality in their squad. The eighties saw manly pillage wests and norths of many of their stars. This is not a new thing. Clubs have always wanted success, and they have always sought to get the best players wearing their colours.
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June 26th 2012 @ 1:34pm
NickF said | June 26th 2012 @ 1:34pm | Report comment
Surely this is pure spin. Calling it recruitment just legitimizes how important the dollar is. Using the term “poaching” is more emotive, but it reflects how the fans feel. Selling us the teerm Recruitment make you sound like a club CEO or Mmedia manager.
Wayne Bennett brought in 4 players to the Dragons roster. Darius Boyd, Michael Weyman, Jeremy Smith and Neville Cosigan. I would consider only one of these players was deemed high class before the Dragons won their premiership, Boyd. Weyman hadn’t achieved a lot and wasn’t highly regarded. Smith and Cosigan, while good players, were of the calibre of Civinoceva or Thaiday. The Dragons fan felt that Bennett cot the best out of the talent available and made them acheive better. Soward, Merrin, Hunt, Beau Scott (a Cronulla discard now origin player) to mention a few.
That was just it Loyalty DID matter at the Dragons. Gasnier, Nightingale, Creagh, Young, Merrin, Hunt, Kyle and Chase, Stanley, the Morris twins and Ben Hornby are ALL Dragons juniors.
If you want to know about loyalty, you should have wittnessed the scenes when Darius Boyd and Tim Moltzen played against the Dragons this year at Kogarah.
June 26th 2012 @ 6:06pm
Morotti said | June 26th 2012 @ 6:06pm | Report comment
Which dragons player did Wayne Bennett recruit that was wanted at their current club? I don’t think he was ever accused of poaching.