This is part two of a discussion on the merits of introducing an NRL rookie draft. Yesterday, we discussed how the NRL operates in a different framework to the major US sports.
Today, we look further into this and discuss why the NRL is also operating in a different framework to the AFL, which is Australia’s most successful example of a sporting draft.
The primary difference between the AFL and rugby league is that Australia is the only place where AFL is played and there are very few options for athletes who want to play the game at the highest level, it’s the AFL or bust.
Rugby league players can choose to play in the NRL, the English Super League or they can play rugby union professionally. As a result some have claimed that rookies would leave the NRL if they get drafted to a team they don’t want to play for.
I think this is a bit of an exaggeration and could easily be prevented by making all players entering the draft signing a form stating that they will agree to a contract with the club that drafts him.
The bigger issue surrounding the implementation of an NRL draft would be those who choose not to enter the draft and play in England or French rugby union where they can choose their team.
I don’t think this would be too big an issue though, most players will understand that they could get picked by any club and really, they’re only ‘stuck’ there for two to three seasons before they can move on.
One or two players might choose to defect, but I think on the whole the majority of players will choose to remain with the NRL and enter the draft.
One of the major issues facing the North American sporting leagues, most notably the NBA, is that players do not want to play for small market teams because they can earn far more for teams with a bigger budget playing in bigger cities where they have greater opportunities to promote themselves.
This typically leads to a competitive imbalance because all the great players want to play for the Lakers or the Knicks – okay nobody wants to play for the Knicks right now – but the fact remains, players want to play for big-market teams.
So, if a small market team, such as the Sacramento Kings or the Denver Nuggets, drafts a player they often try to leave when they get the opportunity, with Carmelo Anthony moving to the Knicks being a prime example.
This exact issue will be faced in the NRL, in fact it already is faced and NRL salary cap rules allow it.
Third Party Agreements (TPA) were introduced by the NRL in 2006 to help prevent players from defecting to big money offers from French rugby union.
The TPAs in their current form allow players to be played by third parties outside of the salary cap as long as the third party is also not a sponsor of the club. In theory, it is up to a player’s manager to find these deals and they should have no bearing on where a player plays his football.
Unfortunately, in practice this is not the case. Instead of managers finding third parties for their players, connection-laden clubs are finding the third parties for the managers and their players.
As a result, clubs such as the Roosters, backed by Nick Politis and his phonebook full of contacts, or the Broncos and a whole city of connections, are tabling contracts loaded with TPAs which lie outside the salary cap.
Poorer clubs such as Cronulla cannot afford to do this. The caveat associated with TPAs, that the third party must not also be a sponsor of the club, means that those clubs must either sacrifice a sponsor in order to allow them to become a third party, or offer a contract significantly less then other clubs.
As we saw in the Andrew Fifita case, Cronulla simply could not afford to match the Bulldogs contract, which is reportedly worth $850,000 a year, of which $400,000 comes from TPAs.
Yes Cronulla could match the $450,000 which lies inside the salary cap but the salary cap presents them from being able to offer Fifita the $850,000 a year which the Bulldogs have given him.
An NRL draft will not stop this scenario. In fact, it may even make it worse.
If loyalty is dying now, it will be dead after the implementation of a draft. Players will not feel indebted to the club which nurtured them from a junior into a top-flight superstar and will not feel a need to take a pay cut to repay the club.
Players will likely have no hesitation taking the money and leaving the club that drafted them.
Another issue surrounding professional leagues that implement a draft with reverse finishing order, that is, the club that finished last gets to pick first, is tanking.
It has happened in the AFL, the NHL and more than half the NBA is currently in the midst of a fight to the death for that ‘desired’ wooden spoon.
For those interested, the Philadelphia 76ers are currently fighting hard to ‘win’ the race, having lost their last 25 matches with 11 matches still to go and just two games ahead of, oh sorry behind, the Bucks, 0-36 to finish the season?
Go for it boys, nothing’s more important than snagging that number one draft pick.
The problem with tanking though, is that while teams try to win, once they are eliminated from finals contention directives will come from the top telling the coach to ‘rest’ players with niggling injuries.
Others will be told to give some youngsters a chance to gain some first grade experience, sure fire ways to pick up some losses and boost a team’s place in the draft pecking order.
That last paragraph typified everything that is bad about the draft, the fact that it encourages teams to deliberately lose so they get first choice in the draft.
The NBA attempted to counter this by introducing the Draft Lottery; all non-playoff teams literally have balls emblazoned with their logo entered into a lotto machine, with those with the worst record having the most number of balls.
The first five balls to be produced possess the first five picks, with picks six through 30 then being based on the team’s record. As I’m sure you’ve figured out by now, this has failed miserably.
Numerous solutions have been proposed to solve this issue, but so far no league has implemented them, and tanking remains a big issue.
Tanking is something many rugby league fans scoff at when they look at the AFL. I sure hope that if the NRL implements a draft, tanking does not occur. Problem is, there is so much incentive to tank in leagues that use a draft and it is very difficult to prevent.
Simple solution to prevent tanking? Don’t implement a draft.
But, in saying that, it will definitely be harder to tank in the NRL than it is in the NBA. In the NBA there are 12 players on a roster.
As the 76ers have shown us, all you have to do is sign a few promising rookies, release some veterans, trade others away for more draft picks, trade for players you know will mist the upcoming season due to an injury and be so far below the salary cap that you have to pay a fine.
The players are still trying their hardest, well we hope so anyway, but they just aren’t good enough.
This is not so easy in the NRL. Firstly, we don’t have trades and secondly there are 25 players on an NRL roster. You can easily rebuild a 12 man roster in which only 8-9 players get meaningful playing time, you cannot easily rebuild a 25-man squad.
If an NRL club were to deliberately make themselves terrible, they would struggle to regenerate, as it would take a very long time to find 20 good players to fill the roster.
Case in point, the Melbourne Demons. They tanked during the 2009 season and in the years since they have finished 12th, 13th, 16th and 17th. They’ve gone backwards. Hardly a successful strategy.
A draft in the NRL has its merits, but it cannot be compared to the seemingly successful drafts used in the USA.
Many of the issues which will likely face the NRL are currently being raised in the MLB.
The Yankees don’t develop talent in the minor league system and through the draft, instead they just buy stars.
The similarities do not stop there. If a draft is to be implemented in the NRL it must have the full support of the players, even then there will be so many issues that must be addressed which will cost a lot of money that I feel it will not be successful.
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