So I was sitting on the lounge on Friday watching ESPN and a new episode of LeBronCenter, sorry SportsCenter, came on.
The show opened not with discussion of any of the major sporting stories. Nothing was said about Major League Baseball, Masahiro Tanaka’s elbow injury, Clayton Kershaw’s scoreless innings streak or the soccer World Cup, FIFA’s rejection of Luis Suarez’s biting appeal, previews to the coming World Cup Final.
The show began with, however, considerable discussion of NBA Free Agency, and this was before The Decision 2.0. The NBA is in its off-season and it’s still dominating the headlines.
It was at this point that is struck me – the NRL needs a free agency period.
I have always been a fan of the free agency periods used by the NBA, NFL, AFL and various other professional leagues around the world. They ensure that contract negotiations do not begin until the season ends and prevent players being forced to play a year with a team that they know they are leaving at the end.
But watching this segment was the greatest proponent of why the NRL needs a free agency period.
The NRL currently struggles to get media exposure, the players and clubs refuse to promote the game if there is nothing in it for them and more often than not, when the players are in the news it’s for doing bad rather than good.
What’s more, once the final whistle is blown and the confetti begins to settle, the nation’s collective mindset immediately shifts to cricket. The summer sport. The only real news we hear in relation to rugby league is whatever vile Mad Monday antics the players got up to or the next controversy in a long line of summer controversies that seem to occur annually.
This used to be the case in America. The NFL ended in January, the nation’s shifted their attention towards the final months of the NBA season, and then once the NBA Finals ended in May, the attention shifted to ‘America’s Pastime’.
Today, the NFL and NBA generate headlines year round. This year, the NFL even shifted their draft back a few weeks, unofficially, to ensure that there was a major offseason event spread throughout the entire offseason, starting with the Scouting Combine in February. I’m not advocating for the NRL to replicate the NFL’s role as the American sporting Death Star, but year round coverage of the sport can only be good for rugby league.
Think about the current LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony discussions. There are team meetings, folks flying around from city to city to meet with teams and listen to their sales pitches, star players flying home early from European holidays to encourage another star to join their team.
We have wire to wire coverage on every major sports website and channel across the country. Now transplant the NRL into this situation, Sonny Bill Williams and Johnathan Thurston are both off contract, the NRL free agency rules have prevented them from signing with another team during the previous season.
Now they are trying to decide what beach they should be taking their talents to. Imagine Thurston flying to Melbourne and being greeted at the airport by his Maroons teammates Cooper Cronk, Cameron Smith and Billy Slater, who then proceed to give a strong sales pitch.
Imagine Williams travelling to Redfern and being greeted by Greg Inglis, Luke, George and Tom Burgess who are desperate to lure him to the Rabbitohs because they see him as the missing link in their 43 year-long Premiership drought.
Now imagine Williams just signed with South Sydney, instantly ticket sales for the Round 1 clash between the Rabbitohs and Roosters spike, memberships for the Rabbitohs spike and having lost their star player, the Roosters enter the hunt for a star replacement.
You might think that this scenario is far fetched, but it actually happened just under a year ago in Australia. Just it happened in another sport. Once the AFL season ended, and Hawthorn finished celebrating, numerous AFL teams went to work. The pursuit of Lance Franklin had begun.
He flew to Sydney to meet with both the Swans and the Giants. Ultimately Franklin signed with the Swans and membership sales immediately spiked. Largely thanks to Buddy, the Swans have recorded record membership figures and are posting average crowds that are their highest since Tony Lockett was playing at the club.
During the pursuit of Franklin, and the following weeks, the Sydney newspapers were filled with stories about his new deal, his new girlfriend and how he was settling into life in Sydney.
The AFL normally gets very little coverage in the rugby league dominated city, but in October and November of last year, it was dominating the headlines in the midst of a drawn out Rugby League World Cup and the month prior to the commencement of the Ashes.
It was dominating the headlines because the AFL has yet another system in place that is superior to the NRL’s system.
There are those that claim that NRL fans, especially those in Sydney, immediately shift into summer mode once the season ends and claim that nobody will care. But it doesn’t always have to be that way.
The NRL can’t just sit on their hands in the summer months, they must attempt to change the public’s mindset and ensure that people don’t just switch off once the season ends.
On the Round 13 rule, it is a step forward, but it is merely treating the symptoms, not the cause. The rule, which reared its head following the James Tedesco backflip, states that the NRL will not acknowledge and register a new contract until Round 13 of the preceding season is in place to ensure that players aren’t signing contracts over a year before their contract even begins.
It only becomes an issue when a player and a club agree to a deal and an overzealous club announces the deal prior to Round 13, the point at which the contract becomes official.
It is certainly a step forward, but does not go far enough, the NRL should take a leap forward and move this date back to the last day of the season, grand final day.
The benefits of an NRL Free Agency period are clear for all to see. The sooner the NRL implements a free agency period, the better.
Twitter: @fromthesheds
Reckon you can pick the winning team? Build your own dream team with Draftstars daily fantasy and compete on any match. For great odds on the NRL head on over to PlayUp. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.
Anthony Seibold claims Haumole Olakau'atu's dangerous throw of Shaun Lane was a good tackle with an unfortunate ending and is hopeful the Manly star…
There is only one way for Cronulla to shake off their reputation for being flat-track bullies. They are off to an impressive start in…
This can't have been a lot of fun for Brad and Gutho!
"You're five metres from your line - you can't be looking at the referee!"
Maika Sivo scored a hat-trick in his return to first-grade footy but a brain fade in the second half saw the Eels winger sent…
Gus Gould went from analysing Daly Cherry-Evans' fantastic pass to roasting Johnathan Thurston in a heartbeat, leaving his Nine colleagues in hysterics.
