The NRL are considering implementing a rookie draft system once the current broadcast deal ends.
The rookie draft would see juniors distributed across all clubs within the NRL competition. Each club would be able to choose their top five players, who will not be able to be drafted by another club.
There are some positives to this. Clubs who struggle to develop juniors will not have to pay so much on recruitment of other juniors.
It will also help with development costs of clubs like the Parramatta Eels, Penrith Panthers and Brisbane Broncos, who produce a large amount of juniors but are often not rewarded for doing so.
However, I feel that the negatives far outweigh the positives.
What’s the incentive for clubs to develop their juniors? Clubs like Penrith and Parramatta have spent a lot of time on their junior development in recent years and it may all be for nothing.
What’s the point in developing juniors only for them to go to another club after you’ve spent all that time and money on them?
Yes, that could happen now, however at the moment it’s only a chance this could happen. With the new system, clubs will be guaranteed to lose any juniors outside of their top five. So why bother investing the time and money?
There’s talk that the NRL will help out with the funding of junior development, however this won’t fix the time issue.
What will happen is clubs will have a small elite group of juniors and will develop those. That leaves the thousands of other juniors neglected.
In a few years’ time there will be no juniors to pick from because the clubs with a large junior catchment area will only be focussing on a small number of players and those fringe players will not get the chance to be developed.
The only people that miss out in this situation are the juniors.
The clubs who have built a good junior development program should benefit from it. They shouldn’t have to share with other clubs. Parramatta and Penrith have both made a conscious effort to build a successful junior development program. Other clubs shouldn’t be able to just come in and take that away from them.
You will also get young kids playing at clubs they really don’t want to be at. If they don’t make the top five, they don’t get a choice in where they will end up. They will not have the choice to move to another club to try and crack a first grade spot.
The clubs who don’t have large junior participation in their areas should be looking to expand into other areas. They shouldn’t be benefiting from other people’s hard work.
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