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Keeping international talent away from Origin

James Tamou bailed on the Kiwis to play Origin footy. (AAP Image/Paul Miller)
Roar Guru
7th November, 2014
39

Much has been made of the pay packets received by State of Origin representatives.

The lure of the big money is often given as one of the reasons why many athletes choose to play for ‘their state’ rather than their country or heritage.

In order to encourage players with multiple national options to not choose State of Origin, reasonable financial incentives need to be made available.

The current Origin deal sees its players paid something like $30,000 per match. With 34 players over two teams involved, player payments come to just more than $1 million per game.

Contrast these figures with that of Test football where representative players for the Big Three – Australia, England and New Zealand – currently receive something in the order of $40,000 per Test match.

In the current Four Nations tournament involving two of those teams, a match would see payments totalling $1,360,000. But where does Samoa fit into all of this? What financial recompense is available for the qualifying fourth team?

To take it a step further, what incentive is there to even make oneself available for such a team? Pride?

Sure, there is that. But Australian players, for example, receive decent enough recompense for their pride. It hardly seems fair to have the players of the other competing nations earn a packet while the remaining team’s players earn pennies.

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Is it because these lower-tiered nations are riding off of the hard work of the Big Three? Tell the Samoans that they haven’t earned their keep this tournament.

In this day of business and success driven professionalism, it is naive to expect people to run on empty. Pride will only take you so far before reality hits. People have bills to pay and lives to lead. This requires money.

Is it any wonder then that a player will make himself available for a state of Australia when the opportunity to earn $30,000 to $90,000 is on offer?

It is, of course, disingenuous to suggest that they are somehow greedier than other players. One can hear it now, ‘He is only doing it for the money!’ Well, of course he is. Like everyone else who isn’t a millionaire, he needs it.

One often overlooked fact that musn’t be forgotten is that State of Origin is a regular series, played each and every year. This means that players can count on the fact of these matches being played. In other words, if he makes it a player will get his money. That is a powerful and practical incentive.

This same incentive needs to be made available for international tournaments. This could be the Four Nations or even a Three Nations featuring two of the Big Three and a lower-tiered qualifier.

Whatever the path, as long as it is regular, it can provide a guaranteed income pathway for lower-tiered nations to strive towards. Players would no longer only have Origin football to aim for.

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Regular international events, providing a guaranteed income pathway for lower-tiered nations, might just be the ticket to help encourage international eligible players away from the lure that is Origin.

Doing so would only help realise the potentially brighter future that is Test football.

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