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I was reading with interest today the possibility that the National Rugby League (NRL) may introduce a marquee player exemption to the current salary cap system.
This concept is being considered, according to The Daily Telegraph, to allow the Bulldogs to sign Israel Folau for the 2014 season.
The marquee player exemption concept is not new to sport in Australia, having been in use in the A-League since its inception, allowing players such as Dwight Yorke (Sydney FC) in season one through to Alessandro Del Piero (also Sydney FC), Emile Heskey (Newcastle) and Shinji Ono (Wanderers) to be signed outside of the salary cap restrictions within the league.
Plenty would argue that most of the marquee signings have had more failures than successes over the years, but certainly 2013 was a bumper year for the A-League with the aforementioned players making a positive impact. Having said that, a club with no marquee player won the grand final (Central Coast)!
One could argue that marquee players in the A-League are as much about promotion as they are about performance and that as aging stars they can only do some much in terms of influencing outcomes.
But back to rugby league, does signing Folau as a marquee player (outside the cap) make sense in the NRL world? Does this simply mean that if you are the highest paid player at a club you become the “marquee”? Will this automatic inflation of the salary cap have dire consequences for NRL supporters?
If we remove the level playing field of the current cap, do we run the risk of creating a less competitive competition? When I first started supporting rugby league back in the early seventies, there were certainly the haves and the have nots and this was largely reflected in the same teams making the finals year after year.
So what’s wrong with that and why should some clubs be restricted in their spending just because other clubs have no money? Take the English Premier League (EPL), where Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea et al have dominated the landscape of English football for years without real detriment to the supporter base – rich and successful.
Why won’t this work for rugby league? A couple of reasons spring to mind.
Firstly, the EPL has a promotion and relegation system, so fans continue to rally around there team to help them off the bottom – there’s a big difference between playing in the Premier League and the Championship.
Secondly, the UEFA Champions League and the Europa League provide opportunity for clubs to compete in other competitions across Europe.
Lastly, the EPL is part of a worldwide game that is supported passionately in many countries (Manchester United in Australia attracts 23,000 to a training session and 83,000 to an exhibition match). So even if you are not winning, there is always a sub-plot at play.
The NRL does not have the luxury of these sub-plots, so lop-sided competition as has arguably been the case during the Origin period would become unacceptable in the long-term to supporters, who would make demands on clubs that they were, financially, not realstic.
The long-term impact would be a game that is less appealing to the consumer and, therefore, less valuable in a commercial sense. This could potentially lead to a fall in broadcast and digital rights making it even more difficult for clubs to survive let alone be competitive.
Justifying payments to players to keep them in rugby league may have unwanted consequences unless there is a well thought out strategy.
When Karmichael Hunt switched from rugby league to AFL, there was a great outcry over the defection and the question was asked, “How could the game let it happen?”
As history now tells us, it simply provided an opportunity for another star to appear. For every Hunt, Folau and Sonny Bill Williams (who came back without marquee player payment), there is another player ready to take their place.
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