League players are just plain greedy

Well just read all these comments, agree with some and disagree with others but I wonder how many people writing in would say NO to an offer to work for some other company at 2 or 3 times the their current salary , I dare say not one. Then how do you stop players going other codes. The true worth of any player is what someone is willing to pay. Its a pity it has to be a club in some other country or a different code but thats where we are at the moment. Greedy well maybe but thats the world we live in.

You seem to have some fairly firm views on "them"and "us", Oikee. Sydney clubs who have been around for 100 years are selfishly continuing to exist. Other codes are selfishly buying a handful of league's stars. How about the selfishness of the players who take the money and go to play rugby? Lote Tuquiri and Wendell Sailor are 2 of the most popular players in the game today. Are they still the enemy? Or is all forgiven now that they've come back? Nobody could give a toss about league outside of it's traditional heartlands, and that is unlikely to change. Not even having a premiership winning team chock full of superstars can get people in Melbourne interested. Or look at the difference in the way the public in Western Australia have embraced the Force compared to the Western Reds league team. League bought players from union for decades before professionalism, but now the chickens are coming home to roost. The hard decision ahead of the NRL is whether to cut back the number of clubs in the competition and scrap the salary cap, or accept that they'll lose players occasionally. Even if they choose the former, they still won't be able to match the money on offer in Europe. That is reality.

The whole point to this argument is not what they are paid, but what other codes are prepared to pay them to poach them. Look, we all agree they get good money, but there is even bigger money in other sports. Now if we can't keep our best by paying them more, every time a great player comes along, he will be gone. ? You could nearly blame other codes for being greedier than rugby league. The NRL is trying to keep wages in order, but like out of the Godfather," they keep dragging us back". Rugby league is under pressure to make more money, 3 other codes are making it this way. The way things are going, rugby league will come out on top because its being forced to make harder decissions and create more money to keep its stars. The players would not go anywhere if these other codes pulled there heads in. Only last month the rugby union boss said no more league players, ? Our best comes up for sale and they are like maggots on a dead carcus. Now AFL is joining the cue, as if they have not got enough to pick from, now they want other codes stars.

I have to agree with Mr Sports. While in comparison to other sporting codes, the NRL players are underpaid I feel that loyalty and a passion for your game should come before what money is available. What does a 22 year old need with $800 000 anyway? Most of these players rent apartments, some still live at home, no wives, no kids, I don't understand what they need to be buying. My main problem is that the players want to have a whinge but are not providing any solutions or positive feedback. $6000 for one game seems plenty to me.

those numbers for the storm overspend are like a rounding error for news ltd. murdoch is changing the world in ways that you do not want to know. smart as hell. its like getting in a ring that with ali and you did not know it... he says...lets do 3 rounds of boxing. He looks like a mope....but HE KNOWS how good he is BUT YOU DON'T...the next 9 minutes of yr life are the toughest u will ever face!!! murdoch has done this but the rounds LAST A LIFE TIME.....!!!!!! league is done...its going to be an amalgamtion of both sports long term....

guys its all numbers...oz-15 million usa -300 million. the comparisons are wrong.... News ltd- revenues for last finacial year-8.2 BILLION profit from revenues- 829 million storm overspend-700k salary cap owners 1/2 nrl- news ltd owners storm , cowboys, broncos-news ltd

And may I say that ppl keep coming up saying League players get more than their share of the NRL pie (24%) compared to other sports (e.g. AFL on 19%), yet we all agree that the game was undersold, so may be the players do need to be paid a bit more, because it's not their fault the game was undersold, but may be in return for the money they should be forced to promote the game some how, may be footy clinics in rural areas or non-heartland areas.

I think players should be paid more, just watching Inglis play makes you realise why we love League, the brilliance the players are able to do with a wall of players in front of them is unmatchable, union is the closest thing but League has the speed (and that comes from the players). Think about it like this---- If you are selling a product and you need ingredients to make the product you buy it. If the ingredient price increases you get the ingredient and rise the price of the product. Now, the workers to make the product are on a more flexible guideline as they are dispensable, if you can attain more workers than you can hire them for whatever price you want, but the more you spend the better it is (usually). The product = game The ingredient = players The workers = CEO's, club houses, marketing managers, etc. The point is- players aren't workers, they are ingredients necessary for the production of the product. Therefore, pay them more - the better the product the more you can sell it for!!!

I think PNG will make mega bucks. It might not look like it, but with the sponsors wanting the money of a whole populace I could see major money invested in putting a team in PNG. Imagine if you could get your name planted on the face of a jersey that would be streamed into PNG, Australia and NZ. That is what the sponsors are thinking- may be Coca Cola or Virgin Blue or Qantas or Toyota or a company trying to expand, like VB (although I can't stand it) or someone else in PNG.

Just a couple of thoughts 1 Rugby league players in genral are not greedy some players jarryd hayne have gotten to big for their bridgess jarryd hayne but they are playing one of the worlds toughest sports and do deserve to make as much as they can while they can and they are in demand in different codes which other codes want or need afl or union players 2 Alot of players in all codes could learn a lesson from pat tillman former NFL player who quit the league to joined the rangers after the september 11 attacks turning his back on $1.2 million per year the cardinals would have paid him compared to $17,316 pat tillman was killed in action in afghanastan it is only sports gentlemen

Geez.. I hate to see how upset you would be following a team in the EPL??

He'd be worth his weight in leaf litter on an Autumn day.

audiences? the tv audiences dont calculate to double

Look, we all know the one thing holding back rugby league is teams who cant afford to be in the comp. Now if these Sydney teams merged or went to another market, the game would grow overnite, but we continue to keep the cap low to allow these teams to survive, its a fact. This is why the cap was introduced, but we cant move forward because we have a bloody great anchor holding us back.

Well said Mr Sports. Wave 'em goodbye. I've tried to feel sympathetic to these poor underpaid athletes but it just won't come.

Lets hope someone is looking after him. Ha.

Let us all agree that it's a good thing that there's someone out there planting trees. There is someone out there planting trees....isn't there??

I didn't say the salary cap should be raised, more like abolished.

Soccer players, Golf, NFL, NBL, tennis and others earn exactly what their sports can afford. They have huge markets, huge TV ratings and massive revenue as a result. It's got nothing to do with how tough the sport is just how popular it is. Expand the game, increase TV ratings in southern Australia and overseas and wages will naturally increase. The only other option is to ditch the salary cap and have a free market like Soccer and Baseball so you can pay the elite players more. If you really want an even competition though then you have to accept that salaries are going to be lower.

Did not realise NRL was so cheap. I know plumbers and electricians who make far more than 400/500 k a year and they are a dime a dozen. If you think about it, the audiences for NRL are not in the same galaxy as the AFL. So salaries seem to fit that, but AFL should be higher again.