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Mark Gasnier rallys up his team-mates. AAP Image/Action Photographics, Grant Trouville
So he’s back. Mark Gasnier makes his NRL return this week, although some of the gloss has been wiped of it by the match lineups being heavily depleted due to Origin.
Gasnier’s return is a boost to the game whose major problems this year have been on player retention. I’m not sure who would have rejoiced at his signature more – David Gallop or the Skull.
Gaz will undoubtedly add a few more bums on the seats and should also provide an extra boost for Fox’s Monday game (who must be overjoyed to have ended up with that fixture on the Monday night).
But if my role is to question things when others blindly follow, here’s my beef …
How does the deal work? I understand the whole back-end loading deal, where he gets a little bit now and a whole lot more later, and that the Dragons will be shipping out players to make it all work.
But there is something a bit wrong with a team coming first on a full cap, suddenly being able to fit in a former Australian centre.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to see him back playing league, and Christ knows the Blues could do with him in the centres. But in a year in which the salary cap has been under such intense scrutiny, it just strikes me that things have been made to look right so the game can score a marketing coup.
Should Gasnier score the Grand Final winning try, how many other fans from other clubs or even the others clubs will not think that it was a bit of a con.
I don’t expect the success starved Dragons fans to give a toss, but I argue it’s a question worth asking.
Could the Storm be allowed to keep their big four if each of them opted to play for beans on different years and then got cashed up to the max on others?
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