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The suggestion that the NRL salary cap could be replaced with a “Fantasy League” style points system was one that intrigued me, largely because I find Fantasy League frustrating yet highly addictive and would love nothing more to see club bosses and CEOs facing the same predicament as I do each week.
For those unaware, the five-man sub-committee set by the NRL to look at salary cap reforms – club bosses Shane Richardson (Souths), Bruno Cullen (Broncos), Steve Burraston (Knights), Don Furner (Raiders) and Steve Noyce (Roosters) – look likely to recommend to the other NRL chief executives that a points system is trialled alongside the current salary cap next season, with a view to implementing a model as early as 2013.
Players will be ranked using various criteria and given a points value and no club can field a side with more than X amount of points on the field.
Obviously the greatest amount of scrutiny will go into the criteria and how many points are awarded for various things like Origin appearances (clubs with NSW eligible players will be sweating on the fact the Blues don’t continue using their policy of using 30 blokes a series).
However, it is encouraging that they are looking to run the system in trial format for a few seasons before deciding whether it can work.
Such a sensible approach to things is a delight in itself.
But what I’m really looking forward to is seeing clubs balance the books in the same way fans do through Fantasy League, which seems to be going gangbusters in just about every code in the country.
Club bosses will be looking for their bargain players to offset the superstars, and you can imagine the delight when they see one of their young rookies has only been rated as a 1.5 or 2.
But we if are going down the Fantasy League path, I wonder if soon the whole competition table will be scrapped to resemble the Fantasy League scoring system. Forget 32 points getting you into the top eight. Now it’s 13,500 minimum.
No longer is there only two points on offer per match, but if every player plays to his potential, 850.
It could be a great way to engage fans. Now your team can go up against the real life Brisbane Broncos in Fantasy League this week.
It reminds of the story from the North of England whereby a bloke who’d mastered a Fantasy League Football Manager computer program then sent his CV into Middlesbrough Football Club saying that he deserves a shot at the real thing given his ability at the online version.
To his credit, the Middlesbrough chairman Steve Gibson responded by letter explaining that the club were looking for a long term replacement, and with such a CV, this candidate would no doubt be attracting the interest of the big clubs in Europe in no time.
But it makes me wonder whether the pressure on NRL coaches will soon be coming from not just the pool of ex-coaches wandering around the countryside, but also from the legions of frustrated fans whose Fantasy League teams are all out-performing their NRL side by a distance.
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