Howdy Davo Smithy, long time no speak! I hear a new NRL salary cap review panel is looking to examine the benefits of a rookie draft in terms of talent equalisation, as recently discussed by fellow Roarer Cameron Mee.
“The 1991 draft was created in order to even out the NSW rugby league competition after years of imbalance,” Mee wrote. “This was typified by clubs, such as Manly, recruiting players on big contracts even if they already had a star player in that position – with the sole purpose of preventing players from playing for rival clubs.”
History showed us that the draft went down like a sack of spuds, so the question is obvious – why didn’t the league remain a lopsided competition?
When you compare the overall performances of teams over time from before and after the salary cap era, it becomes clear that the imbalance issue was directly addressed by the cap.
Sure, the salary cap isn’t perfect, and its application by the NRL has previously been heavy-handed to the point of being self-damaging. But when fans attack the cap for costing their teams talent, they conveniently forget that without it richer rival teams would steal their talent anyway.
The other component that frequently goes unmentioned is that for teams to lock out talent from the rest of the competition, they frequently went into severe debt to do so. You effectively had most clubs in the league gambling on turning their fortunes around by buying up big. But when only one team can win a premiership there are going to be losers, as the NSWRL knew all too well.
Call it socialism, but for the game as a whole to prosper every team must be afforded equal opportunity. With talent equalisation, prosperity depends on the ingenuity of recruitment, coaching and high performance football departments. Teams that fail to perform are typically failing in these off-field arenas.
Perhaps we’ll one day see some kind of football department salary cap, something this NRL panel is also investigating.
So with that understanding I ask – what problem is a rookie draft going to solve?
Ignoring the tanking issue for the moment, if clubs are disincentivised from developing juniors then there’s going to be a general disconnect from the grassroots, which would be devastating for the game.
People need to see NRL clubs proactively engaging in their communities. In the competitive Australian sporting market we can’t afford a league of plastic franchises with no connection to the realities of the game. The correct balance would see the NRL developing the grassroots through the prism of the club brands.
Clubs that don’t have junior nurseries should be encouraged to develop them elsewhere. There are massive swathes of Australia, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands calling out for an NRL side to take an interest.
I’ve written before that the NSW and Queensland Cups should be redesigned into proper statewide competitions with regional district teams, and each NRL club should affiliated with multiple sides with distinct territories. NSW clubs with only one feeder side in the NSW Cup and out-of-state teams such as the Warriors, Storm, West Coast Pirates, Wellington Orcas and the Queensland NRL sides would form affiliations with the Queensland Cup sides.
Clubs would be rewarded under the salary cap (or via a points system) for developing and retaining junior talent within their systems. That reward is extended the longer the player stays at the club. That way both the top and bottom tiers of the game benefit.
The reality is that rugby league competes with other codes for its player pool. If a player doesn’t like the forced relocation imposed by the draft, they may be inclined to take another option outside of the sport.
Instead of a draft, I’d like to see the NRL explore a different option.
After speaking to some of the people involved with the new Papua New Guinea Hunters QRL side, I discovered that one of the main reasons this side exists is to showcase the talent on offer in Papua New Guinea. If an NRL coach watches them play and wants to recruit a player, the club is more than happy to see that player go.
Why? Because there’s a country of seven million rugby league mad supporters waiting to replace them. Their biggest issue isn’t a lack of talent, it’s about talent not being seen.
So instead of a rookie draft, what if the NRL had scheduled scouting days?
Clubs that have developed juniors would have age limits, time limits and a maximum quota to recruit players within their own grassroots system. This forces clubs to be proactive in signing up their best talent first, and also prevents hoarding.
Once those restrictions expire, juniors are essentially free agents but can remain within the same grassroots system. Every pre-season, unsigned rookies and free agents could attend NRL-only closed door scouting sessions. These camps would rotate through key locations each year – Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Port Moresby, Suva, Auckland, regional NSW, regional Queensland, regional New Zealand, and so on.
NRL clubs would be encouraged to send coaching staff and scouts (for fear of missing out to rival clubs), while players who would normally be overlooked get an opportunity to showcase themselves.
If the league is serious about expansion, identifying and nurturing talent is vitally important. We shouldn’t run the risk of teams relying on bad performances in order to spread talent. Negativity breeds negativity.
The only way our game can prosper is by fostering stronger links between the grassroots and the game’s most important marketing element – the clubs.
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