Since making the Superbowl in 2002, the Oakland Raiders have consistently been one of the worst teams in the NFL. In many respects they are in a similar predicament to the NRL’s Canberra Raiders.
It is well publicised that Canberra have a hard time pursuing big-name players. James Tedesco’s backflip on a $600,000 contract this week illustrates that point brilliantly.
Despite massive amounts of money under the salary cap, the Canberra Raiders simply cannot convince players to leave their Sydney based clubs and join on with them.
Apart from the comparatively dull lifestyle of Canberra, players must surely look at Canberra’s history of losses over the past few years and wonder whether the money is worth it.
The Oakland Raiders had precisely the same problem.
They have been one of the NFL’s worst in recent years and that record was detrimental to their recruitment efforts. Oakland often paid far too much money to attract good players to their team.
As a result, the overblown contracts meant Oakland couldn’t sign other valuable – but more importantly cheaper – players to their roster.
So while they may have had a handful of very talented players, as a whole their team wasn’t very good.
It didn’t help that former owner Al Davis fired his coaches on an almost yearly basis, was instrumental in overpaying players, and wasted high draft picks on untested college players who displayed freakish athletic talent.
However, the future is bright for Oakland.
Al Davis passed away a few years ago, and with his passing went the massive contracts, and the high draft picks spent on unknown players.
The Raiders now have a General Manager by the name of Reggie McKenzie, who according to many experts is doing a sterling job in Oakland.
He wants to win, but for the right price.
This means he signs players for their worth, and does not overpay.
Slowly but surely he is putting Oakland on track to at least be competitive for the first time in more than a decade, which in turn, will help convince players to sign with them.
The Canberra Raiders have a chance to do the same as Oakland, and the lesson to be learned from their American cousins is not to overspend.
Terry Campese is a prime example of how big spending can hurt a team.
Campese essentially spent two years on the sidelines through various injuries.
The Raiders didn’t just lose Campese’s talent, but also the cap space they had spent on him, essentially playing two seasons with a smaller salary cap than the rest of the competition.
Which leads us to Tedesco’s contract.
He is very talented, just like Campese, but is yet to play a full season of first grade because of injuries.
It may be that Tedesco never misses another NRL game again, in which case the Raiders probably have missed out an exciting talent.
At the same time, however, they may have avoided paying too much money to a player who will spend a lot of time off the field.
With most of the big names the Raiders were pursuing recently deciding to go other ways, the Raiders should, in my opinion, resist the temptation to use some of their massive cap space to overpay for players who are not worth their contract.
If the Raiders think they can sign a player who will have a positive impact on their team, they should sign him.
However, they should sign him for the right price, irrelevant of the fact that Canberra is, for many players, an undesirable location.
The ramifications of overpaying may not immediately be felt, but somewhere down the line, the Raiders could miss out on a talented junior, or a big-name player, because of overpaying players.
By exercising responsibility when it comes to the salary cap, Canberra can build a team capable of winning matches consistently.
With that consistency, the Raiders will find it easier to lure players, and if they have exercised responsibility in regards to the salary cap, they will be able to outbid all the other clubs to sign their coveted player.
It is possible to do it, the work being done in Oakland by Reggie McKenzie is proof of that, the Raiders simply need to resist the temptation to win now, and instead build a team capable of winning for a long time in the future.
millsy of perth
Guest
Great read roar'ers I used to get excited back in the day when the raiders played the Broncos. Not anymore but I think things will turn around they have plenty of money. I say bring in a draft as with other sports. That is the missing piece.
Joe
Guest
Oaklands #1 issue the past decade has been the draft selections which Al Davis screwed up year after year. Signing big name free agents in the NFL is way overrated, it gets headlines in the offseason & fans love it.But go look at the best teams in NFL since free agency began in mid 1990's The best teams do it through the draft.Thats where you create winning organizations, not signing high profile players to huge contracts. If making headlines with big time free agent signings was the key to success, Dan Snyder & the Redskins would have won a few Super Bowls in the early 2000's Now the Canberra Raiders face a but different situation because league dosent have a draft so if players dont want to play there its a huge obstacle to overcome Im not close enough to NRL nowadays to really know the overall Canberra situation, but they had immense success back in late 80's thru till mid 90's with some of the greatest players/ teams in league history. So its been done there before so they can't possibly use their location as an excuse It seems to me they need to get thrir house in order & eventually they"ll get back on a winning path
Conor Hickey
Roar Pro
Thanks again.
Conor Hickey
Roar Pro
Yeah the Parramatta situation is really interesting. The thing is if a roster really is as poor as Parramatta's was, you aren't immediately going to come in and become a premiership contender. Some people will point to the Roosters as proof that it can be done, but they already had a few good players and made some massive buys in Sonny Bill Williams, James Maloney and Michael Jennings. Rebuilding a roster takes time and it will only be in a few years time when we can really judge Ricky's coaching and roster building credentials. Whether the management has patience to wait for that is another question.
Esses
Guest
Agree on a Coach of the talent of WB, but Ricky made himself very unpopular at Parra for taking the hard decisions. Those decisions are paying off now for Parra. From where I sit, the mental attitude of the players has a much bigger effect on current results. Time for all involved to toughen up.
Chop
Roar Guru
Who would want to play for him given what he's done previously at Parramatta and Cronulla? Until they get a decent coach (and bringing in Stuart over David Furner was a step backwards) they are not going to attract any talent. The Raiders need to go all out to get Wayne Bennett back to change the whole football side of the organisation.
Chop
Roar Guru
I think that was aimed at Arnold.
Chop
Roar Guru
I'm looking out at Parliament House right now Arnold and attend Raiders games, play golf, baseball and cricket. Yeah it's cold but full time footballers don't need to train in the frost or in the cold of night. I think some of the general unpleasantness left with you to be honest.
Conor Hickey
Roar Pro
Care to elaborate?
Matt from Pony Land
Guest
I concur, great article. Since the heyday of the 80s and 90s the Raiders have been completely unable to recruit a big name player who wasn't already past his prime. The flip side problem is they have been unable to retain their best juniors because they have mismanaged their salary cap and haven't had the space to hang on to them after they came good and demanded higher salaries, or they were from Queensland and didn't want to stay. You can name two pretty decent origin teams from the players who started in Canberra and moved on before they hit their peaks. I wouldn't expect the current management to take on your very sensible advice, because they have proven in the past to be completely incompetent at player management. Who remembers when they had two young up and coming hookers on the books named Woolford and Priddis and they could only keep one, and they chose Woolford. Whoops.
Frank The Tank
Guest
Ricky Stuart????????
Davo
Guest
Conor +1 I hope the Raiders hierarchy are reading this.
Conor Hickey
Roar Pro
If the live here comment was directed at me I have lived in Canberra for 17 years. If it was just a general comment then yeah I agree.
Arnold Krewanty
Guest
It's not a silly statement at all. Have you lived in Canberra? Have you done regular training and played a sport in Canberra? I have for a number of years, and there is plenty of frost about, and a general unpleasantness with going out in that kind of weather before you've warmed up. I understand it gets cold around the Blue Mountains, but it's got nothing on Canberra's winter.
Conor Hickey
Roar Pro
Thank you, good sir.
MAX
Guest
It is always refreshing to read the mind of a straight thinker. Well done Conor.
Watto
Guest
General coldness, another silly statement. Penrith can be just as cold & it gives us an edge, just like this Monday against Brisbane. The problem is the players who think they're better than they are. Shillington, White to name but 2. We probably need a whole new board & CEO to go with the cleanout, but only those who give a damn about Canberra & the Raiders.
Watto
Guest
We shouldn't be paying overs for anybody but we need to start a real recruitment drive & not offering Mick Ennis 3 years was the first mistake. He is a leader & that is something sadly lacking for us. What a ridiculous comment to make that Canberra is dull. Only those who believe the media perception that Canberra is only full of politicians & there is nothing to do is very wrong. What can you do in Sydney that you can't do in Canberra, besides go to a beach? (Which is 1 & half hours away, less time than from Penrith to Bondi). Until you've lived here & tried to integrate yourself, then come & speak to me.
Conor Hickey
Roar Pro
If you want to read it that way you can, I certainly didn't mean it like that. I honestly don't know how the Raiders will fix the problem they are in, but spending too much on players won't solve anything.
planko
Guest
Manly are the Moneyball club not Melbourne having 60% of cap over 31 is about to bite hard. The moment a player gets old asks to much they show them the door. Lusick, Williams , now Stewart.