In the interest of full disclosure, I’m a Manly fan, so this issue has, in the last few weeks and months, affected me a little more closely than before.
But the business of players transferring in and around the NRL has perplexed me for a while now.
The NRL has been guilty of doing some strange things that no other football code seems to do in this day and age – schedule times announced just weeks before fixtures – but the transfer rules are right at the top.
Good on chief executive Dave Smith for fixing the schedule so that it’s set in stone before the season, and getting live Sunday afternoon football. Now, he has to work on the ugly business of transferring players.
No other sporting league allows this practice. We’ve seen it rear its ugly head this off-season, with the constant speculation on the futures of Sea Eagles halves Daly Cherry-Evans and Kieran Foran. It’s been confirmed that Cherry-Evans is leaving Manly, and Foran appears to be following suit.
I’m absolutely disappointed, but that’s not why I wrote this article. The fact that players seem to be able to negotiate publicly a year or more in advance of their contact ending is wrong. If they decide to move on from their current club, what does that mean for the final year(s) on their contract? Manly is looking at something of a dead rubber season with two of its most important players on the way out at the end of the year.
Rugby league, of course, is a team sport, and it’s hard enough to win a premiership when everyone in the dressing room is on the same page and united. When you have guys announcing a year in advance that they’re off to a new club, it does absolutely nothing for the morale of the players around them.
Manly played like a team divided on Saturday night. As much as I hate to agree with Phil Gould, he pointed out that there was little talk among teammates, and that’s a recipe for disaster.
No matter what the canned and clichéd press releases say, a player who signs to a new club a year ahead of his current contract actually expiring does not have a sole focus on closing out their career with a premiership at their current club.
Does anyone believe that tired old statement? Your teammates aren’t going to be happy that you’re bolting, and have announced it a year before, derailing the season almost before it’s begun.
Imagine how South Sydney players might feel with talk of Greg Inglis being shopped around to rugby both here and abroad. His contract doesn’t end until 2017, and already he’s making front-page news for what he might possibly do. It’s ludicrous, and just might be the biggest blight on the game right now.
Take the NFL, for example. They have a specified time where off-contract players can decide upon a new contract with their current team, or sign a new one. I understand the EPL has a similar setup. The NFL’s designated period is during the off-season. That generally restricts contract talk until then. Yes, there is still speculation about particular players, but it doesn’t completely hijack the actual game as the Manly pair’s rumoured movements has largely done.
In the weeks before the 2015 NRL season when we should be talking about what a wonderful year we have in store, there have been two narratives – off-field behavioural issues stretching from drug-related to Arizona nightclub drama, and the contractual status of Cherry-Evans and Foran.
There’s scarcely been any talk of football. Imagine how much better things would be if we were actually talking about the on-field product.
The NRL needs to go to an NFL-type system where there’s a designated window for player transfers, and make sure it’s in the off-season. The sooner it happens, the better. Yes, I know sport is a business, but the business side shouldn’t overpower what happens on the park every weekend.
You can’t stop players from thinking about their future (and I don’t blame them for securing a future in a career that is definitely a finite one) but the NRL can stop them from making contact with other clubs during the tenure of their current contract.
I know it won’t completely cut out conjecture on television, social media and in newspapers about where particular players might be heading at the end of their contracted term, but it should be less of a major talking point. Speculation will die after a while.
No matter what player or team is doing that, it’s a bad look, giving a sort of mercenary look to the game. It’s in bad taste, and it sends a message that that player believes himself to be bigger than the team. In a sport like rugby league, that can be a season’s death knell.
David Smith can quickly end what’s becoming a circus by following the lead of other sporting leagues around the world. Bring in a trade window as soon as he possibly can, and let’s try to get the focus back on football, because the on-field product is pretty damn good.
Noel
Guest
It won'y matter how a so called window is structured it will not stop the conjecture fromthe media . How do you think any rule can stop conjecture in the media , if they are'nt sure they'll make it up .
The Barry
Roar Guru
It's not like he's a tackling machine before or since...
Von Neumann
Roar Guru
I think they do. But I dont think they can do anything about it until 2017 when the new enterprise bargaining agreement is struck. We'll see it eventually is my bet, and good odds at that
AdelaideWill
Guest
Imagine being an employee and waiting until the end of your contract to find out if your employer wants you to stay on or you need to find a new position. Now imagine being that employee and having a family with kids and a house and living in Canberra, Brisbane or Townsville and needing to move the family at short notice (Ben Hannant)
Andrew Kitchener
Roar Guru
I worry the same.
The Barry
Roar Guru
Why wouldn't there be? All a transfer window does is set a time when you can sign a contract or announce a signing. You can't make illegal for a Cherry-Evans to talk to whoever he likes or from going to the Gold Coast. The only difference is now the signing is official and public knowledge.
The Drake
Guest
It's pathetci goodbye DCE ,goodbye Foz,no point staying at Manly .they didn't put in Friday night and they won't for the rest of the season ,why stay at Manly,they're going to have shockers this year,no team harmony ,B&B blood ,no teamwork. And I would add it's totally different when a player goes to rugby . Very different when you are playing against your mates the next year to playing rugby. It shouldn't be allowed a year out ,and while someone is still on contract . Manly are screwed this year ,it's not right .
Andrew Kitchener
Roar Guru
Because you wouldn't have scenes like we've seen recently, with a player shopping himself about the place. Of course there'll be conjecture and innuendo - that can't be stopped - but selling yourself to another club whilst with your current one is a bad look. That's what needs to be stopped.
Disturbed Bull
Guest
Sport has its own very special set of ad hoc but established rules at law. Certainly not the way it is for the 99.99% of us who, no matter what we think of our sporting abilities weren't up to it, and are trapped in the usual employer employee relationship. If you are working for a particular employer and sign with the opposition even a few days, yet alone months or a year before your contract expires there are severe penalties. The case of Buckley v Tutty set in motion the start of rules outside of what the clubs and the leagues governing body may impose. Effectively athletes have special rights which lifts them from the status of serf to free person unlike (it may be argued) others. Obviously a transfer window is not a priority for the league who has its legal minds engaged in pursuit of the penalisable consequences of an arm, elbow or fist contacting a ball and striking the carrier in the head and similar. There are many players signing a year out with other clubs. What do you do with the likes of Trent Merrin? Do you persist trying to stop him doing a bunny hop when he gets the ball? Do you expect him to play with the same sustained vigor as he did the season before when peddling his wares? Will we see more players signing elsewhere pull a hamstring? Well one hopes so or hopes not. Perhaps it's a change from those who signed a say four year deal who play well the first year, have a bludge for the next two and then play hard again to secure a new contract in the last. The window of opportunity. The joy of the game! The thrills. Mmmm I've got a thirst - pass the cola and join the hunt.
pjm
Roar Rookie
Another corporate thinking that the corporate world is how everyone else operates.
Sylvester
Guest
Totally agree. After Maloney signed for the Roosters while still with the Warriors, he must have set some sort of record for missed tackles. It was a slap in the face for the fans.
Boom
Guest
I run my own professional services company, and if one of my staff came into my office tomorrow to tell me that they had signed with one of my biggest competitors, but planned on staying with me for the next 10 months I can guaren-bloody-tee that they wouldn't be with me on Tuesday. For a whole host of reasons - they would be poisonous to company morale, damaging to client relationships and then there are the massive conflict of interest and IP issues. Who knows what sensitive company information they'll be pilfering to take away with them, and worst of all, I'm paying to make them a more valuable resource for my completion. Crazy... -- Comment from The Roar's iPhone app.
Jeremy
Guest
Agreed the Barry. Everyone is looking to manage or hide the ugly symptom and not the cause. The NRL has a cap that forces a club top heavy with big names to lose some of them to clubs with less. You can't cry when that is actually the result of what you put in place to happen. You can't hide this contract stuff by having a transfer window. The mostly feral NRL media will be chasing players and managers with cameras like the paparazzi and when they get photos of DCE with Titans management you will get the same headlines and stories as now anyway. Why doesn't it happen in AFL? There is no other code competing for their players and pushing up prices. The AFL cap has a less stringent third party payments rules. Club loyalty has nothing to do with it. The best players at an AFL club don't need to be shed for a club to still fit under the cap. Look at how many deals Hayne got the moment he was no longer a NRL player. The RLPA need to flex muscle. The top players should be free to market themselves & get 3rd party deals wearing Origin or Kangaroos jerseys or tv clips if need be and that won't be counted in the NRL club's cap.
AdelaideWill
Guest
The trouble is the media will spend every their time speculating on who "might" be joining a new club and the fans get to spend the season wondering if their star player is really leaving or is it just a media beat up? (Hello Craig Wing) A trade window just means that players and clubs announce who is coming and going in that period but in reality the deals are done long before hand with hand shake deals in car dealership boardrooms and ex players pubs.
The Barry
Roar Guru
That's my concern as well Jeremy. Plus, if DCE and Foran couldn't officially sign until October, we'd have another 7 months of gossip, rumour and innuendo. I don't see how that's any more settling for Manly than just getting it done and dusted and getting on with the job.
up in the north
Guest
Can't argue with any of what you said Andrew. No matter how much they try to drezs it up by claiming how professional the game is, these contract sagas are disruptive to teams. That's a problem. Fix it.
Andrew Kitchener
Roar Guru
True, but we are at least going to cut back on the NRL club meat market. Can't control external factors, but the NRL can certainly control it's own franchises.
Jeremy
Guest
How simplistic is the NRL group think. You think that the other codes and super league clubs are going to observe this silly trade window? While the NRL clubs won't be allowed to negotiate with NRL players French rugby clubs, waratahs, AFL and the rest of them will have no NRL clubs or even the NRL putting up offers against them. Other codes want NRL players too peeps.
ken oldman
Guest
Alas ...a big powerful club may it well have been in the days of Ribot ,Morgan and Wally but not anymore The Broncs. didnt bother to plan life after Locky..........bought the troubled Barba for squillions when supporters were against it......refused to buy some big mobile forwards ala The Brick,when supporters were vocal on this issue.....sacked Gagai for off field issues and now want him back next year under the guidance of Bennett.....sacked Hook who brought on the baby Broncs since juniors for a yesterdays hero coach..etc etc etc. If as you say they get a million advantages it doesn,t do them any good whatsoever.
Baldie
Guest
Well said, no idea why we are not. BUt the reason they dont do it is because the big powerful clubs like Brisbane benefit by not having one. Just another one of the million advantages the broncos get.