Draft copy: What rugby league can learn from the NFL

Rugby league has tried (and failed) with a player draft in the past. With the concept such a massive success in the NFL, is it time for the NRL to have another crack?

The Problem
It’s been painful to watch the struggles of the Newcastle Knights this year. Their squad is severely lacking in talent, experience and star power, rendering them largely uncompetitive. New coach Nathan Brown’s staunch belief in blooding local talent at the expense of experienced veterans is admirable, but his approach is less relevant in 2016 than a floppy disk.

In the current rugby league environment, money spent on junior development is money wasted. Phil Gould has been banging on about this issue for years: why bother investing precious funds and resources in developing young talent when there is no guarantee you will see any return on that investment?

Picture the following scenario. A scout identifies a promising young halfback at a junior rugby league carnival. The club labels him as potential talent, and offers him a place in their development system. Over the next few years, the young halfback rises through the ranks, starring in the club’s Harold Matthews Cup and SG Ball squads. The club is thrilled with the player’s progress, but his outstanding performances also catch the eye of other NRL teams looking to find a long-term halfback solution.

The club invests countless hours ensuring the young star receives the best coaching, has access to the finest training and medical facilities, and is given all the personal support the club can provide.

They then enter into negotiations to sign their budding star to a long-term contract, only to discover a rival club has offered him more money. The club is left with two options: they can agree to pay the player above his market rate, knowing this will have a knock-on effect with the rest of their roster, or allow him to sign with another club, and flush years’ worth of investment down the crapper.

This infuriating scenario is all too commonly faced by teams blessed (or burdened) with large junior catchments, such as the Raiders, Panthers and Knights. They pump resources into developing these local kids, only to see them snatched away by teams like the Roosters or the Broncos, who are able to offer more money in the form of third party agreements.

This is certainly not a new problem, but one the NRL has failed to address with any level of success.

My solution? The introduction of a rookie draft.

How would it work?
So how would a rookie draft actually work? The NFL has a tried and tested system that we could look to for inspiration.

The starting point would be for the NRL to create the “pool” from which rookies are selected. This would require the league to develop a registry of all junior rugby league players (if one does not already exist). If possible, this registry would include junior players from New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and other interested nations. Junior footballers wanting to play in the NRL would be eligible to enter the rookie draft the year they turn 18.

In order to decide which team chooses first from the rookie pool, the Premiership ladder from the previous season would be used, in reverse order. For example, the Newcastle Knights would have first overall selection in the 2016 draft, as they were placed last in 2015, while the North Queensland Cowboys would have the last draft pick.

The draft would run for three rounds, and each team would have ten minutes to make their selection. Teams would be allowed to trade draft selections, or to trade players for draft selections. A player who isn’t selected during the three rounds would be able to sign for the club of their choice on a base salary.

Rookies would be signed for a standard three-year contract. After the initial rookie contract expires, the player would choose either to resign with their current club or another NRL side. One of the goals of the draft process is to reward clubs for committing time and resources to developing rookies.

For this reason, clubs would receive salary cap relief to allow them to make a competitive offer to re-sign their rookies coming off contract. If an off-contract rookie signs elsewhere despite his current club making him a competitive offer, the current club would receive compensatory draft selections in the next rookie draft.

There would, of course, be plenty of other details to iron out. However, this basic structure would give all teams equal access to the top junior talent, while ensuring that a small number of teams aren’t shouldered with the financial burden of junior development.

Three hurdles to overcome
There are three major things that would need to happen before a rookie draft would be a realistic prospect in rugby league.

First, the rugby league Players Association (RLPA) would need to be on board. The RLPA must be consulted on the structure of the rookie draft process, and would need to sign up to an agreement with the NRL incorporating a rookie wage scale. This scale would ensure that rookie wages are standardised across the league.

It would provide a reasonable maximum value for players without any NRL experience, and would stop clubs from investing so heavily in player potential, rather than rewarding proven performance.

Secondly, the NRL would need to address the disparity between clubs’ financial investments in junior development. This could be done by providing each club with a fixed yearly financial grant that can only be spent on local, grassroots football. An approach like this would encourage all clubs to spend a minimum dollar amount on junior rugby league, instead of relying on others to do the job for them.

The league could also reward the clubs that invest in successful development programs and pathways, by providing compensatory draft selections or increased funding for those clubs that frequently produce high draft selections.

The third issue, and probably the most difficult, would be to ensure that the rookie draft system is legal. Rugby league has unsuccessfully experimented with a draft system in the past.

In 1991, the NSWRL introduced an internal and external player draft. The internal aspect of the draft system was the real stumbling block. It required all players coming off contract to enter a draft pool, making them eligible for selection by whichever side was ‘on the clock’. While the idea sounded great in theory, there was one major flaw: the players weren’t having a bar of it.

A faction of influential players and coaches were against the concept, and Terry Hill and 153 others banded together to mount a legal challenge. The courts sided with the players, finding that it was a restraint of trade for the NSWRL to force Hill to play for the Roosters (the team that drafted him) when Hill wanted to play for Western Suburbs (the team he had agreed to play for). With this precedent in place, the internal draft went the way of the Hunter Mariners, and the external draft was abandoned along with it.

But as others have argued, the fact that one type of player draft system was found to be a restraint of trade 25 years ago doesn’t necessarily mean that a rookie draft would be today.

In cases like these, the courts weigh up the interests of the two parties to the contract along with the interests of the public to decide whether or not the restraint is reasonable and justified.

In modern Australian rugby league, an external rookie draft ticks all of these boxes. It’s not only in the best interests of the fans (rugby league’s public), but also in the best interests of the players, clubs and the league in general.

Benefits of a rookie draft
A rookie draft system would clearly benefit the league. It would not only spread new player talent equitably, but would also be a marketable product, much like State of Origin. Using the NFL draft as a template, the NRL would have two key “products” to market in the draft process.

The first would be a televised “rookie combine”, which is essentially a two-day skills carnival that brings together the top eligible rookies to compete in tests of speed, strength, and skills.

The second is the draft itself. Televised in prime time, the draft allows fans to watch the fortunes of their club unfold in real time. Judging by the chaos of the 2016 NFL draft, this sort of car crash soap opera is tailor-made for the unpredictable madness of rugby league, and its fans’ insatiable hunger for drama.

For clubs, being able to select from premium young talent in positions of need at a fixed, affordable price on a yearly basis would be a godsend. This is best illustrated by referring back to the Newcastle example.

Nathan Brown will spend the first 2-3 years of his tenure blooding young players, such as halves Jack Cogger and Brock Lamb. Both Cogger and Lamb are exceptional talents, and have a good chance of becoming quality first graders.

But what if Brown had the option of picking Ashley Taylor, or Nathan Cleary? What if he had the opportunity to select the best young halfback in the country, not simply the best player in his junior catchment? A Newcastle Knights side with Ash Taylor starting in the halves might have looked very different this season.

For the fans, it gives them hope. Currently, once a team is eliminated from finals contention, there is nothing to play for but pride, leaving many fans disengaged. With the introduction of a rookie draft, even when their team is languishing at the bottom of the ladder, they can look forward to their club signing one of the top junior footballers in the country for next season.

And finally for the players, it gives them the opportunity to be welcomed by a club in desperate need of their services, and the chance to get out there and play. All too often we see talented youngsters trapped in a team that cannot squeeze them into their starting line-up.

Instead, the team views them as a valuable insurance policy, and keeps them around in case their star gets injured or arrested. Ash Taylor is a perfect example of this. Unable to supplant Ben Hunt in the Broncos’ starting 13, Taylor was granted an opportunity to start for the Gold Coast Titans.

The plucky young halfback seized the opportunity with both hands, guiding the Titans to within striking distance of the top 8, and outplaying Ben Hunt along the way.

A rookie draft would be a major shakeup in rugby league. Traditionalists will bring up the same arguments about rugby league being a family sport, where players should be able to choose where they ply their trade, and local kids should grow up supporting and playing for their hometown team.

But sport in Australia has moved into an era of professionalism where these arguments no longer hold the weight they once did. As to the first, travel and relocation are accepted parts of life for a professional athlete, and the overall benefits for the players and teams largely outweigh these disadvantages.

As to the second, the simple fact is that the current system doesn’t support teams to keep local talent close to home. At least a rookie draft system would properly incentivise developing juniors, and provide a sustainable path for rugby league in years to come.