While I don’t like players swapping teams mid season, it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere – rumour has it up to ten NRL players are being shopped around.
To make it worse, it all seems to be at different times, but some time ‘before June 30’.
So James Roberts and Kodi Nikorima left Brisbane weeks ago. Dallin Watene-Zelezniak is off to Canterbury, Tim Mannah is reportedly on his way to Wests Tigers, and that club want to ship three or four players over the next week or so.
Kodi Nikorima is now at the New Zealand Warriors (Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
And apparently that is the tip of the iceberg.
Split rounds also seem to annoy plenty, but are also here to stay – and probably only fair and reasonable given the burden on players featuring in Wednesday Origin games.
But what about the Sunday night rep match? There’s no club footy at all for punters to yell at their telly about.
Rather than having no club activities leading up to this week, it’s a perfect opportunity to have trade week.
It can open 9am on Monday and close at midnight Friday, leaving the rest of the weekend open for the buildup. And it will keep the interest in clubland ticking over as people wonder who will stay and who will go.
More importantly, if we are going to have mid-year player transfers, it should be confined to a short, sharp period. Get it done and dusted, and maybe even add some entertainment value.
Imagine a Monday night TV show breaking down Day 1 of the trade period. They could even give Paul Vautin and co. a once-a-year Thursday night Footy Show revival to discuss the week to date (done, of course, while dressing up in women’s clothing and eating chillies until they vomit).
The weekend shows could discuss who the big winners and losers were, before getting on to the business of discussing why the Blues should absolutely stick/rearrange/throw out their halves combination. Again.
In sport and in life it is always important to turn a negative into a positive. I’m not sure I will ever admit players moving teams mid-year is a positive, but maybe the above could be an example of changing a negative into a bearable?
Insider
Roar Rookie
Deflection, your just like Mr Burns arnt you Reginald, yippee yai yai yippie yippie yai
Papi Smurf
Roar Rookie
The analogy was useful and apt. So are these two URLs. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drachmi_Greek_Democratic_Movement_Five_Stars It's making a comeback! Here, use this instead of your abacus Pythagoras. https://www.easycalculation.com/currency-converter/currency-AUD-GRD.html
Insider
Roar Rookie
Wow now we are talking “European economics” The Drac disappeared jan 1, 2001 ! Oh was the “pride of the league in the comp?” Baaaaa You have to go back 18 years! 18 years oh yes choo Choo you nailed me , outa my way choo Choo , I’m coming through Yippee yai yai yippie yippie yai
Papi Smurf
Roar Rookie
You're "on the money" once again Insider/AE47. Unfortunately, that money is as worthless as the Greek drachma, currently paying 209.30 GRD to $1 AUD. Keep setting em' up and I'll keep knocking em' down. LOL Bunnies blast report Origin star wants out of Redfern Wayne Bennett and Dane Gagai held a one-on-one meeting at Redfern on Wednesday morning with the Queensland Origin star reaffirming his commitment to South Sydney. There is no question the Maroons flyer sees himself more as a centre than a winger, but Gagai has denied he wants out of the Rabbitohs. After clearing the air with Bennett, Gagai then trained with the Rabbitohs on the right wing in a new right-edge partnership with James Roberts. https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nrl-premiership/teams/rabbitohs/bunnies-blast-report-origin-star-wants-out-of-redfern/news-story/7e1e5e707190f43d8b25a6718ff3a700
mushi
Roar Guru
Given trades need player consent a 2 week window is way too tight
Insider
Roar Rookie
You summed it up when you correctly stated “poor sides”
Paul
Roar Guru
I like the concept, but there needs to be scope for unusual trades, eg a player breaks their contract by doing something wrong and is delisted. If a player has already nominated for the trade window, they should be able to negotiate with the Club who lost the player and sign a contract early, if that benefits both Clubs and the player.
5t3v3
Roar Rookie
It wouldn't have to be an 'open slather' window. It looks like there'll be 10 - 15 players moved on mid season. Thats probably historically high. i'd just prefer to see it happen in one go, rather than dribs and drabs over about 6 weeks.
BA Sports
Roar Guru
He had a decent 2015 but he was average for the Knights after that. 5 tries in his last 45 games from 2016-2017. Yep they were a poor team, but in that same time period Brendan Elliot scored twice as many tries in half as many games. SKD scored 4 tries in his 6 games. Joe Wardle even scored 4 tries in 17 games.
Insider
Roar Rookie
Same could be said and more about Jimmy, Gagai does just fine for his club, maybe Souths should look at the fact they don’t use him that well. Gagai was Newcastle’s best when he was playing for them,
BA Sports
Roar Guru
Gagai - A grade performer at Origin on the wing, C- performer as a centre at club level but playing on A grade money.... He will be playing centres for Parra before you know it.
BA Sports
Roar Guru
The problem with that is, this isn't the EPL, NBA, MLB or NFL with all the money in the world and where clubs can afford to say, we are throwing away the rest of the season to bring up some young guys and get them some experience. Our clubs don't have the big enough base of supporters who will keep tuning in and keep turning up to games when a club has signalled it has no intention of playing to win. We also can only swap players when they want to leave, not like the aformentioned leagues where almost all players can be transferred. Do we really want a sport where players start agitating to leave because they can't get a game in first grade? Can you imagine the field day the Daily Telegraph/Courier Mail would have?! A little bit of swapping here and there is fine, but an open slather window would be too much instability for my liking.
Insider
Roar Rookie
You need to add Gagai to that list, waynos decision to give another life line to a habitual “nice guy” has meant a genuinely good bloke has had to make room so as “nice guy” can fit waynos agenda