Brisbane Broncos tyro axe-man Tevita Pangai Junior was curiously forthcoming for an NRL player when he said of Jaydn Su’A, heading off to play for Souths mid-season, that he and his teammates didn’t give a stuff.
I’ve paraphrased that poorly, for effect.
Pangai Jr did give a stuff. He wasn’t saying he didn’t care if his mate left the club or not.
He is not some sort of monster.
Junior was saying that a player leaving mid-year and another one coming in, it’s just a fact of life in a pro sporto’s life.
“We just do what we get told and work with the players that come in,” said Pangai. “[Player movement] is out of our control. Our job is to do what we do and that’s play footy.”
He also said: “We don’t have a LeBron James here controlling the market and controlling the player movements.”
Which I didn’t get.
Adding: “We get paid pretty well to put our best foot forward. That’s Paul White and Peter Nolan and [Anthony] Seibold’s job, not ours.”
Which I did get.
For it spoke a truth of professional sports that for the players, the club is employer. Their teammates are colleagues.
And whomever they run out with they’ll do their best with.
Footballers see themselves, in part, as employees on contracts. They can be like actors, constantly auditioning for a role. Going gig to gig.
And with the NRL’s June 30 transfer deadline, this time of year’s a hive of activity as agents and clubs man-trade their people.
“Waddya need? Big bloke on the edge? Got just the man. Good family. Couple years, couple hungee? Sold.”
And the players, as Taylor Swift would tell you, just play, play, play.
Professional league players perform in a glorious show each week. And they do it with colleagues who become mates. And teammates.
The feeling within a footy club is like family. These people spend more time with each other than actual families.
Close to, anyway. And thus they become so tight. And they play for each other, for sure. You have my back, I have yours. It engenders love.
But for the club? The colours? For the little emblem on the chest?
Johnny Sutton, for sure.
Jimmy Roberts? Dane Gagai? Even Sammy Burgess? Not so much.
Not to say these worthies wouldn’t love Souths and all it represents. But do they really feel that it’s ‘their’ club?
They can’t.
Wayne Bennett was all smiles after facing his old club. (AAP Image/Dean Lewins)
They can’t love it like fans love it. They’re employees. Do you love the company employs you?
Would you feel any loyalty to that employer if another one offered more money?
Fans, meanwhile, pay to be fans. They support the footy club by supporting it.
The fans are the footy club.
The players are employees on contracts of various lengths.
The longer a man’s around, the more the fans love him.
But ultimately he’s there for himself.
Bit cynical, for sure. And there’s plenty of players you’d call clubmen: Sutton, Josh Jackson, Cam Smith, Chris Lawrence.
But most NRL players’ careers don’t run two years. It’s a competitive market. And clubs are always looking to transition, regenerate, to assemble the best squad for a decent crack a title in a certain window.
And players know it. They know the clubs will punt them if they’re deemed superfluous. They’re not bitter about it – again, fact of life for the pro sporto.
But it doesn’t engender love for the club, the colours, all that.
Israel Folau doesn’t play for the colours, be they gold or sky blue or whatever the Giants get about in.
Old Izzy plays for Israel Folau. And Israel Folau Inc. And God. And God knows what else.
And we will not speak of him again.
Israel Folau in action for the Broncos and loving it. (AAP Image/Action Photographics, Colin Whelan)
Shane Warne’s manager James Erskine once told me: you can’t be successful unless you’re selfish.
Erskine had been Greg Norman’s manager, Nick Faldo’s, a bunch of other singular figures with singular focus on themselves.
Harry Kewell was a cynic and professional from his teenage years. He knew he was a commodity, he knew his worth. He wasn’t playing for Leeds or Liverpool, for the cities, the fans therein. He was playing for Kewell Inc. He was a pro.
The clubs – meaning the suits who control these billion dollar corporations that are EPL clubs – would punt him if they didn’t want him. Kewell knew it. He played in Turkey for Galatasaray, outside training or games, he barely left his room.
American pro sportos are traded all the time. They’re like very expensive human meat.
The NRL is not as bad as that. But its a microcosm of it.
Robbie Farah was considered a great clubman. But when the suits wanted to punt him he wasn’t prepared to go. So he played reserve grade on however much a year.
Then he went to Souths with a big chunk of his salary paid by Wests Tigers.
Was that good for Wests Tigers or bad?
Now he’s back and Wests Tigers have a couple of young fellows they’re grooming for Farah’s hooker spot and our man hasn’t definitively said this is it.
Robbie Farah of the Tigers. (Photo by Mark Nolan/Getty Images)
And in all that, as cracking a fellow as Robbie is, he’s in it for Robbie Inc not Wests Tigers.
And that, among his peers, is understood.
And maybe that’s just pro footy.
Amateur sports, like fandom, you’re there because you want to be.
I just attended my old rugby club’s 70th anniversary. They got 500 people, very few of whom had played for anyone else.
Even fewer – like about three blokes – had played against the club. And when they came back they had to skull a beer on the bar in the nude and apologise.
And it was a coming together of like minds. And a cracking couple of days.
Not sure pro league can engender the same thing. Not right or wrong – just how things roll.
The allegiance for our rugby club came through tribalism. You played for your region with your people, against the region from over hill.
Pro leaguies – and AFL, football, rugby players – go where the next pay cheque’s coming from.
Players play. And do their best to play the next week. And repeat.
And whoever’s playing alongside them, as Tevita would tell you, they’ll do their best with.
And just play, play, play.
Matt Cleary
Expert
So ... he’s Tevita Jnr? Or Tevita Pantai Junior? Sorry - i don’t get it. Is his dad Tevita Pangai Senior?
outlook
Guest
The phsycological bond supporters have with professional clubs are the team colours, not the players. Sure there is a strong emotional link with some players , but the common denominator is the team colours.
Dexter The Hamster
Roar Rookie
Sorry Matt, I don't mean to be pedantic, but as an expert I expect better from you. I cringe when people continue to call him Pangai Junior. The "junior" belongs to his first name only. Its not that hard, and the average punter may not know this, but as a professional, when your profession is basically words and grammar, the pedants like me needs you to help, not hinder.
Aiden
Guest
Love that from TPJ. People that bleat on about club loyalty forget that (a) clubs will chuck players on the scrap heap when they feel they don’t fit with their plans and (b) they don’t act that way in their own lives. If you work for Coles and Woolworths offers you double to do the same job, 99.% of us will go to Woolies. Somehow fans expect more from 21 year old athletes than that do themselves. What I don’t like is a player who leaves their team in the lurch mid season, or who reneges on a promise after a team has helped them though a rough time. Sometimes it’s reciprocity is just the right thing to do.
Gray-Hand
Roar Rookie
The most lucrative contract AB ever got paid as captain of Australia was $90,000. That was in the 90’s. This was the guy who saved Australian cricket.
Hoy
Roar Guru
It's a danger for younger players... up and coming, 1, maybe 2 good years, and managers and everyone talking in their ear.... they shift clubs for sizeable coin, and NEVER live up to their potential. You see it often.
Forty Twenty
Roar Rookie
Chasing the dollar can be a paradox as well. How many promising or established players left their club and went to the Titans or Eels for example over the years and not only sent their career into a spiral but became less valuable? Taking less to go to a strong or even better a club about to surge isn't such a bad move in many cases. Manly, Knights and Raiders come to mind at the moment.
Nat
Roar Guru
A side note. I've been to AB's house a few times here in Brisbane. While very nice and comfortable you would expect more for holding the biggest job in Aust. Smith would have 3x the size and that doesn't seem right.
Paul
Roar Guru
No doubt Warney's done way better post cricket, at least in making more money. I'm sure Waugh is still quite happy & comfortable with his lot.
Gus O
Roar Rookie
It’s the tension between trying to be a club that relies on a community and a “professional” business franchise at the same time. Teams have to have one foot in each because junior sport is overwhelmingly community and volunteer based whereas the NRL is highly paid employees who can be let go when it suits the employer. And the employer is ever increasingly dominated by white collar corporate governance suits. You refer to a few remaining “club men” as exceptions to the modern trend, but Smith is reportedly paid over $1m per season so no other club can pay him or give him more. Compared to the ever so long list of players who didn’t want to leave their club but were pushed for roster management or club salary cap excesses or just because management decided they had a better option. All the players see this happening. The value of a one-club man is a historic club land value that is no longer within the control of 99% or footballers, unless they want to give up playing for money and play amateur footy.
Adam
Roar Guru
I reckon there are more players who regret moving clubs than the other way around. I think people naturally want to stay at their current workplace if they are enjoying it, even if it is for slightly less money. I think what so many players don't realise is that they can have a successful career after footy, but they need to plan ahead.
Nat
Roar Guru
Yeah, I'm sure Waugh made more from his CA contract, which really wasn't too much by today's standards. Warney, I would suspect made more in total from endorsements but then Twenty/20 would've blown that out considerably.
Paul
Roar Guru
Waugh would have made considerably more than Warne being captain of Australia. I'm very sure Mr Waugh has plenty for his family and the foundation he runs. Sometimes it's not about the amount you make, but how it's made.
Paul
Roar Guru
Matt, the minute players became fully professional, they effectively became the property of an NRL Club. There's obviously a correlation between length of time in one place and loyalty to that Club, but only a fool would think, at any stage in their career, they can't or won't be traded.
Nat
Roar Guru
He probably wanted Warney's manager by the end. Steve was a very good player and Australian captain for a long time. Who do you think earned more money?
Paul
Roar Guru
"Shane Warne’s manager James Erskine once told me: you can’t be successful unless you’re selfish." I wonder what Steve Waugh's manager would have to say about that? Does he have or need a manager?
Edward Kelly
Roar Guru
The piece you are missing are the Player Managers. They do what is best for their pocket first and foremost. Player managers create much of the instability in player movements.
Nat
Roar Guru
Love for a club is long gone Matt. It was replaced with sentiment many years ago. A club that gives a player their first NRL start will hold a soft spot in their hearts. Guys like Lodge and Jet will always be grateful to the Broncos for allowing & keeping them in game. A good coach can form a strong bond with a player, especially when they are young. While things are rosey, these players are sentimental toward the club but it's not love. But I don't care. We fans are very much like the suits in the club boardroom. If a player is not up to standard we all look for someone else. When the Broncos signed Bird, a NSW rep and premiership winner (for the Sharks so... :)) I was happy to see the back of a long-term Bronco to have a quality player fill that role - and he will - eventually. Ok, now for a more successful example. What 'Love does Cronk hold for the Roosters? He was a gun for hire, the best in the business and it was beautiful to watch.
Forty Twenty
Roar Rookie
For players like the Turbo brothers and Beaver Menzies who invest their earnings wisely they will have more than enough money to do what ever they want in life after footy then staying with your local club would be very rewarding in many other ways. I wonder how many players regret chasing the dollar after the dust on their career has settled? Maybe some of them regret not chasing the dollar.