The NRL signings system is already a circus so why don’t we add to the theatre?
Instead of the current flawed system where players can pretty much come and go when they please or sign deals down the track for most months of the year, make it two transfer windows – one during the season and another at the end.
Make the mid-season one at Magic Round and at the end of the year, we should have an Indian Premier League style auction where all the clubs take their cheque books in and bid for players with whatever money they have in their salary cap.
Player salaries are virtually publicised at the moment anyway with the level of scrutiny of deals in the media nowadays so why not get it all out in the open?
Make the auction an event like the AFL draft, the highest bidder wins and that’s where the player is off to.
The NRL’s broadcast partners, Fox Sports and Nine, are always looking for content – imagine how good it would be if we had an auction where all the teams can bid on whichever players are available.
Fans would love it, whenever there’s a trade window it would create so much excitement. It works in other sports, why couldn’t it work in the NRL? They want to see transparency.
Wayne Bennett will be the first coach of the new Dolphins franchise. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
If it was in place this year for example, the 16 existing teams would have limited funds to spend but the Dolphins could come in with millions more dollars up their sleeve to splash around on their foundation roster.
Magic Round would be the perfect time to have a transfer window during the season.
All the players are talking to each other anyway about who’s going where, how much they’re all getting so make it a free-for-all in Brisbane.
Everyone packs their bags and heads to Suncorp Stadium but not all players go back to the club where they started out the season.
It has to be a mutual agreement – the club is OK for the player to go and they have a deal waiting at another team.
There’s too much pressure applied from rival teams to induce players to break contracts early.
Penrith were well within their rights early last season when they said they wouldn’t be letting Matt Burton go to Canterbury a year before his next contract was starting and lo and behold, he ends up having a great year for them out of his usual position in the centres and leaves with a premiership ring.
Harry Grant (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
I’d like to see more loan deals done like we saw with Harry Grant and Paul Momirovski swapping between Melbourne and the Wests Tigers a couple of years ago. If it’s in everyone’s best interests, the teams and the players involved, why not?
The argument that players can’t just drop everything move clubs at the drop of the hat is overblown. There are people flying in and out for work all over the place in everyday life, so I think that argument is null and void.
There’s been a lot of talk lately about Kalyn Ponga meeting the Dolphins and whether they should be allowed to discuss switching teams in the middle of the season.
The players and managers are always going to push the envelope with the NRL’s system and I think fans are fed up.
Some people are saying Ponga’s not worth a million-plus or whatever number has been bandied about but he’s worth whatever a club thinks he’s worth.
Under the current rules, Wayne Bennett and the Dolphins are entitled to have that conversation. What annoys me is when players who are contracted for a few years are sounded out, usually in the media, by another club.
If it’s an agreed contract, the mechanism is you can’t contact a player until 12 months before the end of the deal. The NRL needs to be stronger on the rules of engagement. The NRL is not applying the rules about tampering.
Magic Round at Suncorp Stadium. (Photo by Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images)
The constant shopping around of players by their managers is an issue that needs to be addressed once and for all and that’s why I reckon a trade window mid-season and an auction at the end of the year is the way to go.
With Redcliffe coming into the competition next year, I reckon for the marquee players in the NRL it’s led to about a 15-20% jump in their asking price because they can say there’s a new team out there looking for talent. Pretty much all of them have stayed put, we saw that with Harry Grant and Jahrome Hughes at Melbourne last week extending their deals.
If you pay players twice what they’re on, it doesn’t mean you will get twice the value. I remember when I was coaching the Knights around 20 years ago and we had based our success around being a development club. We had a young forward with potential who still hadn’t played first grade and we offered him a deal.
A Sydney club came to him and offered him 10 times that amount and I said to him, good luck, we can’t compete with that. They were only relatively small numbers but some teams build their team by investing in their juniors and others wait for players to come on the market and use their wealth to strengthen their roster.
Another player we had a few years later was on decent money at the time but he was offered double that amount because another club thought he could play a more important position and I just said the same thing to him. We’re not going to compete with that so we wish you all the best.
Clubs need to be protected to help them retain players. They should be allowed to re-sign any of their existing players year-round, they should be able to quarantine their six players on development deals from being poached and they should always have last right of refusal when negotiations are being held by a player with another team.
We’ve still got a development system at most clubs and it’s not a fair landscape at the moment when they spend so much money producing those players but they are constantly looking over their shoulders that another club will come in with a bigger chequebook to poach their best young talent.
If there were transfer windows in place, the clubs would still have the opportunity to lock away the talent they want and if they can’t get a deal done, then the players can jump ship at Magic Round or take their chances at the auction at the end of the year.
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Martin
Guest
Great article, exactly what is needed
Brett Allen
Roar Rookie
With other clubs ? Where do I start ? The NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB, every major European football league. In fact, often in those leagues if you even publicly mention you're interested in another teams player outside of the dedicated transfer / trade / free agency windows you're likely to cop a huge fine and / or the loss of draft picks. The NRL's system is so loose its beyond ridiculous.
Chaff
Roar Rookie
I don’t know how, the AFL , are able to have the system they do, I guess nobody challenged the draft as a restraint of trade like Terry Hill did? That aside an end of year where fans get to watch Rookies go through their paces, fitness tests , how fast they run, how high they jump and then ultimately where they end up would be great theatre. Fans should also have a transfer window, if you’re side is travelling like “ Busteds” you can flick em, mid season?
Cadfael
Roar Guru
News story today had it that Ponga called the meeting not Bennett.
eagleJack
Roar Guru
Yeah mate it's a terrible website now. Literally every segment of NRL 360 becomes a headline the next day on Fox Sports, treated like it's some incredible breaking news story. Not just the opinion of Kent, Rothfield or Hooper. The worst is when they make headlines out of what a commentator said during the game. It's such self-absorbed nonsense.
The Barry
Roar Guru
When does the two months start and end? Players that go through to the grand final have less than a month from grand final day on first Sunday on October. Unless you’re suggesting that players negotiating deals in the middle of the semi finals series is desirable Players start pre season training in early November so there’s not two months from 1 November there either
Sean
Guest
Their contract expires on Nov 1. So they have nearly two months to sought out a new contract. More that enough time
The Barry
Roar Guru
Heard this in a podcast a week or two ago so can’t take credit for it… They were talking about the Fox Sports news cycle. They have their magazine shows with former players like Ennis, Parker, etc making calls like “transfer system is a disgrace” Then the Fox Sports website will run a ‘story’ saying “Ennis: transfer system a disgrace” Then the next day “Parker fires back at Ennis over transfer system comments “ All backed up with the obligatory social media posts When you go through Fox Sports news website, there’s virtually no news…
Albo
Roar Rookie
Very little, it seems ? :silly:
matth
Roar Guru
Great article. That’s a well thought out system. I would like to see it put before the players association to see if it can be agreed to, then to the clubs
Succhi
Roar Rookie
I like the idea of a draft or auction, particularly in those situations when a player or his manager wants to ‘test their value.’
Big Daddy
Roar Rookie
The only case that comes to mind is Gordon Tallis when he had to sit out a year but your right about business . Not that some clubs already don't know what's going on at other clubs .
eagleJack
Roar Guru
Yeah the media love running with these self-fulfilling prophecies, in all walks of life not just sport. For the NRL it's a case of speculating that the current system is a mess, note that a handful of people agree it's a mess, then report that everybody thinks it's a mess and it must be changed immediately. Meanwhile I, and many others, sit back thinking is it really a mess? And can't work out what all the fuss is about.
Adam
Roar Guru
Don't clubs already have the last rights to sign their own players? Perhaps not in writing but in reality it is. Unless the guy really doesn't want to be there he's going to come back to the club with what offer he has to negotiate an upgrade or what have you. I feel like this article is definitely written from the clubs perspective. All about looking after the club that has "developed" you. Which for most high profile players means they're taken from some other state and plonked elsewhere. There's some kids who are developed by clubs from the ground up, but most of those guys aren't hitting the headlines due to trade negotiations. I think the idea that clubs are unfairly losing players they've developed is overplayed. I mean Ponga is being used as an example in this article but he wasn't developed by the Knights. Sure, the Knights have probably put a lot of money into him, but they didn't discover him or nurture him into a first grade player. I'm certainly not implying that the players and their managers are without sin in this whole thing. But I tend to think that the issues are a little overplayed by the media and that in by and large most contracts seem to be negotiated behind closed doors and relatively professionally. Even some of the big name movers over the last year have moved clubs quietly and professionally. They didn't get offered what they wanted at their old club so they negotiated something better at another one - it seems perfectly reasonable. Of course you will get the Payne Haas' who allegedly is looking for more money (but we're not even sure that's not just a media story anyway) but the NRL has a few hundred guys floating around and we hear about the negotiations of one or two, but it's mostly speculation by a bored media
EagleWal
Roar Rookie
The reason that occurs in busines is that future strategies, company secrets etc would be at risk to competitors. That is simply not the case in league.
Adam
Roar Guru
Burton, Hynes et al are the perfect example of professionalism. Not sure who their managers are but they deserve a fair bit of credit too for keeping their players negotiations under wraps for the most part
EagleWal
Roar Rookie
Every person in the world should be able to secure their short term future, including NRL players. If I am a business (they are) and my ONLY contract is coming to an end, I have the right and need to ensure I have my next contract sorted ASAP. END. OF. STORY. If this was a corporation it would not even be an issue and it should not be for NRL players. I think the biggest thing that is forgotten is that one of the reasons these people are NRL players is that they are super competitive. That is what drives them to be so good. So whether their future is sorted with teh same club or a different club, they cross that white line on the weekend and do their utmost to win evry game, every tackle, every metre. For me - sign when you can, sort out your future and whatever guernsey you are in this week or year doesn't matter. You are a professional sports person with obvious talent and an ultimate desire to be the best you can be... deliver that and there is no issue regarding loyalty or 'fan' confusion. Matt Burton was and is a prime example.
Tight-Head
Roar Rookie
The Ponga issue is also down to the knights giving him a contract with 2 years worth of options in his favour, and telling him he has to activate them by June 30 the previous year. If he doesn’t have to decide he’s staying until June 30 what did they think he would spend the first half of the season doing?
Big Daddy
Roar Rookie
Couldn't have said it better myself . In some industries if you sign a future dated contract with another company they get rid of you straight away or even get you to sign a disclaimer . I don't mind contract negotiations in that final 12 months . It's CV about looking after number 1 . This is happening because the NRL let it happen .
the outsider
Roar Rookie
Tend to agree. Is it really a mess? The speculation sells papers/gets clicks. Yes RL is different but everything is a tradeable commodity. I don’t care when they sign and when they join, happens in real life and most players are in their 20s, they’ll manage. Id prefer to see more attention on contracts and players breaking them.