Draw, draft or draught beer? My NRL off-season ponderings

With the 2022 season done and dusted and Penrith yet again hoisting the trophy, most fans’ minds turn off from rugby league for a few months and begin to remember that there are other things to do on the weekend – and other reasons to sink a draught beer.

Not everyone though.

The usual suspects are pondering old and new ideas for off-season competitions, new competition structures and equalisation so that perhaps their team could one-day hope to lose to Penrith in a grand final.

Plenty are revisiting the discussion about a player draft; and while a great idea and I wish it could be worked out it seems unlikely given the power of the Players Association.

While they work out the details, how about we visit another idea which may scratch the itch of the player draft, but not upset the players.

It centres around giving the clubs more choice in the selection of their draw rather than just the NRL and broadcasters. The idea is a draft for selection of the draw, rather than players.

The NRL draw has always seemed unbalanced. It is almost impossible to create a fair draw without each team playing every other team the same number of times.

Even then, playing a team early in the season rather than in the middle around Origin, or later leading up to the finals can be very different.

When you add in the needs of the broadcasters, stadium upgrades and some clubs being more influential than others the task becomes even more difficult.

As there aren’t enough games in the season for each of the 16 teams, now 17 and maybe 18 soon, to play each-other twice, decisions must be made about which teams play each-other twice in the season.

There are clear attempts made to provide teams finishing lower on the ladder more games against teams at the bottom and less against the better teams, however, this involves an assessment of the rank of teams in the competition.

This is where the real complication comes in. How suitable is the previous year’s rank to how a team will perform the year later? What happens when teams improve out of sight like the Cowboys and Broncos did this year?

How much are player movements considered? This can result in some teams at bottom getting tougher draws as other teams around them improve, all of which is out of the hands of the clubs.

What if the NRL gave some of that power back to the clubs to decide? Would clubs get involved in a draft? What would that look like and is the effect of the draw considerable enough for clubs to get actively involved?

So, each team plays 24 games in the year and when the 17th team enters, they will each play eight other teams twice. A draft could be used for the clubs themselves to choose which other eight teams they play twice.

The draft would work much like any other draft, where the teams finishing last will get first pick of an opponent they get to play twice while the premiers will get last pick of each round. There will be eight rounds to choose each opponent.

The benefit of this draft is that each club gets to make their own assessment of how their and each of the other teams will fair the next year. While some clubs seem more knowledgeable than others, presumably the best judges of players, teams and other coaches would be the NRL clubs themselves.

(Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

It should also remove any whingeing from clubs about how unfair the draw is, when they get to choose it themselves.

Generally, the team considered the worst team will likely get chosen in the first eight picks, meaning the top eight teams will likely only play them once.

Where there are multiple poorer teams as we have had, the top teams will only get 1 chance at choosing those teams.

Perhaps the bottom two or four teams could have two first or second round selections to ensure they get a beneficial draw.

Now, the broadcasters probably aren’t going to particularly like this idea and they are more powerful than the players association as they fund the game and they would prefer games which have larger viewing potential.

So, the NRL and broadcasters can offer financial incentives to the clubs for certain games. Games like the ‘Battle of the West’ between Penrith and Parramatta, the ‘Battle of Brookvale’ between Manly and Melbourne, local rivalries like that between the Roosters and Souths, Dragons and Sharks, Brisbane and the Dolphins or any other games which generally are more preferred.

Other games like the grand final rematch and Anzac day games may be locked in and those teams lose a selection (on they basis they are already financially beneficial games).

The financial incentives could be in the form of direct payments to the club or even salary cap exemptions. Let’s not also forget that some games would also naturally generate more revenue for a club than others and so a financially savvy club may prioritise those fixtures.

(Photo by Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images)

If financial incentives and salary cap exemptions are included, it could give enough capital to entice clubs to trade selections.

If the NRL wanted to get real fancy, selections could be made for number of home games, or even timing of games within the season. Perhaps game timings could be traded to reduce short turnarounds or increase Friday night fixtures.

For instance, a lower placed club with some room in the cap could offer a club at the top of the ladder some of their salary cap for their draft selection.

A top club may not be too worried about who they play each week, but they will certainly be pushing the salary cap and looking to balance it.

For the bottom club a better chance at another two points could be the difference between playing finals. Perhaps a club is struggling financially, and they need to ensure they get some top billing games with big crowds and bank some incentives from the NRL.

Where a club trades away enough selections that they run out, the NRL and broadcasters can choose remaining opponents.

The draft and potential trading can also provide revenue with greater broadcast opportunities and general interest into the game.

At the very least it could give a taste or steppingstone into a player draft. Perhaps in future it could be combined and draw selections could be included in player and pick swaps?

What do we think, is a Draw Draft a good idea? Would it work, would it mean enough to the clubs to get involved? Would the Broadcasters or the NRL allow this?