Players have every right to be up in arms over the NRL’s insistence on the introduction of a transfer window but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t happen.
The players have revelled in what has been tantamount to an open door policy for them in which they have been able to switch clubs pretty much whenever they have liked.
Apart from the couple of months left in the season after the August 1 transfer deadline, any date on the calendar has been one in which players can up and leave at the drop of a hat as long as they’ve got a plausible excuse for getting an early release.
Clubs will dish out platitudes like “we don’t want to stand in the way of a player who’s been offered a better deal elsewhere”. The players who are truly valued at their team and not considered expendable are the ones who have release requests knocked back.
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Chief executives are equally as untrustworthy as the players when it comes to sticking to an agreed contract – they scream blue murder when a player tries to wangle their way out of a deal but the bosses are notorious for shopping their squad members to other clubs, usually without the player’s knowledge, when they think they are eating up too much of their precious salary cap.
(Photo by James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images)
Players such as Kangaroos hooker Harry Grant are nobly fighting the good fight for the lower-paid players on minimum contracts or development deals, arguing they should not be in a situation where they have to wait until an October transfer window every year to know where they will be playing the next 12 months.
It’s not ideal for an off-contract player to not know where they will be employed the following season until a month before pre-season training but the NRL knows it has much less competition these days for its elite talent.
The Super League is struggling to keep the best English talent from heading Down Under where the grass is financially greener and Rugby Australia is not the threat it once was.
With a men’s World Cup to be held on home soil in 2027, RA is firing off warning shots about a proverbial “war chest” of funds to poach NRL talent but it needs to first of all appease its own rank and file members that such investments would be worthwhile when the code is crying out for extra funding from the grassroots up to the elite level.
NRL players shoot themselves in the foot when they play the forced relocation card as a way of keeping the status quo in place.
Every year there are many players who aren’t happy at their club whose agents negotiate a better offer at a rival team or in the Super League, negotiate an immediate release and sometimes travel to the other side of the globe in the space of a few days to be running out in different colours just a few days later.
If that can be done in less than a week then surely an NRL player can wait until an October transfer window to finalise their next contract if they are switching clubs.
And that scenario should only apply to players on the move. Whichever model the NRL adopts as part of the painfully long collective barganing agreement negotiations – whether it’s one transfer window at the end of the season or having two with one halfway through the year – players re-signing at their existing clubs should be allowed to do so at any point in time.
In the age of players criss-crossing between teams more than ever before, one of the main points of a transfer window set-up is to encourage roster stability, particularly for the clubs that have developed their own talent.
There is little incentive at the moment for teams to build their junior base so head office needs to implement a system which benefits clubs that blood a player into first grade – whether they’re a local who has come through the ranks or someone they’ve recruited from another area to develop into an NRL player.
Under the CBA deal which expired at the end of last season, a maximum of $200,000 per club can be offset on the salary cap for long-serving players. The RLPA is demaning that rises to $500,000 as part of the current CBA discussions.
The NRL should introduce a system where the salary for any player who made their NRL debut at the club should get a 5% discount for every year of continuous service at that team.
For example, a player like Nathan Cleary has seven seasons in the NRL at the Panthers so 35% of his salary next season wouldn’t count on the cap.
Nathan Cleary. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
In the extreme example of someone like Cameron Smith spending 19 straight years at Melbourne, if he had decided to play on in 2021 under that system, 95% of his cap figure would not count for the Storm.
CEOs would be less reluctant to punt a club stalwart to take a risk on a younger recruit from another team and players would be less inclined to think the grass is greener elsewhere if they know they’ll be of more value to their club if they stick around long term.
It was refreshing to see Cameron Munster recently turn his back on a lucrative offer from the Dolphins to stick solid with the Storm.
He is entering his 10th season at NRL level with Melbourne so he’d be entitled to half freight under that system.
This set-up would of course disadvantage new teams like the Dolphins and whoever becomes the NRL’s 18th franchise in a few years time.
But the NRL could easily manufacture concessions for a start-up side like a higher salary cap or a designated marquee player whose salary is not included to give the expansion clubs a helping hand.
The Dolphins should have been given some sort of leg-up anyway like expansion teams get in other professional sports – as it stands, Wayne Bennett will need to produce the best coaching performance of his career just to ensure Redcliffe avoid finishing among the also-rans.
Gold Coast have been in the NRL for 15 years without any sustained success – it’s vitally important for the NRL to help expansion teams be successful from the get-go otherwise they will be just another franchise that will have little drawing power at the turnstiles or when it comes to TV ratings.
And even with generous concessions, new clubs can still struggle to be more than just making up the numbers in Australian sporting leagues as the AFL has found (but will never admit) with the GWS Giants and Gold Coast Suns.
Chris
Guest
There’s already a massive advantage for clubs who have wealthy independent backers . As they receive extra cash above the cap to spend on a part of their first grade players contracts & a lot more cash to spend on their NSW Cup & other lower grade squads. Yet there’s no allowance in the cap for clubs who bring through their own juniors, to a first grade level. Their should be an allowance of up to 50% of a players contract value, for bringing through your own juniors. At least that would encourage clubs to bring through their own local players & allow them to keep a few of the better ones. How the cap works now is still unfair & keeps those clubs with wealthy backers at the top.
Brett Allen
Roar Rookie
That made no sense
Brett Allen
Roar Rookie
I’m assuming this is sarcasm
Brett Allen
Roar Rookie
I doubt the Q Cup is particularly important to most Queenslanders, and I say that as someone who’s lived in Qld my whole life. And no, I’m not a fan of the commission, I think it’s a wasted body, as anybody who reads my posts here would know. But the state organisations are a relic from the old days and it’s time they were wound up, they actually contribute nothing of value to the game, they are just another layer of unnecessary administration. The states don’t produce the players, the clubs do, usually in spite of the state bodies. I’m happy for them to exist as subordinate agencies of the NRL, just not as independent organisations that rely on commission handouts anyway.
3 R M
Roar Rookie
It's irrelevant to you not to Queenslanders. And it seems by your comments on this thread that you are one of the minuscule few who rate the ARLC, and on top of that you support their corporate grab for content. So to suggest that we do away with the bodies that actually provide the players for the competition or even their rite to exist seems to me like you have an agenda.
Big Daddy
Roar Rookie
Mushi, maybe they could better invest their money or put it to better use than buying hotel/ pub in Qld . I'm sure it's a very good earner but isn't their mainstream business promoting sort and not buying accommodation/ gambling hotels . It may not have pokies it just might be accommodation. I'd 'much rather it went back into the game . I notice the big spray from Gus was directed to Vlandys and Abdo who were at the National Leagues club conference.
Big Daddy
Roar Rookie
Mushi, like Vlandys uncle Nick also keeps his cards very close to his chest as of this week The Roosters have given North's the flick as their feeder club and will field their own side in NSW / Intrust/ KOE cup , it changes every year so maybe they're preparing for a new second tier comp, who knows what's going on . Some clubs are in the know , some aren't.
Redcap
Roar Guru
"There is little incentive at the moment for teams to build their junior base" Yes, there is. Junior development, supplemented by targeted recruitment, is the most efficient way of building a contender. US sports teams have known this for decades - Australia's still catching-up it seems. Where's the revenue going to come from to pay the outside the cap salaries? How will it not end up entrenching inequality and subverting the objectives of the salary cap? And there's no need for a transfer window. What's the problem we're trying to fix? A few serial moaners in the Murdoch press? Like we're ever going to fix that.
Paul Suttor
Expert
the NRL already has a national reserve-grade competition for players not good enough for the 17 premiership teams, it's called the Super League. It doesnt need another 1
KenW
Roar Rookie
Exactly right Jimmmy. Loyalty bonuses mean high-flying clubs can keep their champions and also afford to over-bid for the upcoming champions elsewhere.
Brett Allen
Roar Rookie
Well the whole purpose of the Commission was that it was supposed to streamline the games administration structure. We’ve already seen the “merger” of the Country RL into the NSWRL, which was necessary, but in reality the NSWRL & QRL should be rebadged to NRLNSW & NRLQ the way the affiliate states are, making the state bodies merely agencies of the ARLC, as opposed to independent bodies. There is no need for the NSW & Qld state bodies.
Brett Allen
Roar Rookie
That it covers the whole state is irrelevant, it’s the fact that it is at best semi professional, whereas most of the NSW Cup teams and their players compete and train with and against NRL players and in NRL professional club environments. There’s no comparison between say the Panthers or Eels NSW Cup training environments and say Wynnum-Manly.
Tony
Roar Guru
And I thought that you were a fun guy
Rellum
Roar Guru
I would consider any such move as a declaration of war on the QRL
Big Daddy
Roar Rookie
I'm not really sure what the NRL game is at the moment . I can see the value of a national reserve / second grade competition but it could be financially difficult or is the NRL trying to stop funding NSWRL. It took a court ruling for them to pay the necessary funding and all because they couldn't control the NSWRL board election . Next board election is February and I'm expecting it to be ugly . Since Politis and Peponis resigned they have tried 3 times to get rid o f NSWRL board members.
jimmmy
Roar Rookie
Not sure exactly what you mean. I can only talk about my team, the Cowboys. We spend heaps on junior development , both our own money and in partnership with our sponsors. I'm not sure how a development grant from the NRL spread equally between the the clubs changes that or any not for profit status
3 R M
Roar Rookie
I think the Qcup is a far better competition not because of any difference in standard but for the fact it engages the whole state and New Guinea. It is a great intermediary contact point for rugby league. And it allows a genuine second pathway for both city and regional late bloomers. These teams travel all over the state and to New Guinea any drain of talent could put it in jeopardy. Some of the teams play out of regions with less than 200 people. So anything that could compromise this could be reallydetrimental for rugby league long term.
Paul Suttor
Expert
mushrooms are a fungus, i try to steer clear of them
mushi
Roar Guru
If there's junior development then the ARLC structure has failed and the NRL clubs are in breach of many governance standards that should remove their not for profit status
Succhi
Roar Rookie
Good discussion. I can see the reasoning behind the loyalty angle, and I always find it sad when a long serving club player moves to another club for the final 2 years of their playing career. Adam Reynolds is probably a case in point. But on the other hand, he is adding great value to the Broncos when they needed it. Maybe Cameron Smith to spend a year or two at the Wests Tigers, or SBW or Cooper Cronk do a stint at the Warriors to improve their teams. But it would be so hard to change your colours.