NRL players should be out to get every dollar they can – I have no qualms with them playing hard ball to boost their salaries and conditions.
But constantly crying poor in their ongoing pay dispute with head office is the worst possible way to go about getting what they want.
Harry Grant was the subject of ridicule the past week after he accused HQ of “low balling” the players, and it was good to see the Melbourne Storm release a media statement last week going in to bat for their hooker, CEO Justin Rodski saying it was “disappointing to read headlines and editorials this week selectively using comments from Harry Grant regarding the salaries of young players in the NRL”.
Grant’s on a great wicket, which he acknowledged, so the people who went after the rep hooker for being selfish likely only read quotes from Grant lacking context.
The main point the Kangaroos star made was that not everyone makes Harry Grant money.
(Photo by James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images)
“The hard thing is everyone thinks [if] you’re playing NRL you’re on good coin, but the reality is you’re not,” Grant said.
“You’ve got a lot of expenses along the way, you have to move out of home to chase your dreams. I think a development contract is $60,000. Some blokes are better off getting on the tools and doing whatever.”
It’s good of Harry to think of the guys at the other end of the pay spectrum. But I didn’t crack a $60,000 salary until long, long after I graduated from university – and I’m hardly an anomaly.
The worst-paid squad player is still on a wage that hardly has them below the poverty line and, if reports from News Corp are to be believed, the NRL’s proposal for the new deal will see “the minimum wage for NRL development players to be lifted from $80,000 this season to $125,000 next season”.
Grant may not be naïve enough to pretend he himself is on struggle street, but when you’re a 24-year-old making the better part of a million bucks, what you consider “good coin” is probably warped.
A kid – and they are, for the most part, just kids – getting Harry’s $60K to play footy full time is on good coin, never mind if it’s actually $80K, let alone the $125K that has been offered but rejected by the Rugby League Players’ Association because it’s “low balling”.
As for these players having families to provide for? Well, that’s their business. I’m not seeking to be cruel, but you don’t get a pay rise for having kids, nor does a development player living the swinging bachelor life get paid less.
Of course, the granddaddy of all arguments for more money is the finite nature of a rugby league player’s career.
I’ll acknowledge they haven’t got long in the game, so should hoover up everything that a footy career offers.
But that’s not just money.
This is a period of their life in which they are going to mix with the big-money movers and shakers in their local area and connections are going be made. Players also stand to gain name-recognition, learn valuable lessons about teamwork and leadership, and if they want to attend uni, their club can foot the fees without any of that money going towards the salary cap.
All of which stands to help set these players up for life after football – AKA ‘life’ – and none of which necessarily require being in the game at all any further.
So absolutely stop whining about how you only have a short period of time to make money. You’re not going to die when you hang up your boots, you’ve got decades ahead of you to shape a new career and a springboard to launch into it the likes of which few others receive.
The common theme to all these arguments for better pay are that they can essentially be summed up as: we need more because life is hard.
And it is. But life is hard for everyone, so that’s easily dismissed as a reason for why you should get more.
You know what the players can say that no one can argue?
Footy is hard but we’re awesome at it.
(Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
NRL players are elite athletes on par with any league on the planet. They can do things that almost no one else in the history of the world could do.
This coming winter, go watch your park footy first-grade side and marvel at the skill and ferocity on display. Rugby league at the local level can be freakish.
But those guys aren’t playing NRL – sure some might one day, or may have previously, but right now they’re not at the standard of even the bottom of a 30-man NRL squad – which should help emphasise the level of talent you’re witnessing when you cheer for your NRL team.
These guys are masters of their craft and masters shouldn’t get paid apprentice wages.
So stop sulking and start strutting: “Yes we deserve more money, because this time last year Edrick Lee and Te Maire Martin were on development deals worth peanuts compared to the amazing things they proved they can do when the season proper started.”
Don’t say you need more because you can’t make ends meet.
Say you deserve more because the game can’t make its ends meet without your playing prowess.
And on one else in the world can provide the service you do.
zonecadet
Roar Rookie
Uproar from whom? I wouldn't be complaining. An individual salary Cap would provide stability and profitability. It could increase yearly but within reason. Fail to see how Cleary or whoever warrants $1m or thereabouts a season whilst others are getting $125,000. Sure there's a talent gap but it's not that significant. Cap them right now at say, $750,000 and you reign in costs immediately and can pay the bottom players a little more. I find it very hard to quantify a single player's financial worth over others of similar talent. No one player carries a team in Rugby League. One player can carry an NBA team as he represents 20% of the on court players to begin with, Rugby League teams have players ent off and carry on regardless so it's possible to play on with a Cleary. Storm lost Cam Smith and hardly missed a beat as good as he was.
fiwiboy7042
Roar Rookie
Not really. You can calculate the theoretical playing lifespan of a player but that can change so fast; in the blink of a tackle as it happened. Alex was 22 when he was injured. Did his career even last 5 years? And it's the kind of injury that can overshadow the game. It was also random and couldn't have been predicted. And for what? So fans can chant "Knights forever", wave a few flags and scull a few cold ones? The concussion diagnoses going on in the different collision sports testify that even if a player plays out his full career, he or she is still damaged physically and quite likely for the rest of their life. Perhaps an option to address this is to increase the interchange bench like in the NFL.
Brett Allen
Roar Rookie
Yes and that is part of their system and they are moved against their will.
Adam
Roar Guru
Well they are part of the professional players union now. But they ARE contracted to the major league clubs for a large part and get moved around cities a whole heap more than an NRL players ever will...
Brett Allen
Roar Rookie
But again you’re making the mistake of comparing to other industries. Who cares what the average salary is in greater society, that’s irrelevant. In the CBA negotiation between the ARL Commission and the NRLPA is over the games annual revenues, and how those revenues should be divided up. The players aren’t actually asking for a significant increase in their overall share, and they are sure as hell not getting it , they are asking for their share to be divided differently to how it has been in the past. They are asking for the league to mandate a higher minimum salary. Where is that money going to come from ? From the rest of the playing population. Not from the clubs, or from the grassroots, from their own pockets.
Brett Allen
Roar Rookie
If they are amongst the elite in their chosen profession the probably do.
Brett Allen
Roar Rookie
Well let’s see how Cristiano Ronaldo would go in the NRL ? The guys who play in the NRL are the elite Rugby League players in the world. No one is saying they have the same profile as the guys you mentioned, which is why they don’t get the money those guys get, but they are the best in the Rugby League world.
Brett Allen
Roar Rookie
That’s for their union to negotiate. Besides, if a player has an NRL contract he’s not a minor league player, he’s an elite player by definition
Brett Allen
Roar Rookie
It’s called a union for a reason
Brett Allen
Roar Rookie
No one is suggesting that, far from it. I’m not saying the players across the should get a massive pay rise, unless of course they can negotiate that for themselves, and they aren’t asking got that themselves, what they are asking for in this instance is an increase in the minimum.
Brett Allen
Roar Rookie
There is no profit factor at play here, the NRL and most of the clubs operate under nit for profit status. That’s why they don’t pay income tax. Now yes, any commercial organisation should aim to run at a surplus wherever possible, and that can certainly be factored into any negotiation, but that surplus should be an agreed percentage of projected revenues. What percentage the players get is completely separate to that.
Brett Allen
Roar Rookie
They are currently being paid what was previously negotiated in the last CBA as the minimum, the players association are now wanting in this new CBA to negotiate a better deal for the games lowest paid players. They are perfectly entitled to do so.
Brett Allen
Roar Rookie
They all are collectively. They have 30 man rosters for a reason. Even if a minimum salary player doesn’t play a game, he is still contributing to putting the show on.
Adam
Roar Guru
That's a bit of an outlier though, isn't it?
Adam
Roar Guru
Additionally. If the fringe NRL players think they have it tough they should really look up what minor league baseball players get comparatively...I mean they're minimum wage is $700USD!
Beastie
Roar Rookie
Which professional athletes are generating this revenue? All of the top 30 or maybe just the top 20 or so? Perhaps that's the reason why the highest-paid players are the ones playing First grade regularly and the lowest-paid players are still learning the basics and honing their skills so they too can one day join the elite. Liken it to an apprentice that does their 3-4 years training so they can one day become a full-time tradie. Even then they will get paid based on their skills and talent at their job, and if they are no good at it, or don't enjoy it, they will have to change their trade/job to find what works for them.
Brett Allen
Roar Rookie
No because they don’t generate the revenue that professional athletes do
Brett Allen
Roar Rookie
You say they get paid fairly, on what basis are you making that judgement ?
Brett Allen
Roar Rookie
That’s irrelevant. Im talking about an agreed percentage of gross revenue.
Brett Allen
Roar Rookie
There are some differences of course, but the basic principle remains the same. The athletes drive the revenue, therefore they should het an agreed of said revenue, no different to those other sports. What that percentage is might vary from sport to sport, but the principle doesn’t