Simaima Taufa to the Canberra Raiders. Kezie Apps to the Wests Tigers. Romy Teitzel to the Brisbane Broncos. Raecene McGregor to the St George Illawarra Dragons.
With movement like this, it has been a very hectic start to the NRLW signings period.
For fans of the existing teams, this movement can feel unsettling. When you support a team you naturally become attached to the players in that team. With four new clubs entering the competition this year, it means that a lot of players are moving around and that squads are going to look very different when pre-season training kicks off at the end of next month.
Is this something we should be worried about? Especially considering that the NRLW clubs will need to work slightly harder for eyeballs this year, given that the NRL and NRLW seasons are likely to overlap even more, pushing people to potentially make a decision as to whether they watch one of the other.
The old “it is what it is” sums this up because there seems to be no alternative.
It’s important to recognise that we are at a particular stage in the development of the NRLW and that unfortunately, all this player movement almost seems inevitable.
Until now, NRLW players have essentially been signing season to season contracts. Even the players who I thought had entered intro ‘marquee player agreements’, do not appear to have done so in terms of length of contract, with several of them rumoured to be on the move.
This basically means that every player in the NRLW is off contract.
If I was running a club that would feel quite overwhelming, given that it essentially means they are required to build their roster from scratch.
Whilst the Collective Bargaining Agreement is still not finalised, players have started entering into interim agreements and a number of proposed benefits under the new CBA, means that players will no doubt weigh up their options.
Pay is an obvious change.
Under the proposed agreement, the salary cap will increase from $350,000 to $900,000 in 2023 and continue to increase over the next five years. By 2027, the expectation is that the salary cap will reach $1.518 million and see an increase in minimum salary of $30,000 in 2023 to $50,600 by 2027.
The other key change is the ability to enter into multi-year contracts.
So even though the movement of players may seem overwhelming right now, if players enter into multi-year agreements this will reduce the movement for the next couple of seasons.
The only challenge this may cause is if the competition expands again. If players are on multi-year deals this may make it difficult for new clubs to sign talent. My hope is that we put the pause on expansion for a couple of years now and allow the talent pool to continue to develop.
The other thing I would encourage fans to consider, is that just because the talent is moving around does not necessarily mean that there are underlying problems at any of the clubs.
All the clubs are relatively new to the NRLW, so of course they are always learning, but there has been a tendency to assume that just because a club is losing a number of key players, that the club itself is the problem.
Our female athletes are different to our male players. Our male players are full-time professionals and potentially, when you are getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars per year, there are some things that you might be willing to compromise on.
Our female players are not in the same boat. Most are still juggling full-time work, families and other commitments with their footy career.
For our female players, slightly more money may make all the difference.
Additionally, when players are having recruitment conversations, my understanding is there are three key factors they are interested in; who the coach is, who they will be playing with and where the team trains.
Naturally, like in any profession, there will be players who get along and players who do not. If you are not being paid like a full-time professional athlete, perhaps you place more emphasis on the people you play alongside.
For other players, facilities may be a key consideration and it’s no secret that some NRLW teams are better placed when it comes to facilities than others.
We are fortunate that we have all been there for the inception of this competition. But there are going to be growing pains. Whilst this player movement seems unsettling right now, significant strides have been made to provide our players with more certainty.
The good news is that now with multi-year contracts being entered into, we can get even more attached to our favourite players and begin to build real tribalism around the personalities in each team.
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