Half value: Working out how much to pay top playmakers is hardest decision on NRL player market

Halves are the most valuable commodity on the NRL player market but getting full value for playmakers is also the toughest deal for a club CEO to nail. 

Canberra are the latest club staring down the barrel of a massive decision about whether to pay top dollar for a top-line playmaker. 

Jack Wighton is 30 and wants a four-year deal to remain in the national capital. 

He has quite rightly decided to brush an option in his contract to test his value on the open market. 

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As an incumbent NSW and Australian representative his value has never been higher and with the likes of the Dolphins and Wests Tigers cashed up with plenty of salary cap space to spare, Canberra may need to drop by the National Mint to find enough coin to keep Wighton. 

Jack Wighton of the Blues scores a try. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

Evaluating elite playmakers can make or break an NRL roster for several years. 

The Gold Coast took a punt on Ash Taylor on a five-year deal. They took a gamble on his potential and when he never made the leap from good to great, it hamstrung any chance they had of doing the same. 

Wests Tigers are coming to the end of a similar situation with Luke Brooks. He was in the right place at the right time to land a bonanza of a deal. 

The short-sighted club had kicked an own goal by signing their four main players, who were managed by the same agent, to deals that expired simultaneously. 

With Mitchell Moses walking mid-season to the Eels, James Tedesco becoming a Rooster and Aaron Woods linking with the Bulldogs, Brooks was perfectly placed to take advantage of the Tigers’ desperation. 

When there’s a dominant Origin halfback in each state like Nathan Cleary at NSW and Daly Cherry-Evans at Queensland cementing their jersey for years on end, it’s not as easy for club CEOs to rate the playmakers by representative honours. 

Halfbacks like Canterbury’s Brent Sherwin and Manly’s Matt Orford in the 2000s never claimed a representative jersey above the old City vs Country clash but were always worthy of being among the top earners at their clubs. 

The Sharks have taken the plunge with Nicho Hynes based primarily on his epic first season in the black, white and blue No.7 jersey which ended with a runaway Dally M Medal win. 

Nicho Hynes. (Photo by Jason McCawley/Getty Images)

Re-signing Hynes until the end of 2029 on a deal worth more than a million dollars annually is a risk for a player who has not achieved representative honours and may never do so unless Cleary is off the radar. 

The Sharks scored themselves a bargain when they signed him from the Storm for a deal which turned out to be a bargain, at least for the first two seasons before the upgrade kicks in next year. 

Winners of the Dally M or the old Rothmans Medal early in their career pretty much fall into two categories – players who go on to become genuine superstars like Andrew Johns or ones who never quite recapture the magic of their breakout season like Hynes’ predecessors at the Sharks in Paul Green and Preston Campbell. 

Moses is another top-line talent who is an elite halfback but is unlikely to be a representative stalwart apart from his regular appearances for Lebanon. 

The Eels paid top dollar to keep him from a return to the Tigers but he could end up like Ben Hunt at the Dragons – the team’s most influential player but unable to get them to the ultimate goal. The Dragons re-signed Hunt late last year despite his modest record at making the team a finals contender, a move which could come back to bite them if if stymies the development of Jayden Sullivan or Junior Amone – a switch to hooker in the next season or two wouldn’t be the worst option for the Queensland No.9.

Any given year there’s probably only six or seven playmakers who have the ability to move the needle much towards a title for their team. 

Adam Reynolds is another example of a halfback who is not a representative fixture but has transformed Brisbane with his organising and kicking capabilities. 

The bad news for the Broncos is that he’s probably only got another couple of years before he’s no longer able to deliver the goods and the search starts again. Whether his protégée Ezra Mam grows into the role remains to be seen but if a team wants to be in title contention, at least one of their two halves has to be in the competition’s upper echelon. 

Circling back to the Raiders, even the most optimistic of Green Machine fans would struggle to see a premiership on the horizon in the next few years while Wighton is wearing the No.6 jersey. 

Jamal Fogarty has proven to be a solid chief playmaker to complement Wighton’s running game at five-eighth. 

(Photo by Mark Nolan/Getty Images)

Young fullback Xavier Savage is a potent offensive weapon while Joseph Tapine and Hudson Young are in their prime as forwards. 

But a large chunk of their salary cap is consumed by veterans like Josh Papalii, Jarrod Croker, Jordan Rapana and Elliott Whitehead.  

They’re in a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation with Wighton. Not offering him a huge deal and allowing him to walk gives them no tangible benefits – it’s not like they can tank for draft picks. 

But even if they do extend his tenure for another three or four seasons, the chances of breaking their 29-year title drought are still remote.