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In modern rugby league, discussions around players being overrated or underrated are irrelevant, despite being a popular activity amongst hardcore fans of the game.
What matters more is value; the return clubs receive on their significant financial investment. Spend big with little to show for the purchase and a decent percentage of the salary cap is eaten up pointlessly.
Invest wisely in a diamond in the rough that no one else recognised and the club wins on the field in the short term, despite then being likely to lose the player to the highest bidder when the original terms of the contract expire.
Canterbury’s Matt Burton arrived at the club with a growing reputation as one of the future stars of the NRL.
On the back of 32 first grade games for the Panthers and a role in the 2021 Premiership as a centre, the Bulldogs splashed out a reported $500,000 per season for a three-year deal that has since been upgraded to extend the 23-year-old’s stay at Belmore until 2027.
What the Bulldogs have received in return for their intention to make Burton the fulcrum around which the future of the club would be built is very little.
Whilst fans go wild when the Dubbo-born Burton hoists one his insanely high kicks into the backfield for a hapless fullback to attempt to catch under the pressure of a looming defence, I’m not exactly sure Canterbury fans would feel that return on investment has been anywhere near in their favour after his two seasons in blue and white.
Burton’s kicking draws much attention, yet have his performances matched the investment made in him by the Bulldogs? (Photo by Jason McCawley/Getty Images)
Still yet to prove himself as a successful pivot and struggling defensively in a team that has a mountain of work to do on that area over the off-season, Canterbury do not yet have the player it thought it was buying.
Penrith’s continued success and dominance suggests they were well aware that Burton was expendable and perhaps not as important to their chances as some people believed during the 2021 Premiership year.
As yet, the decision has not paid off for the Bulldogs.
Nor has the Roosters’ investment in Brandon Smith, rumoured to be in the vicinity of $800,000 per season.
Smith’s three year deal saw him leave the powerful Storm machine, with the Chooks feeling they had benefited from Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy’s inability to hang on to every brilliant talent he develops. Instead, they now have a player lacking in confidence and execution and looking more like one worth half the pay packet he is receiving.
Brandon Smith’s first year with the Roosters has been far from satisfying for both he and the club. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)
St George Illawarra’s Zac Lomax is another problematic player, representing a club that had hoped for so much more. Dropped by former coach Anthony Griffin early in 2023 and still prone to moments of madness, the schoolboy star has plenty of talent, yet is well off the reported $550,000 per season he commands.
An option to extend that contract in 2026 would raise that figure further and many a Dragons fan might feel inclined to disagree with new coach Shane Flanagan, who has expressed a desire to keep Lomax on the books as he attempts to make the Dragons competitive again.
In terms of value for money, Manly may well have set the lowest bar in the business, signing utility Josh Schuster mid-season on a deal worth in the vicinity of $800,000. Schuster has been dropped twice in 2023 and remains out of the team heading into this weekend’s clash with the Bulldogs.
Should the Sea Eagles seek to sever the relationship and cut their losses, a figure of around $300,000 has been bandied about as the one required to pay a third party to take Schuster off their hands.
Of course, the jury remains out on all the players mentioned above, each with a chance to prove the skeptics wrong in the future. Yet the money splashed out by the respective clubs conveys a sense of desperation and hopeful risk, rather than a prudent piece of business.
Why then, after a successful 2022, third place on the ladder and much hope for a repeat in 2023, did the Cowboys spent over $2 million across three seasons on former West Tigers big man Luciano Leilua?
The investment made in Luciano Leilua by the Cowboys is yet to reap a return. (Photo by Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images)
A mere 112 running metres per game in 2023 was not what the Cowboys had anticipated, yet perhaps a few canny Tigers folk are far from surprised. A player full of promise is well off delivering for his club in what has been a disappointing season for them.
There are plenty of other men not quite living up to NRL club expectations and Luke Brooks’ deal with Manly for 2024, reported to be worth $660,000 per season, will be another interesting watch.
The man who has so long disappointed and never met the value of his contract with Wests Tigers on a consistent basis, has convinced the Sea Eagles that he a risk worth taking.
No player should be criticised for signing any of the above deals. Good luck to them in earning what they can from the game.
Focus and scrutiny should be placed on recruiters, coaches and club officials, who mire their clubs in mediocrity when such deals fail to bear fruit. Clubs pay over the actual value to get players in and then hamstring themselves with salary cap’s that fill up quickly with talent that is simply not delivering bang for buck.
Getting it right means entering Premiership windows, getting it wrong equals precisely what the clubs at the bottom of the NRL ladder have been experiencing for far too long.