Ivan Cleary is right when he says NRL clubs that produce their own talent should be compensated when rival teams plunder the players they have developed.
But when you are playing in a competition like the NRL where vested interests and hidden agendas reign supreme, the chances of it ever happening are slim.
In theory there should be a system where salary cap discounts are applied and there are other incentives for clubs to invest in their junior pathways.
But you only have to look at the two teams who dominated the NRL premiership before Penrith got their act together to realise that you don’t have to have a vast junior base to have a title-winning squad.
The Roosters and Melbourne fill the bottom rungs when it comes to junior clubs in their respective regions but they have held near perennial places at the top of the NRL ladder.
Talent identification and acquisition in the late teenage years can make up for having comparatively few juniors of your own.
You could argue it’s tactically smarter to not worry about the junior base and devoting resources to enticing the elite youth level talent to your club as the Roosters and Storm have done.
That’s not to say that these two clubs are rotting the system. They have both been very astute in the way they have attracted young prospects into their system.
There’s plenty of sense being employed, not just dollars.
And to be fair to them as well, there are historical and demographic reasons behind their lack of depth at the junior level. If you ever have a spare hour or three to kill with a Rabbitohs or Roosters fan, bring up the topic of the division of Sydney’s eastern suburbs and whether the geographical carve-up is fair or not.
Nathan and Ivan Cleary after the 2021 Grand Final win. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
One idea which has been around for decades and gets floated every so often is that each NRL club is assigned a country area or two and looks after the junior development in that region.
Again, it’s a fine theory on paper but if the clubs thought it was feasible or worthwhile, they would have pushed for this idea long ago.
Unfortunately it is not in each NRL club’s interests to plough money into a far-flung location and it would likely lessen the value of a club the next time an owner puts one on the market.
Scott Penn, for example, would never agree to stump up the funds for a team like Manly if it also meant taking on an annual loss-making exercise in bankrolling a regional area in the hope that it will eventually lead to a few players making the grade at their club.
The ARL Commission needs to do more to fund the areas outside of the NRL so that the base of the playing pyramid is sturdy enough to keep propping up the elite competition.
Rugby league has been fortunate in the past couple of decades that rugby union is no longer the financial threat it once was and the always overstated threat of the AFL in the NRL’s territory is barely making a dent on their access to the best young footballing talent on Australia’s Eastern Seaboard.
Penrith are one of the few teams that have virtually adopted country regions outside their heartland, which they clearly haven’t needed to do considering they have a vast junior nursery in Sydney’s golden west.
“In my heart I would love all those boys to still be playing here but we’d have about three teams then, so you can’t do it,” Cleary said earlier this week.
Penrith’s three premiership-winning eras have been built around a bumper crop of local talent that was enhanced with the addition of a few hard heads from other clubs.
Greg Alexander, Brad Fittler, Mark Geyer and co would never have broken through for the maiden success in 1991 if not for Penrith getting the likes of Paul Dunn and Chris Mortimer to the club from Canterbury’s successful 1980s squads to teach them how to win.
In 2003 it was Craig Gower, Luke Lewis, Tony Puletua and Rhys Wesser benefitting from the imported wisdom of Luke Priddis, Scott Sattler and Martin Lang.
And in recent years, the nucleus of the three-time premiership winners was lifted to Grand Final glory via the groundwork laid by James Maloney, James Tamou, Api Koroisau and Kurt Capewell after they had been part of premiership-winning outfits elsewhere.
Penrith have deliberately prioritised the retention of their local products over imports as the salary cap has bitten into their roster in recent years.
(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
Imports like Tamou, Capewell, Paul Momirovski and Koroisau were the first to be told the club couldn’t match the money on offer elsewhere.
But now it’s at a point where blue-chip talent that the club has devoted plenty of resources into like Jarome Luai, Sunia Turuva, Spencer Leniu and Stephen Crichton have left or are on the way out. James Fisher-Harris requesting an early release on compassionate grounds to return to New Zealand and become a Warrior was an additional body blow that the Panthers didn’t see coming.
Mainly due to JFH jetting out, the Panthers are now in a position they have not been in for a while in that they can splurge on a high-profile recruit.
They have almost reached the envious heights that Brisbane enjoyed in the 1990s when they had virtually the entire Sunshine State as their production line as well as the financial clout to add a Glenn Lazarus, Gorden Tallis or Anthony Mundine when they have a particular position in need of boosting.
David Fifita. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
Penrith’s success has been built on hard work and a commitment to sacrificing individual rewards for the team goal.
Which is why it’s hard to see David Fifita fitting into that ethos – he seems keen to get out of his Titans deal or he is leaving it very late to take up the option for the 2025 portion of his contract.
Des Hasler’s philosophy of players exerting themselves to their absolute limits at training does not quite mesh with the reputation that Fifita has “earned” in recent years but if he thinks he can coast his way to a premiership at the Panthers, or Roosters for that matter, he is in for a rude awakening.
If there were discounts on offer for a team like Penrith in their current position, they might still be able to keep the likes of Crichton and Burton – then Canterbury’s tiny chance of causing an upset this Friday at BlueBet Stadium would be even smaller.
Most NRL clubs have strong junior pathways to bring forward the next generation of talent but some teams, like the Wests Tigers in particular, have been terrible at keeping them.
Whether a club focuses on developing their own talent or acquiring emerging players, it is just one part of the jigsaw puzzle of being a premiership force.
Other clubs are as rich as the Roosters and Storm, or richer, while some have a reliable pipeline of talent like Penrith but waste their dollars or can’t hang onto their own rising stars and end up watching on from afar with envy when the finals roll around.
Robbo
Roar Rookie
Not correct. I dont hate Penrith and my comments towards them are balanced. It's your relentless agenda that gets on my nerves and others. As I've said previously, hate is a strong word and I dont even dislike you personally. You're probably a decent person - just a bit annoying. Oh....and....easily riled up :stoked:
Brett Allen
Roar Rookie
On the contrary, it’s entirely consistent. Now in practice, particularly with a Luxury Tax, teams would eventually be fairly selective in how they exceed the cap, but the option would be there. Currently it isn’t.
Brett Allen
Roar Rookie
Any salary cap is a restraint of trade technically, but one the clubs and players have negotiated and agreed on. A soft cap would actually be less of a restraint. As for a draft, I don’t know the full story of the AFL kid, but the draft didn’t kill him, and you can’t throw a great idea out the window because of one case. 99% of kids who are taken in the AFL draft handle it just fine, and even then there are mechanisms like trades and free agency for those small few who do get so homesick. I mean, what we he do if he was in the military ?
Panthers
Roar Rookie
Your comment was exactly as I expected. As you still live back then . Can’t stand any crappy team from Penrith, even having any success at all As it should be the Mighty Dragons. Hence your hate for any comments about Penrith. Even by Penrith supporters, under stories to do with Penrith. Who’d have thought that you’d find any such comments there? What a shock & it shouldn’t be allowed! I find most Dragons supporters on here to be pretty nice & down to earth. I feel empathy for them & the club , as they’ve not had a great time in recent years. I’ve put comments of support on here for them too. ( Then, the Dragons junior grades have been doing pretty well. So a good chance that the Illawarra will lift them up . ) Unfortunately, there’s that odd supporter like you. Yet, that’s life!
wilbas
Roar Rookie
Roosters have affiliations with St Marys clubs as feeders....or did ...
wilbas
Roar Rookie
They killed G9 country football and AFL is running like canker in a pigeon loft in NSW....SOUTH WEST SLOPES AROUND HOLBROOK and Batlow is dead.....Batemans bay is nearly dead as well....no money going into our country boys.
wilbas
Roar Rookie
Very lucid expression of ideas here...You do remember the 13 import rule don't you?...This was back in the 70's when players began to earn a buck and teams could only have 13 players in the club from outside the district.. What happen here was some players like Dennis Tutty who played for the West tigers could not get a release from them and they would not increase his contract so he took the rugby league to the high court claiming restriction of trade as he was a free agent and should be allowed to be released.. Dennis Tutty had made Balmain’s first grade team in 1964, as a 17-year-old. He’d played in his first grand final that season, another in 1966, and had gone on to represent Australia in 1967. He was Balmain’s player of the year in the 1966 and 1967 seasons. But he was aggrieved by what he considered to be a lack of recognition (and money) at Balmain. At the end of the 1967 season his contract with the club expired, and he was put on its “retain” list. He would have to play for what the club was prepared to pay, or not play at all. Do we know if a soft cap could restrict players free trade...?...It is hard to see where these things go but one thing I don't want is a draft as we just saw a AFL player from WA playing in NSw becomes homesick and eventually his career dies and he dies at 29 years of age... How can women be playing SOO when they have not played a game yet this year...
wilbas
Roar Rookie
You bring a bad egg into camp and it can destroy a culture....Jack Wighton for instance...100% that development needs to be rewarded...There is a first grade side of weststigers running around in the NRL THAT IS BETTER then the side they are fronting up with....these big wigs are robbing the salary cap...no doubt...
Tufanooo
Roar Rookie
I don't like sand either. Bronte under the trees on a summer day for me. But I'm also a big fan of the inner west.
andyfnq
Roar Rookie
I've said it before; the NRL should be responsible for player development across the country and then have players nominate for a national draft. Having teams develop regions leads to patchwork development in the 21st century is amateurish and is the sort of thing that should be discarded as a relic from yesteryear. National development, national draft!
Robbo
Roar Rookie
3 in a row is nothing compared to the mighty Dragons. Long long way to go yet for Pennies to be envied
The Barry
Roar Guru
Come on, of course how big your junior catchment area is impacts your ability to develop your own juniors Of course anyone can sign anyone from anywhere but having a bigger junior base gives a club - like the Panthers - first crack at the cream. 15 year old kids from St Clare and their parents typically won’t want to move and travel unless they have to Suaalii is a poor example to use. He was signed more as a star schoolboy rugby player than as a Glennmore Park junior “The Panthers managed two premierships in 40 years with their, err, big funnel” Yep, I’ve addressed that several times. I’m not saying you just need to have a big junior catchment and the premierships will come flowing in. It still requires a heap of hard work which the Panthers have understood in the last decade or so and are now reaping the rewards instead of having success every 20 years or so when a generation come through at the same time Why are the Bulldogs becoming successful now in juniors? Because they’re putting that work in So, I’ve never said a big catchment is a guarantee of success or that Penrith have been successful solely because of their catchment The point of all this is that Cleary is claiming it’s a disadvantage and they need special dispensation. Three premierships on the bounce and an ongoing production line of first grade ready juniors suggest it’s clearly not
Pomoz
Roar Rookie
What an earth has the size of the catchment area got to do with it? Any club can sign youngsters from any area. What stops the Dogs signing a promising prospect from St Clare? The cost of the petrol to drive there and scout him? Souths recruited Suallaii from Glenmore Park. Just so you know, it is a few KM's from Panthers. He is a Panther's boy, or so he should have been if they had done the work to recruit him. Funnel sizes mean absolutely nothing and the results over the last 50 years support that. The Panthers managed two premierships in 40 years with their, err, big funnel. The Eels have done nothing for the last 40 years. Meanwhile, the Storm, Manly and the Roosters have been very successful. The Dogs have also been successful by recruiting all over the country. This "junior catchment" argument is just baseless. Right now the Dogs are starting to be very strong in the junior grades in spite of their small funnel. What has changed? The funnel is the same size. The difference is you now have somebody who knows what they are doing running your development. Ironically, that person is a Panthers man. Its about coaching, development, recruitment and marketing your team to the young players so they are interested in joining your team and being developed into an NRL player.
mushi
Roar Guru
Maybe a better example is a teacher moving suburbs then
mushi
Roar Guru
I'm partial to the inner west, I hate sand.
mushi
Roar Guru
Yep. US leagues with private owners didn’t lose revenue with lock outs because they wanted a Utopia they did it to control cost. Any exemption to that cost control effectively has to come from somewhere else (I.e. a lower cap)
mushi
Roar Guru
Nope. It’s an ineffective tool for that. It’s a cute lie from the league but nope
Robbo
Roar Rookie
And disperse talent evenly in the interest of a quality product
Panthers
Roar Rookie
Get over yourself, Dragon envy.
Robbo
Roar Rookie
Time will tell