Roar Rookie
Joined December 2015
2.1k
Views
1
Published
52
Comments
Just a duck with a dream.
Published
Comments
The NRL have released their blueprint for the future which will "take the game forward over the next decade". The most important part of…
I’m primarily underwhelmed by the lack of detail. If you add 11 players to the cap-relevant NRL squad, what will the cap increase be? It’s impossible to assess the advantage or disadvantage if we do not know the cap figure for these 36 players. Without some detail, how do you know clubs will be able to keep halves? Won’t there be the same demand as now, where the demand is high enough for NRL clubs to risk big offers to other clubs’ graduating 20s stars?
The NRL blueprint is underwhelming
If a club can mismanage the budget for 25 players, surely they can also mismanage the budget for 36 players.
I also realise that the Southern Sydney Combined club was just an idea but I would have expected more detail. We have had second-tier comps in NSW since forever – Reserve Grade, Metropolitan Cup, Premier League, etc. I don’t award points for simply dreaming up a new name for a concept that’s been operating for decades.
If teams will be based on business plans submitted by clubs, the obvious teams will be the NRL clubs because they have 19 spare NRL-contracted players available every week. (allowing for injuries and suspensions) So, effectively, it’s reserve grade, which I don’t mind.
I would have liked to see more detail. What will the cap for these 36 players be? Will the “rookie contracts” be price-limited? Will NRL teams be obliged to run a 20s team in the NSW 20s comp? What, roughly, would the salary cap be for the Platinum League? What about dual registrations, for instance if a Platinum League club was based in Wagga, could they use Canberra players and vice versa?
This is why I’m underwhelmed. We all knew the NYC was going to be scrapped. We all know what a second-tier comp is. To announce these ideas as the result of a 12-month study seems, to me, underwhelming.
The NRL blueprint is underwhelming