Apr 11th, 2017

Apr 11th, 2017

Many of our current day NRL players are simply not worth the ridiculous amounts of money that we see quoted in newspaper columns every day.

Now, I understand that life is not about what you are worth, it’s about what you can negotiate. If players can find a club desperate enough to pay these amounts of money, then good luck to them. But the current system is wrong, and I believe highly damaging to the future of our code.

I’d be surprised if fans aren’t totally fed up with all this talk of player movement. We read of clubs being stripped of their stars, weaker clubs losing out to the bigger clubs in the battle to sign marquee talent, and even suggestions that players will ask for a release from their current club only six weeks into this year’s competition, to join another NRL team.

Can anyone seriously argue that this is good for our game?

One of the big problems with rugby league today, is that because there are absolutely no controls on player movement between NRL clubs, some player managers simply play the current system to hold clubs to ransom.

Most of the older player managers who’ve been around a while, are quite reasonable. They have a care for the game and a respect for the clubs. They obviously have an important role to play in the finances and general well-being of their clients, however, they understand the importance of stability and the benefits that can be gained by having their client in a settled environment with good people around him.

For others, it’s simply a game of trying to extract the most amount of money, every time a contract is coming up for renewal.

The other problem with unrestricted player movement between NRL clubs is that it’s too easy for the bigger, stronger clubs to attract the most elite talent. For example, if Cronulla’s Jack Bird has a choice between going to the Brisbane Broncos, or the Newcastle Knights, you don’t have to be a genius to work out how that’s going to end. There should be a system in place that gives the team at the bottom of the competition ladder, whoever it may be, first option at securing one of the current off-contract stars.

Yes, I’m talking about and Internal Draft System to regulate the movement of NRL players between NRL clubs. The player draft should be held once a year. It would be a massive event. It solves so many of the problems we have in our game around salary caps and player movement.

Other codes throughout this country and around the world seem to be able to deal with having a player draft. Good old “rugby league” has found a way to avoid it

As it stands, if struggling clubs are to be successful in attracting a top-line player, they need to pay a huge premium to get that player to come to their club, which then totally distorts player market values.

The current system is just too messy for words. It is a total distraction for everybody in the game.

All this talk about footballers being worth $1 million a year under the new salary cap is ridiculous.

Firstly, I don’t see any million-dollar footballers in the NRL today.

Secondly, to pay even one player, in a 30-man playing roster, this extraordinary amount of money, would have significant ramifications on the management of your salary cap and the wages you would have to pay other key members of your squad.

There is a lot of water to flow under the bridge in the negotiation between the NRL and the Rugby League Players Association to determine a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. I don’t want to waste anybody’s time speaking about the NRL’s first offer of a salary cap level for season 2018 and beyond. We will talk more about this another time.

However, I just want to get back to this notion of the “million-dollar footballer”.

I don’t see any million-dollar footballers in the game today. No individual should be earning $1 million out of this fixed-wage salary cap.

There are several players who could earn a lot more than $1 million, thanks to sponsorships, personal business ventures, media deals and third-party corporate contributions. But no player in the game today, should be getting $1 million out of the fixed salary cap, especially if the cap ends up being only $8.3m, as the NRL proposes.

Now, just for clarification, four years ago I offered the great Johnathan Thurston $1.2m a season to come and play at the Panthers. I felt the money was justified. He was worth it. He was at the top of his game. At that stage of his career Johnathan was still steering the Australian Test Team and Queensland State of Origin team to victories. Shortly after this time he led the North Queensland Cowboys to premiership success. When I made this offer, I was not trying to win a premiership with this one purchase. I was merely hoping for Johnathan to come and teach our young players how to play, and inspire our youth through his extraordinary leadership and work ethic. I also felt that his profile would be wonderful for the promotion of our sport in Western Sydney given we were facing stiff competition from other codes. Johnathan Thurston would be the perfect role model for all young kids in our area. I believe he would become an inspiration for these kids to play and fall in love with our game of rugby league.

I was so confident of the things that he could do for our club both on and off the field, that I was prepared to list him in our salary cap at $1.2 million. If Johnathan accepted that deal he would be playing his last year with the Panthers in 2017.

In a fixed salary cap of $8.3m as proposed, I don’t think Johnathan Thurston is worth $1m. He is approaching 34 years of age, and whilst many in the media will romance that he is playing in the best form of his career, the fact remains he is not doing the same things he was doing five seasons ago. He is approaching the end of his career. He could command significant sponsorship dollars outside the salary cap through third-party arrangements, but from the fixed wage pool of the salary cap, I would only value him at around the $700,000 figure. Today, Johnathan needs quality players around him.

Now, if Thurston is not a million-dollar footballer, then I suggest no other player in the game today is worth a million dollars a season in the salary cap.

For me, $1 million footballer, would have to be winning somewhere between 60-70% of the games he plays. He would also have to be a significant contributor to that winning percentage.

The players today that the media tout as million-dollar footballers fall well short of these criteria.

In an $8.3 million salary cap, which must be spread across 30 players, with a proposed minimum wage of $100,000, I say there is no player currently in the game today who could command $1 million a season out of this figure.

Even if the salary cap was to increase to the more realistic and sensible figure of $10 million, (which almost everyone expected it to do after the latest broadcast rights deal), I still can’t see where any individual in our game today commands a million-dollar salary out of that 30-man wage pool.

There are so many other things I could talk about when negotiating contracts for players at certain stages of their development. The management of the salary cap is extremely difficult and every single day, every club in the NRL would be addressing their salary cap for this year and planning for future years.

I can tell you that players reading about other players commanding $1 million a season, doesn’t help at all.

You may have a differing opinion. However, when you are trying to manage a 30-man playing roster for both the short and long term future of your club, I humbly suggest that paying someone $1m out of the salary cap will do you more harm than good.