player movement horse trading

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SeaEagleRock8

Sea Eagle Lach
Premium Member
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Why hasn't high-paid NRL heavy Shane Richardson's blueprint for the next decade of rugby league addressed the player-swapping mayhem we are currently witnessing? The knee-jerk response to the DCE backflip seems to be the sole extent of the promised review of player transfers.

Meanwhile clubs are frantically 'trading' contracted players and weeks out from the new season fans don't even know for sure who will still be at their club by kick-off.

Salary cap machinations are heavily involved in the trading deals. But what is being done to restore a modicum of faith in the integrity of the cap? All fans know that some clubs have a huge advantage when it comes to availability of 3rd party sponsors, so the pretence that the cap helps maintain an even playing field has been all but extinguished.

Forget the salary cap ensuring a level playing field for club rosters - the cap obviously exists only to prevent those clubs with deficient management from going broke. And it hasn't even prevented that.

Fox reports today that Brisbane have publicly stated they will pay part of Dale Copley's new contract, after telling him he is free to look elsewhere when they signed Gold Coast centre James Roberts last month. He is tipped for the Roosters.

"It is understood the Broncos are going to tip in approximately $100,000, meaning the Roosters will still have to pay $200,000 to $250,000 for Copley in 2016."

Copley is a good player but he is an outside back who is a fringe first grader at Brisbane (playing only 9 NRL games last year). Yet they had him on between $300,000 and $350,000??

NRL more than ever is big business and it is part of the entertainment industry. In line with what is happening in all areas of business, employers are demanding and receiving greater 'flexibility' from the workforce, meaning less stability and security for employees.

But never mind the ramifications for players - what about the ramifications for fans? From an NRL fan's perspective, a key component of our attachment to the game has been identification with the team. Not simply with the colours, or with the club (nowadays often simply a privately-owned franchise, such as Manly has) but with the team, which is made up of players and support staff. This component is disintegrating before our eyes.

Fluidity of player movements is the direction we are moving (it certainly seems to be how things work in US sports) but this change surely is at the expense of a big part of the tribal associations on which the allure and popularity of rugby league were founded.

It is a huge change, and judging from reports - even on the NRL's own site - it is one that hasn't even figured in the report by the NRL Head of Game Strategy and Development. Which probably means it's time to promote him.
 
Good article, and I completely agree. Again, I still feel it should be like the NHL.

+ Average Salary Cap hit as upposed to annual salary hit;
+ Rookie Contract Status (Restricted Free Agents, and Unrestricted Free Agents)
+ Trade Deadline Period
+ No trade Periods (some players to have No Trade or no move clauses)
+ There should be a draft now I feel for juniors (that way The Chooks don't automatically buy every available best rookie on the market in NSW & NZ)
+ There should be Injury Reserve compensation (cap relief for long term injured players)
+ If the salary cap is to remain relatively small, much better long serving player allowances (for the individual players, not a club as a whole)

The NRL's salary cap as it is, is too simple, and easy to rort.

You want to balance the NRL? A guy like Greg Inglis is coming through, allow a team like Canberra (or whoever was last at the time) to draft them on a rookie contract, with a restricted status upon renewal, so that if he is traded to Souths for example, Canberra are appropriately compensated with either draft picks and/or players.
 
I think the only way that the salary cap can be overhauled is to have a draft system. It works very well in a lot of other sports world wide. So until the NRL and the RLPA can sit down and reach an agreement on that point I think the salary cap is a little bit of a toothless tiger.

One thing I never want to see though is an increase in mid season transfers. Personally I think that clubs should be forced to make do with their selected roster for the whole season. If you get injuries or whatever than they should be made to promote junior players and not trade in out of favour contracted players from other clubs. Worse still I never want a situation where clubs in finals contention are able bring in players from clubs whose seasons have finished.
 
I secondly would love a Nhl draft format & trading system.Draft day & transfer days are just as exciting as game days.Every year the last place team gets 1st draft choice.
 
Seriously who cares, and when are people going to finally realise that the game is now a major sports business.. All I care about is come kick off my team has a team in the NRL, the players that represent my team put in 100% and we all get to enjoy the game we love watching the team we support.. The club has a management team and it is up to them and the coaching staff to make decisions on the playing staff.. And yeah they may make decisions that some fans disagree with others will agree with.. So what.. That's their job. Manly are successful because we are ruthless and driven in the pursuit of winning, we have cut club captains and an immortal in the past, it's in our culture and may it last forever! So stop moaning and just support the club.. And who gives a rats about what other clubs are doing.. There is only 1 team in the league as far as I'm concerned.. Go Manly
 
All I care about is come kick off my team has a team in the NRL
Your team has a team? But who is in your team? Or don't you care?

My point is that for most traditional fans, they care a lot who is in their team. The makeup of the team, and knowing the players well, and what the players have done, or can do and might do, is a big part of the day-to-day fan mentality in anticipating upcoming games and outcomes.

That is not to say that clubs shouldn't make ruthless decisions from time to time.

But it is less than one month until the Auckland 9s - can you tell me whether Starling and Lawrence are Manly players for this year? What about Cordner and Klemmer?

This is not necessarily better or worse, but it is certainly different to how the game has always been. And there are ways in which it disconnects fans from their teams, compared to the relative team stability of the past.
 
Good article, and I completely agree. Again, I still feel it should be like the NHL.

+ Average Salary Cap hit as upposed to annual salary hit;
+ Rookie Contract Status (Restricted Free Agents, and Unrestricted Free Agents)
+ Trade Deadline Period
+ No trade Periods (some players to have No Trade or no move clauses)
+ There should be a draft now I feel for juniors (that way The Chooks don't automatically buy every available best rookie on the market in NSW & NZ)
+ There should be Injury Reserve compensation (cap relief for long term injured players)
+ If the salary cap is to remain relatively small, much better long serving player allowances (for the individual players, not a club as a whole)

The NRL's salary cap as it is, is too simple, and easy to rort.

You want to balance the NRL? A guy like Greg Inglis is coming through, allow a team like Canberra (or whoever was last at the time) to draft them on a rookie contract, with a restricted status upon renewal, so that if he is traded to Souths for example, Canberra are appropriately compensated with either draft picks and/or players.
I prefer our take on the NHL contract as seen with what we did with DCE aka the "Luongo":
http://m.thn.com/articles/27723-Canucks-come-to-terms-on-12year-contract-extension-with-Luongo.html

Obviously I'm hoping it works out just a tad better than his did...
 
I support the team no matter who pulls on the mighty Maroon and white.. It's not my job to make admin desicion its my job to support my team no matter what.. And yeah that includes players I may not like or rate, but they represent my team when they play in a Manly jersey. It's that simple
 
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It's a **** system that needs to be fixed ASAP, and you'd think with Greenslime and Richardson on almost 2 million a year between them that they could, but maybe they don't want to.

I love my team but am totally over everything else that surrounds the game these days.
 
I support the team no matter who pulls on the mighty Maroon and white.. It's not my job to make admin desicion its my job to support my team no matter what.. And yeah that includes players I may not like or rate, but they represent my team when they play in a Manly jersey. It's that simple
You know what, I'm sure many of us agree with you.
The problem is, there are more and more players that we wildly cheer on, who now play for opposition teams that we want to boo. We loved you, now we don't.
And there are more and more players we have booed and whose clubs we detest, that are about to turn out for Manly this year! We hated you, now we don't.
And worst of all, there is a whole group of players who may or may not be Manly players this season, none of us knows yet! We feel ... ???
Therefore fans have little choice but to disconnect emotionally from the players.
The young fans are the ones I feel for most. I know when I was young I had my favourite players and for me that was a really big part of becoming a fan.
 
My favourite post. Back when Wolfie may or may not be re-signed around 2013 was a post about how a dad had to have a conversation with his upset little girl on how wolfman may not play for manly the following year. I think she went and got her money box, and gave it to dad so Wolfie could stay. That love for our players, connected to be the fans. It should be what clubs are trying to foster, not divide. It was and remains the best post ever made in this site.
 
I feel that Australian football codes and crowds are still not entirely ready for the ruthlessness of trades like international clubs in a variety of sports. (AFL has the supporter base to push this ruthless line more easily than League though)

Australian clubs have barely entered the fully professional era to the same magnitude, degree and length of time as most other nations, we still have the remnants of that semi professional feel even though it is fully professional in many respects.

So we still have a large supporter base that loves that community based family feel connection we have with our players/club which is fighting against the oncoming massive wave of ruthlessness and success must happen today not tomorrow cut throat nature of professionalism.

The younger generation of fans coming through are exposed to a variety of trade at will professional world competitions more so than most of us fans here on these forums, it is when they become the majority fan base that we should then go down that path, right now too many family based supporters might lose interest which is still the majority.

We don't have the supporter base to be so ruthless so quickly until our codes totally lose that semi professional feel about them, which i feel is still 5-7yrs away.
 
I have accepted and come to terms with the fact the people who run the NRL are amateurs in roles that demand professionals. Its been like this for so long, i just dont see it changing. In fact i see it getting worse. The way players are traded, the contracting system, the bias refereeing, the entire running of the sport, the lot. Everything about the way the NRL is managed says 'we are figuring this out as we go along and our capabilities for altering the system to something substantially better is average, at best.'

At the end of the day, i think its a problem specific to the people running rugby league. Cricket bosses seem to be intelligent enough to have their sport firing and relatively issue free. I think rugby league bosses are just stubborn and dumb. Perhaps im wrong but i think im right
 
The fools running the NRL are devoid of policy and planning. Most of the changes occurring are knee jerk reactions, generally in line with the PC and those that gather media spot light. Smith and Greenburg were pathetic. The game is seriously falling behind other sports and they have NFI of how to correct it. In my view, rugby league survives best based on its tribal support of teams and players. The proud history is under serious threat.
 
I have accepted and come to terms with the fact the people who run the NRL are amateurs in roles that demand professionals. Its been like this for so long, i just dont see it changing. In fact i see it getting worse. The way players are traded, the contracting system, the bias refereeing, the entire running of the sport, the lot. Everything about the way the NRL is managed says 'we are figuring this out as we go along and our capabilities for altering the system to something substantially better is average, at best.'

At the end of the day, i think its a problem specific to the people running rugby league. Cricket bosses seem to be intelligent enough to have their sport firing and relatively issue free. I think rugby league bosses are just stubborn and dumb. Perhaps im wrong but i think im right

I couldn't agree more, but I think the solution they have come up with is 'let's pay the senior mgt shed loads....that will show everyone how professional we are'. Which is just a joke. Professionalism isn't about dollars its about an attitude and a culture, of doing things properly, of having good quality processes and systems in place. Not just throw money at the problem and then think the problem is solved.
 
I'm on board with that, the moaning going on around here about Zorba, the Penns and the club in general is at epidemic proportions. ;)
Not wrong, Ralphie, someone was even having a mega moan about off topic posting on Silvertails the other day, some people just love to moan, I suppose.
 
Team P W L PD Pts
3 3 0 48 6
4 3 1 28 6
3 2 1 10 6
4 2 2 39 4
3 2 1 28 4
3 2 1 15 4
3 2 1 14 4
2 1 1 13 4
2 1 1 6 4
3 2 1 -3 4
3 1 2 0 2
3 1 2 -5 2
3 1 2 -15 2
3 1 2 -22 2
3 1 2 -36 2
2 0 2 -56 2
3 0 3 -64 0
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