Who "owns" developed players?

[lurker]

For a draft to be implemented it HAS to have the support of the players otherwise it is a "restriction of trade" and essentially illegal. You cannot force players to play for a certain side. Tezza already challenged this and won back in the early 90's when the ARL tried it.

A draft has merit no doubt, as it is successfully implemented in many other sports around the world. It's a matter of the NRL sitting down with the RLPA and negotiating a deal that everyone is happy with. Without the players support it will never happen.

@Chip and Chase the key difference in countries where a draft system works is that the clubs don't typically have feeder or junior systems. The player fully expects to go elsewhere because they have normally already moved once to be recruited to a college. In America the clubs aren't even allowed to have contact with players until they have declared for a draft and then its all carefully planned and restricted. How on earth would you stop a club from contacting a player that is already playing in the junior system.

And people who point to the AFL draft as an example well that has plenty of opponents because of the academies that qld and nsw are allowed to have to grow the sport. Throw in fatherhood rules and their are all different rules which create unevenness.

My answer is a royalty tax like in the NBA. Set a soft cap on 3rd party deals. All 3rd party deals have to declared and if its over a certain amount you pay a penalty e.g. 50% the value of the deal. It means theres some clubs that will spend overs but they'll be punished. This uncapped system is stupid.

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

One point here, if the Rorters have access to almost unlimited TPA money, why not offer RTS, $600k and $300k in TPA???

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

Regardless there needs to be an investigation , the caps not working and the dickweeds who administer it wouldn't get past first base in one the big accounting firms .