Because Manly couldn’t synchronise different contract finishing dates for arguably their two best players, the topic of an NRL Trade/Free Agency period/s is once again de rigueur.
Two key points to start with:
– Why are we now going ga ga about the perceived injustice to fans of a club (the Sea Eagles) that is one of the most successful in the last decade having always made the finals and even won the competition twice in the last seven seasons. Canberra should feel the most aggrieved of any NRL club with regards to taking a moral high ground and losing talent in the last ten years so let’s put that to bed please. Let’s also remember the Sharks have been in the competition since 1967 without ever winning, so don’t feel too bad for Manly.
– It’s not fair on the kids that buy the player’s jersey when they sign for a new team at the start of a season. Give me a break… since when did NRL jerseys have players names on them? It’s not to the same degree as say national teams where a player ‘moves through’ a jersey and until clubs start retiring player numbers like the MLB and NBA, it’s an argument of little weight. Parents can simply explain to kids they buy jersey for the team not a number, and they should support a club, not a player.
Departing pivot Kieran Foran weighed into the debate stating “I just think having to do your contract at the start of the year when you still have a year to run, I don’t think it is right….” I’m sorry, but ‘having to’? Find me the person, at either Manly or Parramatta, who put a gun to Foran’s head or kidnapped his family and forced him to sign this contract now. I want them found! Foran pointed to two periods for moves during a calendar year as the solution.
Let’s say then for instance the NRL Transfer Period is decided upon to have two one-month windows similar to world football competitions and those months are designated as November and May. This will allow for off-season moves and what we will call the Disgruntled Fringe Player Move (DFPM.) The rules could be that the agreements can only be negotiated, signed and announced in the set period/s. Sounds great and simple, works in football why not rugby league? I’ll tell you why – because in 2014, the Top 14 (the French club rugby union competition) signed a deal with Canal +, a French Pay TV outfit, worth approximately AU$589 million over five years. Add to this the fact that every leading French Rugby club has a Russell Crowe-type cashed up owner (Toulon alone have an annual budget of AU$41 million.) The French domestic season starts around August, and the off-contract NRL player that mulled over the move in May but decided to wait it out until November is then essentially free to leave to anywhere else in world sport, except another NRL side. Said player could sign for a Top 14 side, and if their team doesn’t make the NRL finals, they would have only missed one month – a comparatively small period in what is possibly a three-year deal.
The departing player could also join Superleague, who with a new competition structure in 2015, would benefit from an elite-level NRL player for the final weeks of their competition which now culminates with a group of eight teams at the end of the season. At the other end of the competition with relegation now a concern a club with funds to spare may part with a transfer fee for a star player to avoid the drop.
How does this all impact the NRL? You can almost guarantee the player’s manager won’t sit back and say ‘oh well if you wait three months you might get X amount in November to join the Cowboys.’ NO, the manager will say take the money and the owner of the Top 14 side will happily pay a transfer fee if they really wanted the player there for pre-season. As mentioned above Superleague is now a viable option also. This is market forces at work and it will happen.
The above example is not meant to be a dramatic, ‘sky is falling’ scenario, as few ex-rugby league players feature in Top 14 currently. It merely serves as an example of how the NRL is one option in a wider spectrum of world sport. There are options such as this for NRL players outside of Australia’s domestic competition. Options such as this is potentially why a model such as the AFL’s end of season “trade week” wouldn’t work in rugby league. An AFL players’ options of where they can transfer to are limited to essentially the other 17 AFL clubs within the league (without drastically changing sports), and while NRL players don’t have the transfer options of an A-League player – essentially any one of 20+ clubs in 200 countries around the world – their options are greater than that of an AFL player, making a standalone, end of season transfer window difficult.
One altruistic way to actually build a bank to stop these player movements to other sports could actually be for the NRL to say any transfer fees paid by overseas professional sporting clubs are banked into a central fund to be used as a top-up for a designated ‘marquee’ player at each club. A marquee player at each club is a far better use of such an exemption then an arbitrary ‘star player fund’ option currently mooted by the NRL.
Some simplistic solutions for the trade period, such as the above, also have in-built advantages to certain clubs. One possible option is to say players can sign anytime, but you can’t announce until the free agent signing period. However, a potential snag I see with that one is it advantages Sydney clubs in so far as any late movement for a player who hasn’t signed until/during the period which requires the player to actually move where they live (i.e to another city) means the deals made later sees, inevitably, clubs like the Raiders and Cowboys may have to pay overs late in the signing period to secure that player. Even if they have sufficient funds to do so.
If a club entered the trade ‘announcing period’ having already secured 20 of their top 25 they also don’t know the other possible club/player moves. If their top three targets are at other clubs and haven’t publicly announced their intentions (I would assume clubs would have to tell each other who moves and when they do it) they can still sign them but depending upon market value may only be able to afford two of them or perhaps all three on short-term contracts (again that advantages a Sydney club if a player is only offered a short-term deal to move interstate because of the rush of the ‘leftover’ players.)
Briefly, It’s worth noting talk about player movement will always occur. It’s folly to think designated windows will shut down talk of movement. If anything it could increase, given players and coaches of other teams plus managers tend to meet in general anyway. One of the most popular podcasts on the ESPN Radio platform is the NBA trade period series (yes series – there are multiple episodes) done by Grantland’s Bill Simmons and his multitude of guests which offers a variety of specific insight to wild speculation.
Whilst I realise I have presented pitfalls of a trade/transfer window in the NRL and haven’t offered a real solution there is a valid reason, that’s because anything needs to be linked to any salary cap restructure. Any financial incentives, such as the ones suggested above, need to be taken into account into any cap changes. A trade period is one part of player movements and salaries and should be treated as such. It can’t be tackled independently of every other aspect.
So, yes trade period. Bring it on. But be careful what you wish for because you just might get it.
Article originally appeared at www.hamishneal.wordpress.com