With Blaize Talagi departing Parramatta for apparently greener pastures at the likely behest of his management, the Eels lose another junior they have invested years of effort with little reward.
The talented junior will play fewer than 20 games for the club that identified and brought him through the grades.
Same for Ethan Sanders and Matt Arthur.
Players move all the time, such is the nature of professional sport. Not every junior player gets to spend their career at their junior club.
But only in the NRL do clubs benefit so little from producing a steady stream of first graders.
So, just how to fix it?
There has been the suggestion of a draft, however this provides even less incentive for an NRL club to produce talent. If you’re, say, Penrith, why would you spend millions developing your next crop if they are going to be mandated to leave?
And it also brings into the issue of tossing young players into the cauldron of first grade with little support.
Had a draft existed when Nathan Cleary came through, he’d easily have been the first pick, yet would likely have ended up at the Newcastle Knights. A win for the Knights, but he wouldn’t have been paired with the experienced heads of Peter Wallace or James Maloney.
A draft doesn’t fix poor administration as we see in the NFL where the likes of the New York Jets, Chicago Bears and Cleveland Browns have killed the careers of many a top draft pick.
Another suggestion has been to offer clubs salary cap dispensation for every junior. While I agree with that, I’d say it’s only to a point.
So I’d suggest NRL clubs receive salary cap relief for every junior they lose to a rival club who has played fewer than 30 NRL games. 30 because that’s the total number of games that can be played in a single season.
The guidelines would be:
- Must have played at least Harold Matthews (relevant Queensland competition). So no grabbing 22 year olds and claiming them as juniors.
- Must have played fewer than 30 NRL games for the same club at the time of signing the contract.
- Player must be leaving the club following an offer being rejected or a player option not being enacted. Clubs can’t just release a player and then get paid when another club picks them up.
The reason it should be 30 games or fewer is that this covers teams producing juniors but who decide to leave for another option such as game time, or simply because their manager tells them to.
I don’t agree with Penrith CEO Bryan Fletcher complaining about losing guys like Stephen Crichton. In that situation, the Panthers have benefited from their junior probably more than any future club could.
In terms of salary cap dispensation the junior club should receive the following:
- 1 year of additional cap space to the same value of the first year of the player’s new contract.
- A sliding percentage over the following 4 years of the player’s contract value starting at 50%, dropping to 30%, 20% and then 10%.
I’ve based this loosely on what often happens in football. Some teams receive residual payments over a period of years after selling a player, while others receive further pay based on specific milestones such as games played.
EPL clubs also receive payments if they sell a player from their academy.
It sounds like a lot of money to be providing as dispensation, but the clubs that invest in their juniors spend millions on it through staff, facilities and equipment.
With up to 3 more teams rumoured to be added to the NRL over the next decade, clubs with weak junior nurseries or those looking to quickly build rosters are going to raid the likes of Penrith and Parramatta’s junior ranks.
Both these clubs have invested millions and millions including in dedicated centres of excellence to improve their junior development.
To then allow them to be pilfered without reward simply to support a growing competition should not be acceptable.
The fact Penrith have to continue shedding key members of their premiership winning squads may be the salary cap in effect, but their loss of juniors like Isaiya Katoa and initially Daine Laurie are an unintended consequence.
Replies
I like this and agree something needs to be done to try to stem the flow. What would happen if Parra and Penrith along with Brisbane just decided to pull out of junior development? The game would crash. It's about time the NRL saw the value these clubs provide and assit them in keeping juniors they develop. I sense however that the NRL doesn't want this to happen as they want juniors to be accessible to all clubs. In that case they are just milking the clubs who fork out the money, and that is in no way fair.
Good blog, Super.
Does this make sense? We win around a third of silverware in juniors (U17-U19) and get next to no return on that. Are we a charity for other clubs and the game?
What do we get? An Isaac Talagi Show.
At least we got Dylan & Penisini but they're loaded up with POs.
Clubs should get more dispensation & reward for investing money into juniors and nurseries. The game depends on it just as much.
Imagine if the club were privatised or had a ruthless, powerful King Pin who would not tolerate this. They'd put a rocket up the NRL's arse and the media, and streamline the entire pathways to benefit the club. Club first.
Since 1987
Interesting stats HOE. This is something firstly the club needs to come to terms with and try to find out what is stopping that translating to NRL success. Are we creating players who can win the junior divisions but don't have the necessary body shapes and skills required for NRL? Or are we simplly letting other clubs pick over the players who do have these attributes? If we are letting these players walk, why are they leaving? Did we not see their real potential? Are we looking at the wrong playeres holding onto them at the expense of the players we should be keeping? Do we not have the skills to complete their transition to NRL? Is it because the club is seen as weak and are little real chance of success in the near term?
I suspect the answer will be somewhere in between. This is part of a massive job for the club management to sort through. I'm not convinced we have the skills within the club to fix these issues, but I certainly hope the club at least can acknowledge those gaps and bring in people who can fix it.
Great post, Longfin. Probing questions. It's probably a bit of all of that you suggest and the "zeitgeist" of modern times. The Talgalis had no qualms "using" us for years. Now, no, you've got nothing. Cheap & Commonplace.
It makes you wonder why we keep MON in charge of footy and pathways overall, our pathways manager (forget his name) and Rogers in charge of recruitment.
How desperately we need a Gus like figurehead.
Exactly , we have a head of recruitment and his boss that are sitting there like tedlon. Every issue that's on the frontline leads back to them.
As for the Talagais , you need to be careful making accusations about them using us otherwise you'll feel the wraith of Ploppa who will no doubt come here and tell you he has an issue with such allegations.
Or maybe that's just reserved for me ...
As your stats show HOE, we (as the Eels) hold the cards here, and yet we're not appearing willing to use them.
The NRL has all eyes on expansion. That requires the continued success and growth of OUR nursery as it's by far the most successful.
We need to start calling the bluff of the NRL on this. The NRL need our nursery more than we do...so it's time for them to balance that equation and make sure there's enough carrot for us to continue to invest blood, sweat, tears and money in these junior pathways.
That doesn't require privatisation, it just requires some kahunas from our administration.
We don't need to make threats, we just have to remind VLandys that his expansion plan needs us, but his current regime isn't giving us any incentive to keep doing what we're doing. Let's play some chicken and see who blinks first... because I know who has more to lose and it ain't us.
This so called blood , sweat , tears and money don't seem to be producing .munch talent , then when talent does come along the club does not have the ability to keep them once top club comes knocking .
Parramatta didn't lose Blaize because of money , they lost him because the club is a rabble and had nothing that he wanted to be part of .
The last time Parramatta had their junior system working was back in the Smith days and the club never had much trouble keeping their best juniors , all the juniors Parramatta lost were because Brian Smith never wanted them for whatever reason .
Frankie, yes, the club "had nothing that he wanted to be part of" But the Talagis & Isaac had no qualms using the club for years. As cheap as it is commonplace.
PS: McEdluff has to stand down at the end of 2025 (9 years on the board). So, Hooper and many will need to look forward to a new pinata.
You're objectively wrong Fong - it does produce junior talent, an absolute heap of it, thus why we dominate the youth competitions.
Retaining and growing that junior talent into first grade talent is where we lose out. It's a percentage game and some junior talent will always simply not turn into first grade talent, they hit their ceilings early. The issue is the ones that do then hit the market and we're on an even playing field with everyone else despite us taking the time, effort and money to nurture their talent to get them to the stage of being marketable.
As for Blaize in particular - I know you're being obtuse to make a point, and I agree with the point...but it's not the cause of Blaize leaving. Blaize left because his pathways are blocked at Parra and they're not at the Panthers. MA left because his dad was given the boot. Sanders left because his pathways were blocked at Parra and they're not at Canberra. All of these kids left for logical reasons...BUT Parra aren't compensated in any way. We have just helped Penrith, Canberra and the Knights...our competitors. That is the issue, and that's got nothing to do with Parra being rabble or not, it's got to do with the structure of the NRL and the fact that there's no structural incentive to invest in juniors. We should just put our money into poaching talent from other junior teams unless the NRL comes to the party and figures out how to reward us for the junior pathways.
-
1
-
2
-
3
-
4
of 4 Next