Parramatta have called for the concession of the percentage of the cap to double in order to retain developed players. The current NRL standard is 10% for first two years and 5% every year after that, the Eels are calling for 20%. Favouring clubs that develop their own players and reward them, forcing other clubs to develop their own juniors to reap the benefits.
I mean would this have came in handy for Mahoney? Papali'i maybe if you call that development? Stone? Kaufusi? Good read.
Side note: apologise to Grunta for another blog, hope it meets your standards hahaha.
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Eels call on NRL to double salary cap reward for player development
By Adrian Proszenko
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SUBSCRIBE NOWParramatta have proposed that the NRL double the existing incentives available for clubs to retain players they have developed in a bid to foster loyalty and decrease player churn.
The issue of how best to reward clubs for developing players is timely given the NRL is about to commence negotiations with the Rugby League Players Association on a new collective bargaining agreement. The topic was thrust further into the spotlight after the Herald revealed the details of a proposal put forward by sports management consultant Ramy Haidar to...
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Haidar’s paper has sparked debate and led to the unearthing of several other proposals that will undoubtedly pique the attention of head office.
Under the current system, clubs receive a 10 per cent salary cap concession for the first two years for a player they are deemed to have developed, which reverts to five per cent for every year thereafter. The Eels wrote to the NRL late last year proposing the reward rise to 20 per cent for the duration to help retain talent.
“My view is that anything which promotes the development of players should be encouraged,” Parramatta chairman Sean McElduff said. “The current development player allowance, which is 10 per cent for the first two years, shouldn’t reduce to 5 per cent after year two; it should actually go up.
“Why would it decrease? It should increase if you want to foster and reward the development of players, build loyalty with supporters and put more money into the game.
“This suggestion puts more money into players’ pockets, it rewards you for developing players and it helps in terms of tribalism and looking after fans. That would reward all clubs in the same way.”
The Eels roster is being picked apart by rival clubs.CREDIT:GETTY
The Panthers, who are aware of the Haidar pitch, declined to comment on the issue, although they are understood to have similar sentiments to the Eels.
Properly rewarding developing clubs is an issue that long-serving Canberra chief executive Don Furner has been pushing for years. Furner, who could see value in Parramatta’s proposal, has written papers on the topic and believes an effective approach would be to provide rewards based on how long a player has been in a club’s system. Under his model, a salary cap discount of 5 per cent would apply to players who have been there from Jersey Flegg level, 10 per cent for those who have also been there Harold Matthews and between 15 and 20 per cent if they have also come through the SG Ball system.
“I’ve used the Roosters as an example; you don’t have to be born and bred in Bondi,” Furner explained. “Say you bring in a kid from Queensland like Jake Friend or Roger Tuivasa-Sheck from New Zealand, they should get the same reward as what we get when we bring Josh Papali’i from Souths Logan to Canberra.
“Yes, Penrith has this big junior base, but this doesn’t disadvantage clubs like Melbourne, Brisbane or the Roosters.”
The Herald spoke to numerous clubs on and off the record. Several powerbrokers raised questions about whether rewards for funding should come in the form of salary cap dispensation, additional funding or a mixture of the two.
Cronulla general manager of football Darren Mooney, who has helped build rosters at the Sharks, Tigers and Knights, said the debate was topical.
“At the end of the day we definitely want to be talking about it, so if it creates a conversation around how we reward clubs for developing players, that’s a good thing,” Mooney said.
“The biggest issue I have got is if you’ve got $500k off the cap, who pays for that? The clubs do.
“You are basically spending money to develop players and then you’re spending more money to keep them because you’ve got a salary cap exemption.
“I’d also want to see the definition of ‘development’ before you talk about a system. It needs to go hand in hand with a development fee structure, because if there are really big development fees on a player, you question whether a club will sign them.”
RLPA chief executive Clint Newton was one of the stakeholders who had seen Haidar’s presentation.
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“All those things are worth throwing into the mix. It comes down to the practicality of how it can be implemented into the current system,” Newton said.
“Anything that promotes the development of players and rewards clubs for bringing them into their rosters is worth a discussion.”
Just in case people cannot access SMH.
I like it. And NRL should giving the clubs more of the revenue. God knows how much they bloody squander. It's def not going to grassroots or marketing I can tell you that much. #audit.
This will not be good for Storms or Roosters, so it will never happen.