With the NRL spruiking their 'we want a fair and equal competition' spiel repeatedly at their media conferences, would it not be fairer if teams with injured players be allowed to fill the hole with a player/s of equal value?
In the case of Parramatta, we are having to play the rest of the season with at least $1.2 million on the sidelines. This is Hayne type of money. Wouldn't the NRL rather see strong and equal teams with star players like Hayne playing?
It's clear every year that teams who have multiple injuries drop off the ladder and make many games easily predictable.
I know that the NRL have spoken about 'injury compensation' and it is mentioned in the salary cap regulations, but from my research, teams don't know how much money or if they will get anything. And from what I have read, it has hardly ever been awarded to any teams.
What are your thoughts?
Replies
None, but if the NRL said 'Hey you have an extra $600k' to spend', we'd front load some contracts, purchase someone like Segeyaro, look at getting Hayne in or stop many players going to Union or OS
There are plenty of options for teams with injuries, if only they had the extra cash to fill the gap.
The has been so ridiculous that the NRL have stopped second tier players filling an injury gap because teams have hit their second tier cap. How does that make for an even game?
Like most things with the NRL Fui, the cap compensation for injured players is "discretionary".
Depends on a bunch of things presumably - how far into the season, whether it was a pre-season and/or pre-existing injury, whether we have the ability to cover with Top 25 etc.
The thing is we have a top 25 to cover for injury. It's up to a team to be able to manage the inevitable injuries that come up during the year. If you've put all your eggs in the Plan A basket and it doesn't come off, stiff cheese. We put a lot of eggs into the Foran basket and being honest we're going to have to have him on the park for the best part of a full season if we hope to win a premiership. It was our choice to put that amount of cap space into Foran. So now we live with the consequences.
Mostly you'll find that winning a premiership does take a reasonable amount of luck with injuries. Teams with significant injuries (either in number of players or key players) will struggle. It's just the rub of the green. There are LOTS of other things I think the NRL needs to sort out in the interest of fairness before this.
But the NFL story is instructive. NFL teams keep a salary cap reserve. They plan for injuries. NRL teams are maxing their cap.
Conceptually, the NRL could follow the NFL and allow a Top 25 spot to be replaced. Like the Eels putting Foran on injured reserve and promoting a player into the Top 25. We would have to be under the cap by enough to pay the extra salary, of course! But the NRL does in fact have a kind of standing reserve, of the second tier cap and reserve grade.
Still, why can't we just say that the cap means all teams face the same circumstances at the start, and what happens after that is tied up with team roster choices and luck?
I said a similar system, not the same system. But overall, all this needs to be fixed. The NRL is the laughing stock of the sporting world.