2GB's Mark Levy mentioned on Tuesday that it is a farce that Parramatta fans need to cop Dylan Brown signing with Newcastle nearly a year out from joining them, meaning they need to watching him in their beloved jersey when his future is somewhere else. Now the mention of a free agency period is a nice idea though not practical as it is a nice thing in the NFL but they have so much time off compared to NRL they can do it with time to spare. Come November, a month after the final game of the year, teams are back preparing for the next season. So what would work as a solution to player movements?
November 1 was a claim from some. Say that Brown is off-contract for 2026, come November 1 2025 he can sign for the next year so there is no distraction for the year being played. Can this be disruptive? Maybe, though at the same time star players are not back to pre-season until mid to late November anyway. So if Brown signed for Newcastle in first week of November he wont miss any pre-season time. Or could do a tampering period a week out from November 1. Have teams talk to players but they cannot sign, they can agree but not sign. That way, teams and players are not scrambling and it is chaotic. They can get to November 1 knowing mostly what they are getting to prepare for pre-season.
Another option is June 30. Make that date as the date players can move for the following year. I like this one and it is team and player friendly somewhat too as it does not disrupt pre-season what so ever. The issue will come for teams in finals race having the distaraction of a star player moving elsewhere. Imagine if Parramatta were sitting 7th with a few rounds left and Brown news dropped, Ryles would not be pleased in the slightest. Though it is an option that can work.
Or this option would please the paper and tv, make it the week after the GF as a free agency period. Gives teams and players the extra month to get ready for pre-season and not as much fast past scrambling to fill roster spots or decide where to go.
I agree with Levy in that it is ridiculous players can sign a year in advance and we fans need to suck it up and watch them in our jersey. Though i will say to finish, these ideas are nice but the issue will be the players and agents would want to keep November 1. Why? Injuries and form. Someone like Dylan Brown has taken a deal where he has a 40% of tearing his ACL from his partial tear. He tears it in next few weeks or months and June is the period he can sign, there is no 10 year deal, there is no deal at all from Newcastle. Same with say somone like Isaiah Papali'i in 2021. Had a breakout year and latched onto a great offer from Wests, who is to say his 2022 season was bad and he was a one year wonder?
So overall the NRL are the main focal point of blame for this, something should change as it is not fair on fans.
Replies
Yes, agreed fongi
Yep
MON isn't going anywhere. He's hired by these guys, ego prevents them from booting him as it would admit they made a mistake. Bad management 101
Tell me you're a protected species without telling me you're a protected species.
There we have it but they'll punt the coach who they also hired even though the mentioned has made poor retention and recruitment errors over the last 3-4 seasons that hasn't helped the club or the team.
BA wasn't their hire. They had ample opportunity to not resign/extend him, but they chose to. They didn't even have the guts to say to him 'by the way, this is your last chance'. No they kept hyping him saying 'you have our support'.
And yes the extended him, but he wasn't their hire. They only took action when public opinion started turning on them and there were calls for their heads.
There's the difference
The thing is , they're all so inept and inexperienced in this area , they know less than him about his job. Which is a fraction more than the bloke running the local league football dept . If they punt him they would be standing around looking at each other wondering what to do next.
If the reports are true and Sterling is hanging around the club now , let's hope he gets in someone's ear about hiring someone with some credentials better than being the bloke who ran the deli and then got sacked in record time for sexual misconduct at the other worse run club in NRL history.
Not 12 months in advance is my point.
The bushie hated MON . The contracts were the reason. Their falling out was due to MONs management of the cap and the Bushie not being able to sign the players he wanted. You may not like him but he wasn't to blame for our cap issues. That was purely MON , his little turd Rogers and their superiors .
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