Bombshell David Fifita signing is the final straw for cooked NRL.
David Fifita’s league-shaking signing with the Sydney Roosters is officially the final straw for the NRL as a hated trend continues.
It won’t be lawyers or doctors or a wet lettuce slap across Tom Trbojevic’s chops that eventually kills rugby league.Why ?Because you can’t kill something that’s already dead.
Book the priest and dig a grave deep enough for 116 years of wasted history, because rugby league has officially drawn its last breath.
With David Fifita accepting a $200,000 annual pay cut to join the cashed-up Roosters, the game has been crushed to death under the weight of select elites and their imperious net worth.Fifita’s decision to abandon the poorly Titans has confirmed rugby league is now nothing more than a capitalist playground for a handful of Gordon Geckos.
Profiting on a skewed economy, bottomless third party clout and shifty player agents, elite clubs have bastardised the player market beyond repair with their financial doping.Everywhere you look, the rich are stockpiling Origin players purely in case of a rainy day by pecking the destitute to death like blinged-up bin chickens.
"David Fifita has given up on the Titans and the big money on offer at the club. And it’s sadly left the NRL fatally riddled with impoverished clubs that will never attract another quality player again.
Unless these pleb sides are willing to concede a raft of dangerous contract clauses and 130% of their annual turnover, they are destined to live forever off hand-me-downs and various dalliances with Kyle Flanagan.
Fifita’s decision to abandon money in favour of an enormous queue of gun backrowers proves the NRL’s days of a functional salary cap are finished, and Gorden Tallis agrees.
"This is what I don’t get, you have got these struggling clubs down below who are trying to compete in this premiership,” the Queenslander mourned.
"He is on a three-year deal for $3 million and he goes to a club for less. That’s the part I don’t get.
"Sure, there’s nothing novel about the Roosters swooping at the midnight hour for something shiny.
"But this was more than an impulse purchase, it was the canary in the mineshaft."
Trent Robinson has landed another huge signing. Sydney Roosters chairman Nick Politis was again heavily involved in getting the deal done. Pic: Supplied
Players like Fifita and Jack Wighton won’t be the last guys taking unders to “chase the dream”, meaning the NRL is heading towards becoming a competition of soulless super-teams feasting on plankton.
Like the English Premier League, the NBA and federal politics, only a select few will ever compete for the title, with the remaining participants serving purely as numbers to sustain the TV deal.
Imagine one team hoovering all the talent every year and predictably crushing its opposition?
It’s woeful enough with Manchester City and the Maroons, and it will satiate nobody in the NRL except bookies and corporates.
Rugby league is meant to be the egalitarian game, a commercial utopia where paupers rub shoulders with princes and every dollar is equal unless it’s the NZD.
But the lure of “culture” has become the most volatile market manipulator since “compassionate grounds”.
Jack Wighton moved to the Rabbitohs from the Raiders for less money. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images).
Sure, powerhouse clubs can offer so much more than more money, and who among us wouldn’t waive a few hundred grand for the privilege of post-career financial advice and Justin Holbrook.
And who wouldn’t be tempted to accept less to fulfil their “dream”, especially if their “dream” was a round of golf with a club’s tactically-distanced business contact that finishes on the 19th hole with a club sandwich and the keys to a new condo.
But what post-career guarantees can competing clubs offer?
Barbecues and CTE, and that’s it.
No wonder desperate clubs are throwing the farm at anything with a pulse and conceding generous clauses that allow the legal power to bend the Titans over a barrel.
Make no mistake, the race for Fifita’s signature is exactly how all big-fish negotiations will now be conducted:Tokenly.
Tino Fa'asuamaleaui (L) may be the next to go after David Fifita’s exit.
Sure, Penrith thought they had a puncher’s chance - but only before they realised the Roosters had entered the fray - while the Dragons were at the table the whole time like the microphone at a Milli Vanilli concert.
It means the strong are only getting stronger, and to be honest, the only reason Dane Gagai didn’t also sign with the Roosters was because there was no more room that night on Nick Politis’ catamaran.
So everyone enjoy the last cadaveric spasms of “The Greatest Game of All” because it’s been choked by the wealthy’s need for three rep back rowers in their NSW Cup team.
Your treasured game built on tradies and raffles is now run by aristocratic corporates laughing from their ivory towers, and they’re distracting us with strips of surplus wagyu while tapping-up your best junior talent.
About the author:
Dane Eldridge is a warped cynic yearning for the glory days of rugby league, a time when the sponges were magic and the Mondays were mad. He’s never strapped on a boot in his life, and as such, should be taken with a grain of salt.
Replies
Yeah the gap between the top teams and bottom feeders has never been greater. Storm chooks broncos have an advantage with TPAs and lure players across
I can see why people will disagree with this but to me NRL should do what NFL do and pubically show the salaries of all players. Ever been a salary cap issue in NFL? No, because fans and everyone can see what they are earning. Michael Ennis once said "I don't want to walk around the shops with everyone knowing what i am getting paid" Well everyone knows what Fifita is getting paid? But for you it matters? Who cares we know you are on big money. The real reason you do not want people knowing is cause it is dodgy.
Plus TPA's are the blight on the game that has made the salary cap a farce. TPA's make the game slightly uneven depending on the influences involved in the club.
I dont really care what their Salary cap Pay check indicates. When its offically low they say they are taking unders to live next to their mother inlaws, aunty Gladis's step daughters , grandchild. You know you have to live near family wink wink nudge nudge. I want it published what they get over and around the cap. Like the article suggests, play a round of golf the "proper distanced from the club Businessman loses his round of golf and on the 19th hands over the winnings to the player. Brand new shiny keys to an apartment in the newest set of high rise units.
Lest face it - time to remove the cap or each player is somehow rated with a points system and a top 30 squad can only have players worth a certain amount of points. I cant see any other way around it unless there is a draft system.
I don't disagree and that's exactly what should happen or we get rid of the salary cap and introduce a points system that doesn't allow any club to stock pile the elites of the game.
It's the only fair system (the points sysyem) IMO or you end with under the table deals and payments after the career ends.
The only way to make an even competition where every team has a chance is an internal and external draft, but that will never happen, unfortunately
A draft would be too all over the place and too much in fighting about junior bases etc. It would be a nightmare. If it can be done i would love a draft, but clubs like Penrith for example would carry on a treat.
works for AFL
True but 1986 was first draft, that season had 12 teams, 11 Victoria and 1 NSW. So not like how it is now with more teams in different areas of Australia. It has been well established and understood when new teams came in and developed their own pathways.
But even then the Draft is not perfect as players still if drafted to say GC look for a trade back to Melbourne within 2 years.
I would love a draft in the NRL but can you imagine the carry on? The main figures in the game that intimidate the NRL will get their way.
You asked a question I made a suggestion. I also said that it will never happen for obvious reasons.
That's debatable. The AFL draft is compromised and they have the same issues between top and bottom teams.
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