I understand that every fan wants plenty of big name players and the right higher paid players in key positions are important. But the difference between winning plenty of games are largely due to the middle and lower salary earners. It's impossible for your 3 or 4 highest paid players to produce consistent performance way above their pay packet, whereas if you have 3 or 4 players on $300,000 to $400,000 who are regularly producing performances much better than their salary alongside the highest paid players, winning games will become more regular. The most consistent club over the past 20 years ( the Melbourne Storm) are a perfect example. They regularly pick up budget players who nearly always play way above their contract amount. The Storm nearly go after big name signings yet they seem to be premiership contenders every year. The Storms success is based around signing average 1st graders and turning them into much better players. They also manage to find good kids and develop them into regular 1st graders. Having the right players is nowhere near as important as having the right players on the right money. It's extremely rare to see one of the top clubs paying players above their worth, in comparison, most of the struggling clubs have several players earning much more than their worth.
Ryles has the huge job of making the Eels a club players want to come to. Also, he must make the Eels the club current players want to stay.
Without seeing the direction the Eels will head under Ryles, if i was a player manager, the Eels wouldn't be at the top of list of clubs i would be steering my players towards. The Eels would have to either pay more money or offer a long-term contract or both before i would consider sending my players their. It will take time and hard work, but if Ryles wants to be successful it's a must.
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Player managers steer their clients to the biggest offer . They're not worried about where they steer the client as long as they get paid and there's a path to more money in the future. It gets even more political when they start steering their clients to teams where they rep the coach or have a tonne of players already at that organisation. It's stupid that the same manager can manage coaches and players in NRL.
It's up to the player to factor in the intangibles and other things that help them play their best footy. I agree you need a bunch of guys come through that fill out the squad and play at levels above what they're on to win a comp. That's why most of us agree with Ryles filling the squad with talented youngsters and potential X factor rather than at best 'solid' journeymen. It's a big chance from what we had the last 11 years.
My point is, if a decent player is looking around and he has similar offers with the Eels, Tigers, Roosters and Storm, unless the Eels or Tigers increase their offers or contract lengths or include player options, it is more than likely that player will end up with the Roosters or Storm. Moving forward, Ryles needs to make the Eels a club that can attract and keep players because it's a club players want to be at, not because they paid more with a variety of player options.
Other than rookies looking for an opportunity or unwanted players with their previous clubs, there are not many players the Eels have attracted to the club or retained on what most would consider great value deals. The more attractive/successful clubs achieve this regularly.
I agree with the premise of your blog wholeheartedly. Where we have erred is overpaying a select group of players at the expense of the remainder of the squad.
The advantage we have is that there's a finite number of positions at the roosters and storm. Take Sua F'aalongo (I don't know how to spell his name lol) as an example, doesn't he have a clause in his contract where if Papenhauysen extends he is free to leave the Storm? So there are always opportunites out there. We just need to be smart in how we manage our cap, be conservative, be patient, take a long term view, not see any individual player as a must, not bow to player managers, ensure as far as practicable our cap is spread as evenly as possible across the group and focus on acquiring players who deliver true value relative to their salary.
There is no comparison between the Storm with Fa'alogo having a clause and some of the current deals at the Eels. The Fa'alogo clause is only really effective if Papenhuyzen failed in his recovery. Fa'alogo is a promising rookie whereas Brown is one of the Eels highest paid players in a key position with well over 100 first grade games and one of the 1st picked for New Zealand when fit. Then you add Matterson, Moses and W Penisini all with player option clauses in their contracts.
https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nrl-premiership/nrl-2024-ryan-pape...
My apologies Fa'alogo has a handshake agreement that he can leave if Papenhuyzen extends, nothing to do with his recovery. I wasn't trying to make a comparison between him and any deal done by the eels, I'm merely stating that he has approached Storm management about the possibility of leaving so an opportunity is there for us.
And my point is, if Fa'alogo was to leave, and just as a example, if the Eels, Roosters and Panthers were interested with all teams offering the same money with each club having his preferred position available in the top grade, the Eels would be at long odds of signing him, currently. This is something Ryles must change. The Moses deal ( reportedly $1.2 million per season) with player options in 2027 and 2028 is unbelievable. I believe the Moses signature was between the Eels and Tigers, so not only becoming one of the highest paid players in the game the Eels had to include 2 years of player options to outbid the Tigers. I want to see the Eels become a club were players like Moses is happy to extend their contracts on a little less money than they could get elsewhere simply because the Eels are the only club they want to be at.
So what if he goes to another club, all this means is a different opportunity will present itself and the club he has gone to is more inhibited in regards to recruitment (refer to my above comment). It's going to take some time to remedy our current contract situation (having Junior on $900k really is criminal). That other blog with the photo of Moses, Gutho and Junior represents approx 1/3 of our cap, crazy.
a quarter sorry
Nailed it Slippery, love ya thoughts on this. What I find asking myself is - Why are those certain players on the low to middle salaries in the first place. What holds them back from being a top player, that to me is the key.
Is it motivation, is it the coaching, is it their surroundings and leadership around them, is it lack of effort or mental fortitude. Is it their age or experience or injuries and they will get better with time. All of these contribute to being ln a low to middle salary.
To me your spot on, it is these blokes that must be striving for better and its the coachs job to work out why they dont perform better and provide that. Blokes playing above their salary worth in a salary cap era is just as essential to winning games, as a Mitch Moses or Dylan Brown. It's players like Mitch and Dylan that must lead the way but those that you talk about must follow and want to get better.
Just my thoughts.
I suspect part of Ryle's long-term systematic plan is to develop junior talent or get them from a young age and fill the majority of the team rather than bringing in mercanaries and journeyman from outside.
It's far easier to have a Parramatta culture with players that have been playing there since their juniors, plus they're more determined to win a comp for a team they grew up playing for and are less likely to go straight to the highest bidder when signing their next contract.
We also have to see some success from this system before we can begin talking about our culture as actions speak louder than words.
I know we all want success on the field immediately, but it will take some time detaching from from our existing BA systems and setting up new foundations for Ryles and his coaching staff. As long as we're making good decisions in the head office and off the field I'm okay, hell... we've waiting this long.
I am loving everything I've seen so far and haven't been this excited for a season in years.
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