OPINION
The game has changed. Wingers’ values should be soaring like Coates
Sports Columnist
April 5, 2024 — 4.00pm
Save
Share
Normal text sizeALarger text sizeAVery large text sizeA
He’s been selected on the wing all season but St George Illawarra’s Zac Lomax wants to play at right centre – and he wants to be paid “centre money”.
Traditionally, centres earn more than the players on the flanks but given the demands on wingers in today’s NRL competition, shouldn’t those players with the No.2 or No.5 on their backs be paid more than centres.
Play Video
https://archive.md/K8o7p/again?url=...-be-soaring-like-coates-20240405-p5fhm8.html#
Play video
2:05
Coates 'owns the airspace' with epic try
Xavier Coates leapt at a kick bomb, taking an almighty specky before coming down and planting the ball to score for the Storm.
At most NRL clubs, the salary cap is divided between positions, with percentages afforded according to their perceived worth. In the
last salary cap benchmarking document published by this masthead, fullbacks and halfbacks are at the top and hookers, centres and wingers are at the bottom. That explains why, when Stephen Crichton was signed by Canterbury from Penrith there was talk of him playing fullback. While that may one day become the case, his signing on that premise opened the door for the centre to be paid “fullback money”.
Xavier Coates’ two brilliant tries this season – the
acrobatic put-down against the Warriors in round two and the hang-time special against Brisbane on Thursday night – emphasise why the sideline stars deserve bigger pay packets. The 2022 benchmarking document indicated an average difference of almost $160,000 a year between top centres and wingers. Those who share Coates’ position are on the wrong end of that difference. Lomax wants to stay on the good side of it.
Still, are wingers being properly valued in today’s game? After all it is they who, along with the fullback, have a huge impact with the metres they make carrying the ball back on kick returns. Today’s wingers tend to be built like the big-bodied Lomax, who is making more metres in a position where he can use his wind-up speed.
Wingers are also required to leap for kicks, a contest that is now even more common following the NRL’s rule change to encourage short, high dropouts and kick-offs. Again Lomax, standing at 190cm tall, is well suited to the role.
When it comes to scoring tries, wingers must have the ability to slip through the tiniest of holes and be able to dive through the air before placing the ball millimetres inside the sideline.
Xavier Coates scores his match-winner against the Warriors in Round 2.CREDIT: NRL
As a right centre, Lomax likes to use his right-foot step. The problem is that often takes him directly to the inside shoulder of his opponent, which makes it easier for the teammate on the inside of his opponent to assist in the tackle. In comparison, a step to the outside shoulder of an opponent can create a two-on-one overlap with the opposition winger.
This is why the Dragons last year moved Lomax to left centre. The problem is he didn’t want to play there. He also fancies the idea of being captain, a position rarely filled by wingers.
Now that the Dragons have
cancelled the final two years of his $800,000-a-year contract, Lomax will be free to play for another club in 2025. He has
had meetings with Parramatta, who may start him as a centre, but my guess is he will eventually find himself on the wing and he will probably be paid less.
Zac Lomax wants the cash on offer in the centres - but by the end of his career the wingers may be worth more.CREDIT: GETTY
As valuable as wingers are, though, centre also has its own specific demands, specifically being a position that requires more footballing nous. They are sometimes called “wingers with footwork” but centres must also have good hands and the ability to hold the ball until the precise time is right to release it.
The different demands at centre and wing were demonstrated by the Knights last week when centre Dane Gagai withdrew early from Sunday’s clash to be replaced by second-rower Dylan Lucas. Ten years ago, it would have been routine to replace Gagai, a Queensland Origin centre, with a winger but nowadays, an edge forward is often seen as a better fit because they have similar passing skills and are better in defence.
Long gone are the days when skinny kids who kicked goals were picked on the wing to hide defensive frailties. But it is still a truism that one reason wingers score so many tries is that they are marked by other wingers. (To be fair, though, wing is an increasingly hard position to defend due to the frequency of overlaps created by clever attacking moves.)
Many of the game’s past superstars, such as Greg Inglis and Billy Slater, started their first-grade careers on the wing but would be less likely to do so now, given the particular demands of the position.
But recent media surveys of the game’s elite players show centre is still a more prestigious position. A list of the game’s top 50 players compiled by experts from the
Herald and Channel Nine included four centres compared to three wingers, while a similar list of the 100 top-paid players in the
Daily Telegraph had 11 centres compared to two wingers, according to its salary estimates.
Lomax has allowed himself to be caught in a time warp of the game’s own making whereby centres are still more valued than finishers, but his talents are more suited to the wing, particularly with the way the game is evolving. However, he is only 24 and by the time his career is over the once ridiculed winger may well be earning more than the glamorous centre.
articles.listnr.com
