RLPA boss refuses to rule out NRL draft
Steve Jancetic AAP Wed, May 25, 2011 - 6:02 PM
Rugby League Players' Association boss David Garnsey has refused to rule out the possible reintroduction of an NRL player draft, but admits backing a restraint of trade would be a massive step for his organisation.
The idea of a player draft was resurrected by St George Illawarra coach Wayne Bennett on the weekend, the game's most successful mentor claiming its installation would create fairer and more manageable pay scales for players.
The draft was deemed anti-competitive by the High Court in 1991 when former Test centre Terry Hill challenged the system.
Garnsey - who qualified his comments by claiming he had not yet seen a draft proposal - admitted its return would have to be met with heavy concessions for players.
"A draft of any kind is a restraint of trade and it's been struck down in accord by the players' association in the past," Garnsey told AAP.
"Obviously we are concerned about anything which restrains the freedom of our players to pursue their employment as they should choose.
"However in circumstances where a proposal may have some merit for the competition or for the reasons that Wayne (Bennett) advanced, then it's obviously something we would look at.
"But to put it into place there would need to be a satisfactory (return) for giving up the players' valuable freedoms."
Speaking on ABC radio on Sunday, Bennett suggested the reintroduction of the draft would stop clubs paying large sums of money to stockpile talented juniors.
Bennett called for both an internal and external draft to be implemented, the former controlling the movement of players between clubs and the latter creating a system for bringing new players into the competition.
"We're the only code in the world that operates a salary cap without a draft - it's absolute murder out there, it's bedlam," Bennett said.
"They were designed to work together - the other codes whether it's America or Aussie Rules or whatever, they haven't got it wrong having a draft and a salary cap working together.
"We're paying way, way too much money for kids that can't get the job done for us.
"It impacts on the salary cap and in return the guys that are getting the job done every week are still getting less money than they should be getting.
"If we have a set system where kids come into the game and they get paid a set salary for a couple of seasons, it would be so much more manageable and there would be so many more dollars left for the guys that get the job done on the weekend."
Bennett conceded the NRL would have to come up with something to compensate players for giving up their right to choose which club they want to play for.
All cards could be laid out on the table following the implementation of the long-awaited independent commission to run the game, which is due to take effect some time this year.
Bennett threw up the possibility of establishing a large superannuation pool from which players could benefit at the back end of their careers, while also allowing clubs to hold on to a select number of their juniors so as to retain home-grown talent.
"You might have two players every year that each club could take out of its junior system for the draft," Bennett suggested.
"So instead of drafting five players for example, if you picked up two of your kids you only draft three players and you drop back in the draft."
