The state of the NRL is more akin to the running of a cartel where the owners of capital, the clubs, conspire to control the price of an input factor into production, in this case labour.
The fact that they have not been called to account for this 'price fixing' is because players can sell their labour outside the NRL in at least three other competitions, ESL, Super14 and now AFL.
Correct me if you disagree, but I think parallels between a socialist government and the NRL can certainly be drawn in this case. They control the market by capping expediture of clubs to stop dynasties such as those that we see in other sporting leagues around the world.
I can only suppose that preventing rich clubs from acquiring strings of premierships by recruting the cream of the crop is accepted because this has little to do with what goes on on the football field. It is applying the same corrective forces on the field that puts people of the Cervantes system, perhaps with good reason.
Along the same lines, the prime, in my opinon, problem with international rugby league is the disparity between the top two or three and the rest. Notice that unlike the NRL there is no salary cap, ie. no cap on the talent that ends up playing for such or such country. Putting one in place would obviously be ridiculous, I think most poeple would agree. But why is a cap acceptable at the club level and not at the international level? Think back to what league was like during the dynasties of the past. This is what international league will probably resemble for the rest of our lives, if not longer. We can dream all we like, but the disparity is too great, it will never be caught up.
PS: Willow, go easy, it's the offseason. Would you rather discuss this sort of stuff or talk about the DJ on the Footy Show?
