I do not understand where you blokes are coming from .Canberra has the same $4.1 million to buy , pay or retain or throw at any player it wishes,including dugan . So its a fair game , what is everyone whinging about ? Why would you be bitter towards the NRL ? just an unbelievingly stupid argument . If anything the raiders would be in the box seat for negotiations because A they can offer more to Dugan as the raiders roster isnt full of big names and B if Canberra is obviously such a far superior place to live than Sydney as stated why would he leave .
I understand your point of view, but you need to also look at it from a Raiders fan's point of view.
Our team has done nothing for the best part of a decade.
We are unable to recruit big names, never have in our history, so our philosophy is develop or team.
This is a lengthy process that does not have immediate rewards.
We have recently (through no fault of our own) lost our most recent promising junior who we intended to build our future around - this has set us back 3-5 years.
We have a new future superstar we have developed and are planning our future around - there are rumours he will defect to another club at the time he will likely begin to pay divedends.
This will likely set us back another 3-5 years.
I ask you, what is the point - if Dugan goes, the Raiders might as well fold.
Rugby League has lost so much ground to union in the ACT since superleague. The Raiders are a distant second to the Brumbies in terms of interest and support. The NRL obviously doesn't care that a once proud rugby league nursery is rapidly vanishing.
Although we all work under a salary cap, the Raiders are not competing on a level field with Sydney clubs.
I, and the overwhelming people who currently, or have previously lived in Canberra think its a terrific place to live. Unfortunately, the group it least appeals to is men of ages 18-25, which describes most professional sportsmen. The city is like a rancid looking curry at a dodgy Indian takeaway - you don't think its going to agree with you, but once you get into it you're loving it.
Players based in Sydney are naturally not going to want to up root their lives and move to another city when there are 8 other Sydney-based clubs to play for. If you played for the Dragons, were shopping around and got the same offer from Cronulla and Canberra, which would be easier to move to?
Raiders players are ignored by the Sydney/NRL media, so exposure and therefore sponsorship potential is limited by playing for the club (at least Matty Johns is giving us a fair run).
Canberra does not have a large corporate sector, so lucrative third party sponsorships are probably harder to come by.
If Dugan leaves, we will wait another 3 or so years for our next big thing to be blooded from juniors, so we can pin our hopes of a resurrection on him, only to see him picked off by some club who, instead of putting time and development into building a team, simply buy players for premierships and spit them out when they're done.
We don't want any special rules to help us out. We simply want to be rewarded for developing our players - as every club should.
We are becoming a feeder for more powerful Sydney clubs - if this is allowed to continue, there is no point in our further existance.
. I guess I'm just trying to demonstrate of despair his loss will bring to this club. God knows when we'll happen across another player like him. He has the potential to be our Lockyer, our Johns, our Fitler, our Smith, our next Meninga. This kid is a gun. He is still only 19 and he is our best player. We need to build our team around him. To lose him could be devastating, because for a club like ours, he is so difficult to replace.
