Broncos cry foul over draft plans
By Greg Prichard
December 12, 2004
The Sun-Herald
Brisbane are ready to blow up if the NRL does not significantly alter the preliminary model of a territorial draft it put to the clubs at the annual conference last week.
The clubs were asked not to comment until they saw the proposal in its final form, but The Sun-Herald has learned that it shocked Broncos chief executive Bruno Cullen.
The model subdivided the city of Brisbane and its surrounds into plots, some of which would fall to other NRL clubs and allow them first call on the best juniors.
"Look, I can't say too much because we're waiting on the final model and we want to see what's in that, but if it doesn't change we're going to have a big problem with it," Cullen said.
"We wouldn't like it and we would fight it, because we would be losing valuable territory and the Brisbane market would no longer genuinely be the Brisbane market."
Cullen said the Broncos and the other NRL clubs expected to see the final model tomorrow and that the issue would be a major topic of discussion at Brisbane's scheduled board meeting on Tuesday.
"I'll make sure it's on the agenda," Cullen said. "The way we read it, we would be the only club to lose territory and I don't see how that can be acceptable. Apart from losing the opportunity to sign good, young players who come from the heart of Brisbane, it could cost us fans and sponsors as well.
"If the fans see that the best young players from their area of town are going to another club they might hold it against us, and if the sponsors who thought we covered the whole of the Brisbane market start thinking we're not covering it because of the effect of a draft they might not want to pay as much.
"We're just going to have to see what's in the final model and weigh it up after that."
Broncos forward Dane Carlaw came from the Redcliffe area but in the future, under a territorial draft, a player coming through the same region could be lost to the club.
Cullen said the Broncos supported the idea of preventing clubs from stockpiling young players, but he thought there might be better ways of doing it.
"The idea I've got is that each club keeps its existing junior area, but is not allowed to sign more than five junior players up to the age of 18 in any given year," he said.
"I'd have that idea as my first preference, with a pure draft second and the model of the territorial draft that we saw at the conference third."
A "pure" external draft would involve clubs picking junior players according to their finishing positions on the NRL ladder, starting with the bottom club having first pick.
High-profile club chief executives Shane Richardson (South Sydney) and Denis Fitzgerald from Parramatta are among the supporters of the pure draft concept.
