Lols aside, the NRL really needs to get itself in a position to offer at least the same money as Australian Union and the AFL. Japanese Union is obviously out of reach, and will probably remain so forever.
Speak to our media organisation owners.
They have been so busy raping the game for the benefit of pay tv that they've neglected to realise that the paltry rights agreements which have benefited News for the past few years, have severely hampered the NRL's ability to develop and keep the talent it needs to be succesful. The NRL's playing stocks will continue to be hammered by other competitions around the world and locally because we simply don't sell the game for what it is worth.
At the moment, we have loads of talent in the NRL and heaps of Juniors coming through, but the short term gain for News has allowed other competitions to chip away at our playing stocks on all levels, to the point where if a player has no preference where he plays and it comes down to money, we simply can't compete with anyone. Look at the A-League, even they are paying their marquee players more than we pay ours and that comp has only been around for all of ten minutes. The best AFL players are earning double and sometimes triple what the best NRL players earn and to make matters worse, you can go and play second division rugby in Japan and earn double what you get playing the toughest and most physically demanding sport in the world here.
News Limited and Superleague have a lot to answer for imo and the shenanigans that they have overseen in the past two decades will continue to hinder our sport for many years to come. Especially if we don't get rid of these merkins now.
