$49,000 per junior: Why clubs want the NRL to fund development
St George Illawarra has spent up to $3.5 million developing 70 players currently with other clubs in the NRL, NSW Cup or under-20s National Youth Competition.
North Queensland have developed 67 players at a similar cost who are now contracted elsewhere in the NRL or play in other elite competitions such as the NYC and Queensland Cup, while more than 50 players who have come through Wests Tigers ranks are playing for rival clubs at either NRL or NYC level.
The figures are similar at other "development clubs" such as Canberra, Penrith, Parramatta and Newcastle, who along with the Dragons, Cowboys and Tigers supply the vast majority of talent for the NRL and other elite competitions.
The cost of developing each player from the age of 15 until they are ready for the NYC is estimated to be about $49,000, which Knights recruitment manager Peter Mulholland says includes gym fees, coaching, playing and training gear, physiotherapy and medical expenses.
Yet clubs such as St George Illawarra receive no real compensation for the players they produce from either those who recruit them or the game itself.
"This is all fundamental to the growth of the game and, from a St George Illawarra point of view, we do a lot for the game by developing elite players and continuing to invest in the game's propagation, which means participation, fans and members," Dragons chief executive Peter Doust said.
The NRL has been working with the clubs on a review of player development structures but the issue has been thrust firmly in the spotlight by Canberra's loss of boom fullback Anthony Milford to Brisbane and the Raiders targeting of West Tigers rising star James Tedesco.
Milford, 20, has been in the Raiders junior system since the age of 13 and had played just 18 NRL games when he agreed to a $900,000 per season deal with the Broncos, prompting frustrated officials to question the value of their $3 million annual investment in the club's elite development programs and the local Canberra Region Rugby League competition.
Despite Tedesco's backflip last week on a $2 million, three-year deal with Canberra, Tigers chief executive Grant Mayer is also contemplating cuts to development programs worth between $600,000 and $1 million per year.
Doust and North Queensland chief executive Peter Jourdain say their clubs spend a similar amount each season.
"We have kids as young as 13 running around in the south-west of Sydney and in the inner-west that are basically linked to the Wests Tigers, and say in the under 13s we will have 60 kids that we put through a three or four month program each year," Mayer explains.
"But how many of those kids will come through and play NRL? It could be one. So consider the amount of money spent through 13s, 14s, 15s, 16s and upwards on developing that one kid, and that one kid can then choose where he goes.
"You look at guys like Ben Te'o, Sam Moa and even before that Jarryd Hayne and Israel Folau came out of our catchment area ... but if one of them go on to play State of Origin or Test football what does this club get for that?"
Mulholland, who previously worked at Penrith and Canterbury, said: "There is a lot of cost in developing a kid and in my opinion the game should take control of development completely, then hand it back to the clubs in the sense that you have your development officers come out in their Wests Tigers gear or Penrith Panthers gear because kids associate with a Dragon or a Panther - not an NRL logo".
With the NRL requesting clubs submit individual business plans as part of the new funding model to be introduced next season, Doust has asked the NRL to use the discretionary funding element of the system to support the development work the Dragons have invested so heavily in since the 1999 merger between St George and Illawarra.
To offset a reduction over recent years of up to $5 million in funding from their leagues clubs, the Dragons have adopted the "right game, right venue" strategy to increase revenue by moving four home games to bigger venues and Doust said they did not want to cut back on development.
"We would like the NRL to contribute as we have for many, many years in supporting those programs rather than see the club retreat to just an elite program," Doust said.
"I think we have heard people like Wests Tigers talking about not investing in developing young players if we keep having them taken from our programs, well our view is that we have produced 70 for the game and we don't see that as a negative. You can't keep them all but if they are in the game and they are developing the product of rugby league we should all be happy about that."
Jourdain said the Cowboys were happy to fund their own elite pathways but believe the NRL should administer or provide grants for general game development in North Queensland under the Cowboys banner.
"We counted 67 players last week who had been in our junior development programs, and that includes guys like Aiden Guerra at the Roosters," Jourdain said.
"I think we should continue to do that for our own club's benefit but we should get some increase in our grant towards the general development stuff we do or if it is more co-ordinated and funded by the NRL that is fine as well."
North Queensland spent about $500,000 per year on each of the two areas, while the annual cost of elite development for the Dragons - who run separate St George and Illawarra teams in the Harold Mathews and SG Ball competitions - is about $800,000. In comparison, some teams are estimated to spend little more than $100,000 per year.
"Already those clubs are going to be ahead of us as a club and they will put that money in NRL football structure and they will invest more money in sports science, in equipment and facilities," Mayer said.
"They have made that choice and good luck to them whereas we have made the choice to I guess let our facilities start to crumble to a certain degree and spend the money on the development of young kids."
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