Here's my issues with Mayer's rant.
Whilst the core message is one the majority of fans want to jump on board with, i.e clubs should be rewarded for developing their own talent he comes off as a pretentious twat who has an overinflated opinion of his own self-importance.
1) Cutting junior funding is not your decision and you know it, the junior nurseries of Balmain & Wests are the identity of the Wests Tigers club. No man in his right mind would cut funding to them and even if he tried the backlash from the fans and board members would have him removed quicker than he could say Chequebook Rugby League. Don't use junior footy funding as your bargaining chip, it's weak.
2) Stop taking shots at other clubs, as the CEO you inherited the club the way it is as did a lot of the other CEO's / Board members you're currently taking shots at. Contrary to popular belief a lot of these people care just as deeply about the game and the grass-roots of the game as yourself, they're just not as blessed to have the junior nurseries of clubs like the Wests Tigers, Canberra, Penrith etc. How about working with them rather than drawing a line in the sand and trying to gain moral high ground.
How many people can honestly say they knew Easts outside of their own local clubs also fund clubs in the Penrith District, Central Coast district and have pumped money into districts like Ipswich & Redcliffe. They've got elite development squads in NSW, QLD & NZ. This argument that the "rich clubs" see no merit in or have no interest in putting money into the grass-roots is bullshit. Fans are exactly the same, we love seeing local talent doing well & we love seeing players come through the grades at the club.
3) NRL clubs don't deserve compensation for developing players, if anyone deserves compensation it should be the junior clubs. If you want to introduce compensation how about NRL clubs pay the junior club of the respective player $500 when they are signed on a junior contract (HM, SG Ball, U20's) & $5000 when they are signed on a senior contract (NRL).
NRL clubs deserve to be rewarded & given incentives to develop their own talent but they shouldn't be compensated if they fail to hold onto their own talent. Discounts in the cap is definitely the way to go. I've never given a specific model any in-depth thought but a rough example;
The percentage represents the amount of their salary that wouldn't come under the clubs salary cap, this gives the clubs an instant advantage over competing clubs.
Eg. Souths offer Player A from Wests $90,000 (all $90,000 would come under the cap)
Wests offer Player A who is a local junior $100,000 (only $70,000 would come under the cap)
- Players who are local juniors - 30%
- Players who come through the HM & SG Ball system at the club - 20%
- Players who come through the Under 20's system - 10%
- Players who debut @ the club - 5%
Obviously the grant would need to be increased to cover amounts that would be spent outside the cap and it's probably not a realistic model that could be implemented in the next year or two but it's something that could be gradually worked in and imo it's the fairest way of dealing with it.
Mayer's got an opportunity here to change the game for the better but he's gone about it totally wrong in my opinion. Whilst his heart is in the right place this piece will be written off as just another CEO spitting the dummy as evident by this thread.
We need real reform in the salary cap, I hope Mayer realises this and comes at it with a different approach next time because there's hundreds of thousands of fans ready to ride the bandwagon with him.
