New NSW Second division plan "Platinum League"

[adamkungl]

http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/...ml?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=facebook

The NRL is heading for a fresh showdown with clubs over its it decision to carve up the second-tier competition into 11 NSW regions, a decision key stakeholders claim was made without proper consultation.
The ARLC has already agreed in principle to approve the "Platinum League", the revamped competition produced by the governing body's head of strategy, Shane Richardson. The project is one of the crucial pillars of the whole-of-game manifesto the former South Sydney CEO has been working on since his appointment earlier this year.
As part of the revamp of the pathways, the traditional NRL top 25 squad will be expanded to a top 30 from 2018 onwards, resulting in an additional $150,000 being added to each team's salary cap.
Caption:
Caption: Photo: Christopher Pearce
Players won't be able to engage a manager until the age of 17 and contracts won't be registered with NRL clubs until they turn 18. Instead, rookie contracts will be permissible for up to three players per club, with a two-year duration.
However, the biggest concern for the NSWRL and the clubs is the Platinum League, given it has already been approved in-principle by the Commission without their input. The new competition, which will have an introductory salary cap of $400,000, will break NSW up into 11 regions:
New England (North Coast)
Hunter
Central and Far West
Canberra – South West
Illawarra – South Coast
Central Sydney
Canterbury-Bankstown, St George & Sutherland
Northern Beaches – Central Coast
Liverpool- Macarthur
Parramatta
Penrith.
Other inclusions, from the Pacific nations, New Zealand or affiliate states, will be on an application process.
The clubs fear the new boundaries could result in longer travel times for players and less control over their development pathways. It's unclear whether foundation clubs will remain in their current form, while the new boundaries could result in players from rival NRL teams being lumped together in the same feeder club. The scrapping of the National Youth Competition has also raised concerns, with the NSWRL believing the NRL should fund any replacement tournament to be put in its place.
As part of the revamp, the NSWRL and CRL would be merged into one body.
Richardson is planning to meet with the NSWRL and the clubs in coming days, but the fact the changes are all but signed off without the contribution of clubs has left many angry at the process.
The NSWRL board and the clubs have appointed a sub-committee to work through the issues and voice concerns.
"The committee expressed concern at many aspects of a proposal that NRL Head of Strategy Shane Richardson presented to the ARL Commission in October and which they believe has subsequently been approved in principle," the committee said in a statement.
"These concerns are shared by the NSWRL Board, Clubs and the CRL, with the NSWRL and the CRL today requesting an urgent meeting with Richardson prior to any further progress reports being provided to the Commission.
"Sub-committee Chairman Bob Millward has invited Richardson to the group's next meeting in mid-December."
The NRL is already on a war footing with clubs over club grants and how to spend the recently completed broadcast deal.

Tl;dr - the NRL plans to revamp the NSW Cup into a regional league with no specific clubs represented.

So many things wrong with this. Gus Gould is on the warpath on twitter about it and I'd expect articles to hit soon.

1) What's the point? It's not even a national reserve grade - it's just a rejigged NSW cup. Further reach could be achieved by the NSW Cup just by accepting new team entries. Without....

2) Damaging development pathways. Clubs will lose control over their youth and backup players. Players from different clubs will be playing together in reserve grade for no benefit. Clubs will lose incentive to invest in youth, providing scholarships and opportunities.

3) Seriously though what's the point?

4) Increasing NRL squads by 5 (good) but increasing the cap by $150k (geniused). This is in effect decreasing the cap by 250k, since the minimum wage is 80k.

5) No consultation with the clubs who currently handle all development work (the NRL does *nothing*) is ridiculously unprofessional.

6) Another step towards clubs having no local identity - not long before they exist purely as professional franchises with no connection to their birthplace except in name. I know this works in US Pro Sports but it isn't the way it's done here and it isn't the only correct way to run a sport.

They are clearly trying to move towards a NRL run development pathway with NSW as the first trial, I'd guess culminating in a draft. Not long until the QLD Cup is on the chopping block and they won't get a say in it either, but presumably they'll put up a fight.

The NRL has zero experience in developing players and are taking this away from clubs who've been doing it for 40 60 or 100 years.

They might have their finances in order under the ARLC for the first time ever but their decision making process around the game itself is catastrophic. The ARLC, Todd Greenberg, Shane Richardson, are a trainwreck.

 

[Edwahu]

Fmd thats it after a year of work put into it?

 

[adamkungl]

Fmd thats it after a year of work put into it?

Writing was on the wall when Dave Smith tried to claim looking at reserve grade and touch footy was expansion.

Richo's a bust. I have no confidence in anyone at the NRL to take Rugby League in a sensible direction. Richo is a fat useless prick as he's always been, and Greenberg is poison.

 

[DiegoNT]

Seems like the first step towards a draft.
I absolutely hate the idea of a draft.

 

[Edwahu]

So is the idea that the Harold Matts and Sg Ball sides are now run by "platinum league" clubs as well? Whats the benefit for all that expense?

 

[Saint Doc]

A merged team of St George, Canterbury and Cronulla?

:lol:

 

[Lockyer4President!]

Sounds good and seems to be copying the QLD Cup with a mix of traditional clubs and regional areas.

Looking forward to seeing the full plan officially announced, instead of people leaking supposedly controversial parts to try and influence public opinion.

 

[thorson1987]

Wow.

 

[fourplay]

All that work for what? It sounds like a retraction, not expansion. It looks like a cost cutting measure, but then the NRL cap is increasing to compensate anyway.

Parramatta, Penrith, and Manly etc. will have their own 2nd tier regional feeder team.. but Bulldogs, St George, and Cronulla all share a team?

If this format was already in place, what's to stop a situation like this from happening?:
-

Des Hasler: "I want to drop Moses Mbye to reserve grade for a few weeks so he can work on his game, I will send him to 'Canterbury-Bankstown, St George & Sutherland'."

Coach of 'Canterbury-Bankstown, St George & Sutherland': Sorry mate, I've been in communication with Paul McGregor, and he wants Michael Witt as our half.

Des Hasler: ...

 

[The Great Dane]

Sounds good and seems to be copying the QLD Cup with a mix of traditional clubs and regional areas.

Looking forward to seeing the full plan officially announced, instead of people leaking supposedly controversial parts to try and influence public opinion.

This!

I'll reserve my judgement until the whole plan is released, because what has been leaked seems out of context and designed to be controversial, for example it sounds to me like this plan would have to be run in unison with a national reserve/ 2nd grade independent of the current NRL clubs, similar to Championship and League 1 in England for it to work properly.

I don't necessarily see the clubs and NSWRL not being asked for their input on the plan as a bad thing either, because the clubs and NSWRL will always only be interested in what's best for them and not what is best for the sport as a whole, so if the clubs do have to much of a say in things like this self interest ensues and the results are pretty crap for the grassroots and the growth of the game.

And though it is sad that the NRL is looking to take control of junior development out of the hands of the clubs (especially for a club like the Raiders that prides it's self on it's junior development) I can see why they'd like to go down that route and the benefits in doing so.

 

[Last Week]

I could probably look it up myself, but I'm not too familiar with how it works for Qld NRL clubs.

Those that could explain it better, how is it decided that a player in the top 25 of the Cowboys, Broncs or Tits, goes to play with a specific Qld cup team?

I have been pondering this scenario for some time and can see great difficulty in it. SG Ball and Harold Matts for example. Traditional clubs like Newtown no longer in the NSW Cup? Don't get me wrong, I like this idea as it will stream line the best of both city and country players, but how will this affect clubs like Mounties and Wenty Leagues and their support for the game at NSW Cup level?

 

[insert.pause]

The article sounds vague at best.

I'm certainly not going to judge it on what the NSWRL think of it though.

 

[BlueandGold]

So you Roosters supporters are upset and hate the proposal?

Could it be that this proposal will kill your club long term and thats why your all in a up roar.


Phil Gould AM ‏@Gus10Gould 2h2 hours ago Phil Gould AM Retweeted Sean O'Sullivan
Club like Roosters can't survive long term under this proposal
Phil Gould AM added,


Interesting,

Roosters might have to start developing some players of there own instead of poaching from all the development clubs. ;-)

But in all seriousness it does not look like a good proposal.

 

[undertaker]

Writing was on the wall when Dave Smith tried to claim looking at reserve grade and touch footy was expansion.

Richo's a bust. I have no confidence in anyone at the NRL to take Rugby League in a sensible direction. Richo is a fat useless prick as he's always been, and Greenberg is poison.

Greenberg reminds me of Michael Searle: all promise, no results.

And to think ppl on this forum wanted Greenberg as CEO:lol: Since his handling of the Barba situation was exposed after he left the Bulldogs to join the ARLC (let alone the myriad of changes he's implemented since joining the ARLC), it has all been downhill for him and proved he was not fit to hold any management position

 

[roostersrule2]

So you Roosters supporters are upset and hate the proposal?

Could it be that this proposal will kill your club long term and thats why your all in a up roar.


Phil Gould AM ‏@Gus10Gould 2h2 hours ago Phil Gould AM Retweeted Sean O'Sullivan
Club like Roosters can't survive long term under this proposal
Phil Gould AM added,


Interesting,

Roosters might have to start developing some players of there own instead of poaching from all the development clubs. ;-)

But in all seriousness it does not look like a good proposal.

Hard to develop juniors when our junior clubs were taken by souffs. Now that we have Wyong though we should be good.

This is just dumb though. This is the type of idea that gets created on here and then sent to the cave after about 10 minutes.

 

[RWB]

So you Roosters supporters are upset and hate the proposal?

Could it be that this proposal will kill your club long term and thats why your all in a up roar.


Phil Gould AM ‏@Gus10Gould 2h2 hours ago Phil Gould AM Retweeted Sean O'Sullivan
Club like Roosters can't survive long term under this proposal
Phil Gould AM added,


Interesting,

Roosters might have to start developing some players of there own instead of poaching from all the development clubs. ;-)

But in all seriousness it does not look like a good proposal.

The irony of that post is Gould is speaking about the Roosters development of teens who will be lost to the game under the new proposed rules, not poaching of established players/juniors from other NRL clubs.

It's always good idea to read what you're quoting...

 

[Perth Red]

Sounds like First steps to an Independent 2nd tier funded by the NRL and leading to a draft. They are effectively Taking second tier away from the NRL/ league clubs. Might not be a bad thing in long run.

 

[CC_Roosters]

Good ideas on the restriction on youth contracts and also on the squad size to 30. I do also agree in principle that the nsw cup should be about the whole state and not just a reserve comp for the nswrl sydney clubs.

But the makeup of the teams mentioned just doesnt look or sound right and i think the final solution should and will embrace existing brands. The article does seem intent on stirring controvesy so i wont judge it until the review is public.

 

[Diesel]

Sounds like First steps to an Independent 2nd tier funded by the NRL and leading to a draft. They are effectively Taking second tier away from the NRL/ league clubs. Might not be a bad thing in long run.

Yeah but the clubs will still want more when they are managing less

 

[alien]

i would rather they had this comp as the 3rd grade comp (ron massey cup) and for the 2nd grade/reserve grade comp, they just had the nrl clubs