madunit said:
axl, do you have a source for that allegation?
Knights victims of own success
By Barry Toohey
August 13, 2004
IT has gone like clockwork for more than a decade.
Talented young kids, falling off the back of a production line full of talented young kids, ready to make their mark in the game.
A program the Newcastle Knights have spent well over $10million cultivating since rugby league's "sleeping giant" was first aroused back in 1988.
The best junior nursery and development program in the game producing champion players, premiership-winning teams and attracting a supporter base as passionate as any in the game.
When Newcastle won the 2001 grand final against the Eels, more than 70 per cent of the squad that night were home grown. Local kids who had all come through the Knights' system.
Players like Andrew Johns, Matthew Gidley, Danny Buderus, Steve Simpson, Timana Tahu, Darren Albert, Josh Perry, Mark Hughes, Bill Peden ... the list goes on.
But here's the rub for the Knights.
Producing doesn't always mean retaining as the club's financial vulnerability leaves the door open for predators.
Rival clubs, flush with cash and envious of Newcastle's development strike-rate, are cashing in at the Knights' expense.
In some respects, the club has become a victim of its own success.
The signs first surfaced in the mid to late 90s when the likes of Brett Kimmorley, Robbie Ross and Rodney Howe all departed. Youngster Luke Burt also packed his bags for Parramatta.
It didn't impact then because supply exceeded demand.
Kimmorley, Ross and Howe left to further their own careers because they had established players at the Knights blocking their path.
For Howe, it was Paul Harragon and Tony Butterfield, Ross was competing with Robbie O'Davis while Kimmorley found himself in the shadow of Johns. Burt left for the money.
Since then, there has been a steady stream of departures at a time when the production line has shown signs of slowing.
Most of the losses have been salary cap or budget-related. Some have hurt more than others.
Big names like Matthew Johns and, more recently, Adam MacDougall, Ben Kennedy and Timana Tahu have either been forced out or left for financial reasons.
But it's the loss of some of their star kids in recent seasons which has the club looking nervously over its shoulder and planning a rethink of the way it spends its development dollars.
The warning bells sounded a few years back when Greg Bird took advantage of an escape clause to walk out on the final year of his contract to join the Sharks.
"We won't be writing contracts like that anymore," coach Michael Hagan says.
Then it was youngsters Anthony Tupou and Jermaine Ale to the Sydney Roosters and Matthew Lantry to the Eels. Tupou and Ale's loss stung the Knights and demonstrated just what the club was up against.
It all came down to dollars.
Both were highly promising teenagers who the Roosters signed for money equivalent to what 20 or 30-game first-graders were being paid at the Knights.
Ale was a 17-year-old Australian Schoolboy centre who picked up $50,000 to go to the Roosters while Tupou signed a three-year deal worth around $250,000.
"They were numbers we just could not contemplate and still can't," Hagan says.
It is freely bandied around that the Roosters spend well over a $1million a season on their Premier League and Jersey Flegg teams.
Not surprisingly, their Premier League team leads the competition and their Jersey Flegg side remains unbeaten after 22 rounds. The likes of St George Illawarra, Parramatta and the Bulldogs also spend up big.
Newcastle, by contrast, get some loose change out of $400,000, which is all their budget can afford.
A lower-grader's average at the Roosters is just under $30,000 a season compared to $8000 at Newcastle.
What eats away at the Knights is the disparity of the system. The NRL offers next to no concessions for clubs who produce their own players.
And at the same time, the salary cap does not extend to lower-grade competitions because they are controlled by the NSW Rugby League and not the NRL.
The Knights claim it is almost an encouragement for cashed-up clubs to forget about spending on development altogether and simply wait on rival clubs to do it for them
