With the same old teams once again competing for the title, once again i pondered why we dont have a draft to even up the competition. Theres a multitude of reasons but the NRL did try to have a draft system once upon a time back in 1991.
This is a fascinating read which I have no recollection of when it was happening at the time. Memory is shot...
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The incredible tactics that turned rugby league’s 1991 player draft into a farce
WHILE the enduring memory of rugby league’s 1991 draft is the Terry Hill court battle that confined it to history, plenty of other storylines made it an absolute farce.
Deals were done behind closed doors leading into draft day, moves were organised in clandestine meetings and players named their price, with cases of reserve graders nominating for the same salary as Test stars.
The Hill ruling has separated rugby league from a draft system ever since, taking the code on a very different path to the AFL for which draft day is one of the biggest and most important days in the calendar.
Here’s a look at what made rugby league’s one and only version a forgettable sham.
Players refuse to go
The 1991 draft was doomed from the outset because most of the players were never on board and had no intention of playing for anyone but a club of their choosing.
An internal draft had been set up to accommodate out of contract stars who were keen to go elsewhere to get their market value.
But instead of going where they were told based on which club had what pick in the draft, star players threatened to refuse to play and deals were worked out behind closed doors.
Not one club tested the system by pressing a draft claim for a reluctant player.
“What’s the point of going to $100,000 for a top liner when he’ll refuse to play for you,” a prominent coach was quoted by a
Rugby League Week article penned by Tony Megahey at the time.
While one player reportedly said he would be “injured a lot” if forced to play against his wishes.
The great Axe heist
Not too much got by coaching legend Jack Gibson but the man who would later take his mantle as the greatest, Wayne Bennett, had his number with arguably the most audacious manoeuvre of the draft.
Gillmeister was off-contract, allowing him to nominate for the internal draft if he wished to go to a club other than Easts, who he’d spent five seasons with.
However, even on draft day Easts had no clue The Axe had cooked up a plan behind closed doors to ensure a move to the Broncos.
Up until the last minute, Gillmeister didn’t nominate and Easts were convinced he was staying. Then all of a sudden it registered with club officials that their prized forward had been snapped up as Brisbane’s first draft choice.
“It’s a joke, Gillmeister was added to the list 10 minutes before the draft went off,” an Easts official told
Rugby League Week.
“I didn’t even know he was listed,” Gibson said afterwards. “ ... I spoke to Wayne Bennett about them sniffing around Gillmeister but he said they were only mildly interested.”
Player currency goes crazy
You know something’s not quite right with the system when reserve grade players are taken up in the draft for the same money as Test stars.
According to a
Rugby League Week article at the time “one representative player switched clubs for a bargain figure, but with ‘removalist costs’ listed among his remuneration requirements.”
You also had Bruce McGuire, who wasn’t picked for a 28-man Kangaroo tour rated at $130,000 by Canterbury — putting him in the same class as the best of the best of the time, including Peter Sterling, Mal Meninga and Ellery Hanley.
“ Some lower profile players and a reserve grader, Wayne Collins, were drafted for the same money ($100,000) as current international David Gillespie,” the
RLW report said.
Souths star Les Davidson initially put up an asking price of $100,000 but dropped it by 25 per cent to ensure he landed at his desired club, Cronulla, so eager was he to remove himself from the Rabbitohs.
In short, players were doing whatever they needed to do to get to their preferred destination and clubs were putting ludicrous values on players to ensure they wouldn’t be going anywhere.
The salary cap, which was tight for most clubs, got turned upside down in the process.
Clubs planned for bargains
The likes of Manly and Balmain barely played a part in the first draft, using a clever strategy that they knew would give them the best shot at getting draft bargains the next time around.
The draft was set up to run on a series of different dates, the first of which was in November 1990, with the second draft day scheduled for January 1991.
Players who were keen on moves were told by certain clubs to stay out of the first draft before nominating for the second, just about eliminating as market players the clubs who had gone all in on the first draft day.
The other factor was that players who were passed over in the first draft (a whopping 92 players fit into this category) were forced to drop their asking price for the second draft or risk finding themselves clubless.
When the second draft day arrived, clubs like the Sea Eagles and Tigers who had kept their powder dry on day one were perfectly poised to pick up a bargain, while clubs that had spent on the first draft day would not have the salary cap space to go again.
“The value is on the second draft. There will be a lot of footballers going cheap,” Bulldogs committeeman and accountant Tim Pickup told
Rugby League Week at the time.
THE DRAFT ORDER IN THE 1991 DRAFT
1. Souths
2. Gold Coast
3. Easts
4. Wests
5. St George
6. Norths
7. Cronulla
8. Illawarra
9. Parramatta
10. Canterbury
11. Newcastle
12. Balmain
13. Manly
14. Penrith
15. Brisbane
16. Canberra
How league’s last draft collapsed in farce
www.foxsports.com.au
