From today's Wagga Daily Advertiser.
City to country move has some huge holes
THE VERY thought of a stream of NRL players heading away from Sydney to play for bush clubs is as absurd as it is appealing.
Country Rugby League (CRL) president Jock Colley wants to persuade, entice or tempt NRL players nearing the end of their elite careers to consider playing on for teams in the country for a few more years.
Dusting off a new broom in the staid old corridors of CRL headquarters, Colley has hit on an idea that involves linking aging and fading NRL players with clubs across NSW, including this great region.
Its all to do with a data base on which clubs register their interest and the CRL tries to find a perfect match.
Colleys amazing plan has the measured support of NRL chief executive David Gallop, but he definitely realises there are some huge holes in the proposal.
Gallop knows the main stumbling block to luring NRL players to the bush, even those on the bottom branches of the money tree, is all to do with the basics of living.
First off, there would need to be cash up front, something in the vicinity of a minimum $25,000, steady employment and probably other incentives like a house and/or car.
The average NRL player isnt getting fabulously rich playing football in Sydney, but theyre not on the poverty line either.
Obviously the top of the line models guys like Lockyer, Thurston, Folau, Smith, Slater etc would be getting rich off the sport.
I can only guess these players earn anywhere between $400,000 and $600,000 a year and would not be in the CRL equation.
Even so, a player on a rock bottom rugby league salary of $60,000 a season can still work outside of football and pick up another $40,000 or $50,000 for digging ditches or holding a stop-go sign.
This means a possible combined wage of around $100,000 which is not bad for some oaf with the IQ of a turnip.
Naturally, there are footballers with trades or even brains who can pocket as much as you or I for a weeks labour.
Given their football earnings as well, these players with education and training are certainly in the nicely-off category.
They would be equally aghast as Brett Kimmorley at the thought of ditching the salubrious Sydney lifestyle to live and play football in Bourke or Binalong.
Id say it would be pull your fingernails out with pliers hard to leave the coast to move inland to live especially if it meant taking a huge pay cut.
There is much to like about living in Sydney and not just the surf and shops.
Sure, the cost of living is much higher, but jobs are a bit easier to find.
Employment in small towns is drying up faster than Lake Albert in the worst drought in 100 years and people are actually leaving these places to try to find work in bigger centres.
Of course there is still massive competition for the meagre employment that is available.
Its a vicious cycle, so the smaller the town the tougher the circumstances.
Country clubs desperately need wealthy benefactors to prop them up or they just cant compete.
Raising money by chook raffles, cake stalls or selling a trailer of wood was fine in 1960, but it wont cut the ice in 2009.
Football club sponsors come in all shapes and sizes. There are the guys with deep pockets who can throw in $20,000 at the drop of a hat or those who barely manage to pitch in $100 to keep the wolf from the door.
Every dollar is a help, but the dollars are getting harder to find.
A few years ago, one Group Nine club had a backer who was prepared to subsidise the coach of his team to the tune of $60,000 a year.
The coach got the deal of a lifetime, but they dont often come along.
These days, people are more prudent with their cash, even those people with a pile of it.
Thats what makes Jock Colleys plan so intriguing.
Its a wonderful sentiment, but where exactly do clubs find the bucket of money?
There are means and ways as Brothers discovered when they signed Craig Field and Grant Wooden.
Kangaroos have also found the resources by luring Wooden across town.
In the past 20 years other clubs have managed the same thing by pulling off massive player coups such as recruiting Billy Noke, Steve Funnell, Brett Gale, Scott Gale, Craig Bellamy, Pat ODoherty, Garry McFarlane etc.
In more recent times there have been less and less, but Jock Colley wants to change the state of affairs.
Gundagai has certainly set the standard for 2009 by snatching Jason Ferris, an NRL player with a decent pedigree and background.
The process hasnt gone without incident, however, as Ferris wasnt happy with the employment situation in the town and was looking at his options.
As much as the Tigers have wailed that the deal isnt in danger and the original story in The Daily Advertiser about the drama was a beat up there is no doubt in the wide world that Ferris was feeling uneasy. Ferris has a trade, but the prospect of working as a rugby league development officer like Adam Perry at Junee would also have great appeal.
So maybe thats the solution for Jock Colley.
All he needs for his plan to succeed is to spend a fortune to fix up employment on the CRL payroll for NRL players.
Im sure David Gallop and the NRL clubs will throw in a spare $2 million to let it happen.
And Tigers will fly the coop.
www.dailyadvertiser.com.au/news/loc...-has-some-huge-holes/1429467.aspx?storypage=0
