Player Poaching - Yes/No

[Collateral]

I've decided to bring up the issue of "Player Poaching' in the Forum Sevens and some ideas to go along with it. Please feel free to add your opinion.

Many people dont think player poaching should be allowed in Forum Sevens due to some clubs trying to take as many players as they can from other teams. This happened in Rleague and many people were not happy with the team trying to poach other players.
However, I think that player poaching should be allowed. Why Not?
Lets look at the facts. Players can not be lured away from clubs because of money or free giveaways etc, so if a player wants gets an offer to leave and they accept it...then they are obviously happy to try new things.
Player Poaching would also add more fun and competitiveness into the game aswell.

To solve the issue of 1 club taking heaps of players from other teams, I think there should be a salary cap on how many players a club can have OR a Salary Cap on how many Poached Players a club can have.

The really weak clubs wont be allowed to BE poached, but they can still poach as long as they dont overpoach (hence the salary cap).
By weak I mean clubs without many players.

Player Poaching would take place in the Off-Season ONLY.
If a club would like to keep a player at their club then they are entitled to and if they want to go one step further and make sure the player doesn't suddenly decide to leave....then also in the off-season or during the season, the club or Captain can get that player to state on the team thread that he is "Under-Contract" for that team for however long they eventually decide on.

People that say there might be rifts between Captains and players that leave.....well there might be, but those people should deadset grow-up and learn that not everything can go there way and that you can still be mates even if a player leaves your team.
There would be a deadline to re-sign players just like in the NRL, so there are no hassles of worry about signing or re-signing players during the season.

Does anyone have anything to put foward to this argument?
Does anyone agree or Disagree?

I personally think it will greatly help the game overall and hope it could possibly be passed as a rule.

 

[terracesider]

It seems to me a minor miracle that the Forum 7s have not just lasted this season, but have become reasonably firmly established . Some people must have put a lot of work in to ensure that. With respect RedDragon, if some people could

... deadset grow-up and learn that not everything can go there way and that you can still be mates even if a player leaves your team

it might stand a chance; but human nature being what it is, and RL fans being the argumentative lot that we are, your proposal could be a recipe for tearing the whole thing apart.

 

[Seano]

I think that reds idea could work - but it needs to have everyones support

 

[eloquentEEL]

I'm fairly new to Forum 7's... ie. only debuted this round, but I think it is good for the competition if players can move around.

If one club is hoarding a long player list, then if they are really worthwhile players to have, they would be happy moving to another club just to get a start. If they're happy to keep warming the bench at the club with heaps of players, then you probably don't want them anyway as they are probably unwilling to write very often.

 

[Anonymous]

Players will play for whoever they want... it's as simple as that. IMO, it's near impossible to regulate player distribution.

Captains who have built up a strong team base and can field a full team deserve congratulations, not penalties.

The problem is really to with there being a smaller player pool. Last year, there were more players putting up their hands thereby giving the captains something to work with.
But the shit hit the fan with arguments going unchecked. The competition was given the flick by the hosts who censored any further discussion on the breakaway competition's location. Subsequently, the player pool suffered enormously. But that's all behind us now.

Sure, we've had more than our fair share of setbacks but the F7s have survived. We can say without a shadow of doubt that we now have the basis for a competition. Plus with the membership of Leagueunlimited growing as we speak, the player pool will only get bigger.

I'm sure that next season will see new teams forming and plenty of new players coming on board. It's going to be massive.

 

[The Engineers Room]

Willow can we please limit the number of teams to 8, just to ensure that we don't get 4 or 5 collapses like this year, infact I think we had more like 10 this year due to the moving of sites as well as players just deciding to quit.

 

[Collateral]

One of the main benifits coming from the player poaching is that the weaker clubs can try and draw players from other clubs if they cannot lure new players to the game.
I have been trying for quiete some time to lure new players not just to Souths, but to the game as a whole, and so far my success rate is 0%. It is not easy. People either claim to not have enough time to type up articles or Not want anything to do with Forum Sevens due to the crap that went on just prior and during the split in the competition.

Having the player poaching with the salary cap would be a great way of fairly distributing players already within the competition. It could work out really well.
But for it to work we need:
*A salary Cap on how many players a club can poach.
*Strict Rules for Poaching and re-signing players.
*Weak clubs to be exempt from being poached while they are low on player numbers.

More rules obviously could be made up as we go along and encounter difficulties etc.

I seriously think it will help the game out greatly, IF it is done properly and fairly.
It would also add a new element of fun and competition to the game.

We have to remeber that player poaching shouldnt be made to change the face of the game....but it is more of a minor improvement to the gameplay.

 

[Collateral]

Players will play for whoever they want... it's as simple as that. IMO, it's near impossible to regulate player distribution.

Players wont leave a club if there is no offer for them to leave.

Captains who have built up a strong team base and can field a full team deserve congratulations, not penalties.

This isnt a penalty on anyone.
Captains that develop a strong team base might end up losing a few of their good players who aren't getting as good a run as they like to other teams.
This benifits both the player and the new team.

As I said before, you could re-sign your players for X amount of season which would stop them from leaving as they would have to state in the team thread that they have re-signed for X amount of years.

 

[El Coconuto]

Hey dudes and dudettes, long time no see...how's things haninging in here?

Thought I'd drop in a few remarks whilst I'm passing through.

From what I remember, I don't think there has ever been a rule against player poaching since the Forum Seven's first started, it was just severely frowned upon.

As I've always maintained, this competition has the potential to be something big. Unfortunately, I didn't get the opportunity to participate in this years competition due to enlarged writing commitments elsewhere in the sporting world.

I still believe however that Willow has an enormous talent pool in this competition to still make something special of it. But if you don't mind me saying, the first thing I'd be worrying about in this competition before a 'poaching salary cap' is establishing a firm player base. Having teams post only one or two articles (as was the case when I left, and admittedly I haven't been back often enough to see if it's gotten any better or worse) is a farce and doesn't make the competition any more appealing to the onlooking public. But that can be remedied. Whilst I don't want to see any team be axed from the competition, there has got to be some way to compile more players into teams. Too many teams, not enough players?

Up to you guys and gals to change what happens I suppose. Hope all goes well and best of luck with the upcoming finals series! May the best team win ;-)

Cheers.