Random Tigers articles from the media

[Ned Kelly]

From todays herald part 1

If Ryan Papenhuyzen was paid his true worth, he might be able to afford a haircut.

The Melbourne Storm fullback is, if not the best player in the National Rugby League, certainly in what they like to call The Conversation. He won the Clive Churchill Medal for his performance in the 2020 grand final and is repeatedly the dynamo in the Storm machine, his smarts and speed contributing the sprinkle of fairy dust to his club’s everlasting success.
Better than Tom Trbojevic? James Tedesco? Although the Storm can win without Papenhuyzen, so he is not quite as essential to his club, he is in their class. Craig Bellamy would not trade his No.1 for any other. Papenhuyzen is such a star, he has even won over many a Storm-hater; he is just a dazzling footballer, and when he tilts that funny-shaped head to two o’clock and tucks the ball under his arm, there is no better sight.
Despite the visual evidence, Papenhuyzen has been taking a haircut all along. His current salary does not figure in the top three, the top 10, the top 50, or even the top 100 NRL players. What do Corey Norman, Josh Dugan, Anthony Milford, Moses Mbye, Dallin Watene-Zelezniak and Valentine Holmes have in common? All are utilities-slash-fullbacks, all paid considerably more than Papenhuyzen.

At current valuations, you could get three Papenhuyzens for one Ben Hunt. Matt Moylan could be paid for half a season and still pocket more than Papenhuyzen. Even within the Storm, Papenhuyzen is on junior’s wages. He has just signed an upgraded contract, reportedly worth $2 million over three seasons. If so, he will still be earning less than Chad Townsend or Luke Brooks.
If you’re wondering what the Papenhuyzen is going on here, you have stumbled across the answer to why Melbourne continue to dominate the NRL year after year, why they will also win the minor premiership next year and the year after. They have found the secret to beating (not, any more, cheating) the salary cap.
Papenhuyzen signed for Melbourne in 2019 on considerably less than the $600,000 the Tigers were then prepared to offer him to return to his first club. He wasn’t driven by money; he was driven by Bellamy. Before penning his extension this year, Papenhuyzen wanted assurances that Bellamy would continue to coach Melbourne. Bellamy duly extended. The young fullback is a smart fellow: he wants to learn from the best coach and win premierships.

Melbourne have kept their team together with the Bellamy discount. In Harry Grant and Brandon Smith, they have the NRL’s best two hookers. Thanks to the Bellamy discount, neither earns in the top three. Smith is flirting with other clubs but will inevitably continue winning premierships with Melbourne while being paid “unders”.

 

[Ned Kelly]

Part 2

The Storm have taken the economic motive out of contracts. Justin Olam is one of the best outside backs playing, yet the NRL hasn’t yet heard of him (he can’t even get an invitation to the Dally Ms); he is another bargain buy. Melbourne’s meat-and-potatoes forwards, representative stars all, are paid quite a lot less than Russell Packer or Andrew Fifita. Weaker clubs pay a premium for weaker players. Melbourne get a discount on champions. Some animals are more equal than others.

Nice business if you can do it. This is no criticism of Melbourne, who, unlike the Roosters, have developed their own premiership-winning key players. They can lure and retain their footballers with a credible promise of glory and personal growth. The Storm turn pumpkins into fine carriages, who turn back into pumpkins when they leave. If those players eventually want a financial dividend after making sacrifices to represent Melbourne, they can get it from another club later in their career (Josh Addo-Carr, Dale Finucane, Adam Blair) or from rugby (Suliasi Vunivalu, Marika Koroibete). There will always be a buyer ready to pick up something second-hand from the Storm.

It’s the perfect loophole in a salary cap system stuck in the past, where the dollar was the “objective” way to value players. The cap was meant to even the competition out: give advantages to the weak and take them away from the winners. But when a million-dollar player decides to play for unders, the assumption underlying that system – that money drives the players’ decision on where they play – cracks.
When a whole group of players buck the financial motive, the cap has finally failed. Instead of being penalised, Melbourne have been rewarded for their success: they get Ryan Papenhuyzen for the same portion of their salary cap as the Tigers, say, get Adam Doueihi. And you wonder why your team will finish in the same spot next year.

The NRL does nothing about this because, among other reasons, it likes the Storm. The league holds up the Storm as a model for other clubs. Storm players say their pleases and thank yous and turn up to meetings properly dressed and on time. The Storm can’t beat the AFL – hence their adjusted timeslot when they play Penrith in Saturday’s preliminary final – but they can, and do, beat the NRL.
It’s a deliberate and provocative policy of social engineering from the league. Its message to the other clubs is, if you want to be like Melbourne … then be like Melbourne.

To anyone other than head office, this idealism is somewhat daft. Newsflash: there can only be one winner. So you can’t actually be like Melbourne if Melbourne are still being like Melbourne. There is only one Bellamy, and they’ve got him. The 15 other clubs can copy everything Melbourne does and improve their “culture”, but one of them is still going to receive the wooden spoon. It is a zero sum game. So when it thinks it is holding Melbourne up as an incentive, the league is instead creating a positive feedback loop where the more a club wins, the more top-quality footballers will discount their market value to fit into that club’s cap. Like all the best market manipulations, it’s totally legal.
An AFL-style draft would begin to fix inequalities, plus a more considered, fair and rational system for valuing players than a broken marketplace; but the NRL is still to show an interest. It is tediously obsessed with competing against the AFL, but in its eagerness to showcase its southern team, it has created a same-old same-old competition, whereas the AFL, which has a functional salary cap, this weekend puts on a grand final to capture the imagination between a team that has not won since 1964 and a team that has won once since 1954.


Bringing to mind the doctor who declares the operation a success notwithstanding the death of the patient, the NRL will proudly declare this season one of terrific achievement and resounding superbness, notwithstanding its failure to organise a fair competition that gave 90 per cent of fans any remote hope of seeing their club succeed.
Meanwhile, if you want to know why we love league, watch Papenhuyzen.
And don’t tell him he needs a haircut; he’s already taken a big on

 

[Ned Kelly]

So we will never pay overs for a player ever again because we have the coaching staff that will attract players at true cost.
Can't wait to see our signings this year that will make us genuine title contenders,

 

[The Silverdale Phantom]

Thanks for posting that Ned.

Some very good points were made by the author.

It seems to be that Melbourne’s perpetual success over the last 20 years has not been as endearing to most fans as the NRL had hoped. I’m over it for sure. Its yawn fest.

But Craig Bellamy can’t be held accountable or held in derision for being an exceptional coach. That’s a bit extreme.

Id support a draft in some capacity.

Trent Barrett has attracted some massive talent to the dogs.

 

[Tiger05]

So we will never pay overs for a player ever again because we have the coaching staff that will attract players at true cost.

That article is great. My take out from that article is very different to this take though. We offered Paps a really good salary and he still didn't come. The Storm paid him less.

The way to get ahead in my opinion is by retaining players for fair money. You are going to have to pay over to recruit players.

Aloiai is a classic example. We couldn't keep him because Manly offered him overs. Some players but definitely not all stay at the Storm for less than they could earn elsewhere. We've had a culture of players staying but only on top dollar. Benji, Robbie and Nofo are 3 examples of this occuring.

 

[The Silverdale Phantom]

I think paps is over rated, but that’s just me.

Very few players extend their excellence over time.

 

[stryker]

I think paps is over rated, but that’s just me.

Very few players extend their excellence over time.

I agree.
Melbourne we’re more formidable this year when he was out.
Better fullback than Tedesco and Turbo? Not on his best day.

 

[WT Unity]

I agree.
Melbourne we’re more formidable this year when he was out.
Better fullback than Tedesco and Turbo? Not on his best day.

Yeah - How good was Nicho Hynes during that period!!
Although Paps still pretty handy but not yet near Turbo or Teddy

 

[Fordy20]

That article is great. My take out from that article is very different to this take though. We offered Paps a really good salary and he still didn't come. The Storm paid him less.

Hopefully it puts paid to the bullshit story that we didn’t want Paps back when he was offered back to us. $600k sounds like we did want him back to me.

 

[BrotherJim05]

Really good article, something that has been an issue in NRL for a long time, and I'm personally a massive fan of a Rookie draft. The only issue though is that junior development is handled by the clubs, meaning that if we had a draft there would no longer be any incentive for them to do so. On top of this, NRL players are by far the biggest whingers of any professional sport. The moment they end up in a team they don't like they will get out of it to go to a team like Storm (which is the issue the article mentioned). If we had a draft, we would need to first fix NRL contracts

 

[Magpies Forever]

Really good article, something that has been an issue in NRL for a long time, and I'm personally a massive fan of a Rookie draft. The only issue though is that junior development is handled by the clubs, meaning that if we had a draft there would no longer be any incentive for them to do so. On top of this, NRL players are by far the biggest whingers of any professional sport. The moment they end up in a team they don't like they will get out of it to go to a team like Storm (which is the issue the article mentioned). If we had a draft, we would need to first fix NRL contracts

I've said it many times across different forums, juniors development and competitions up to Reserve grade should be managed by the NRL Why have some clubs with the cost of running this and other clubs with little or no development structure picking the eyes out if the development players in those clubs that do. Have the NRL clubs responsibility for First and reserve grade with maybe a total of 60 to 70 players on the books and then a draft each season of the development players coming up from the NRL run development. You can potentially build considerations into it Inc wanting to stay in same city / state.edit- you could maybe even include players putting their name forward from overseas competitions if not already caught by a NRL club. It's also a way of putting some boundaries on both club poaching of juniors and player managers playing power games.

 

[simmo05]

Whatever happened to the market value that stopped Parramatta signing falau? That's the f**king problem, a 200k haircut per year is not market value! And considering the storm's lead the nrl a few years ago in tpa payments, you would think red flags would have been raised with the nrl when players are signing for f**k all. Mitchell signed for hundreds of thousands less at souffs, that ain't market value either!

 

[BrotherJim05]

The whole market value argument is completely flawed. Who determines what market value is? It is completely open to corruption and there are so many factors to be considered that it simply won't work.

The idea (that I believe Phil Gould came up with) is that if a player wants to get our of their contract early they have to go into a waiver wire situation in which bottom clubs can opt to sign them first.

Obviously players will have a cry saying that they can't move to X because of family reasons but we all know its usually a crock of shit to get what they want

 

[gordsy]

If you want junior footy to thrive put more money into schools. Take 10% of each clubs cap and put into into grass roots. Divide the state up into regions and put funds and people into the community. All club and player fines go towards this as well.

 

[The Silverdale Phantom]

The career of the average NRL footballer is only about 43 games.

Imagine playing 12 years of footy or whatever for two seasons on the base salary.

Its such a brutal sport. Churns through youngsters at an alarming rate. Then as we all know, almost every NRL player is carrying some kind of injury that lasts well beyond the career.

Money into schools is really good idea, free academies, tutoring and even motivational skills. Families need help with expenses getting Johnny to the games. Invest in diets, even help with education proper as the good players spend less time studying due to game and training. And shock horror, let the aspirational kids in for free to watch the nrl games, enjoy the game and learn things. Let them meet the coaches give them internships, work experience, really absorb the big club environment. Hopefully become good young men as well. There's a billion things you could do.

 

[Shredder]

I remember the AFL did this when I was a kid. They came to the school and gave out footballs and backpacks. From memory it was a few years before the Bloods relocated to Sydney. Now most young fellas wouldnt even know they were a relocated club.

I think the NRL grant is supposed to pay clubs to do this already. It looks like for our boys it funds all those hospital visits they do. My son goes to St Patricks in Strathfield which is a bolted on Rugby club. Douehi went to school there. He's never seen a Tiger player or representative walk in there.

 

[simmo05]

The whole market value argument is completely flawed. Who determines what market value is? It is completely open to corruption and there are so many factors to be considered that it simply won't work.

The idea (that I believe Phil Gould came up with) is that if a player wants to get our of their contract early they have to go into a waiver wire situation in which bottom clubs can opt to sign them first.

Obviously players will have a cry saying that they can't move to X because of family reasons but we all know its usually a crock of shit to get what they want

What the market is prepared to pay is market value. The fact that paps was able to sign for well under his value hugely corruptible. Same as Mitchell before him.

 

[Old Time Tiger]

My son goes to St Patricks in Strathfield which is a bolted on Rugby club. Douehi went to school there. He's never seen a Tiger player or representative walk in there.

Shredder, I believe the NRL clubs know what up and coming junior they want and more importantly, know what school he goes to. St Pats might have 3 kids that the Tigers are looking at, even the Dogs on the other side of Strathfield might be interested in 2 of those 3 and the clubs will be doing a dance with them and their parents, the new way is not to waste time doing fan day at particular schools because of the number of school in their 'districts'.

The clubs 'invite' kids to their junior rep trials as well with the club junior coaches watching not only the 3 from St Pats but others from far and wide, it maybe not right but its what they do. The flip side of it is, 1 club might go to a school that borders 2 districts just to get in front of the other club (maybe St Pats at Blacktown is an example there) and a kid says stuff Parra, those Penrith guys are pretty good.

Rugby and Rugby League don't do much for grass roots compared to AFL but at least in rugby league the money comes down from the NRL club to help finance the junior clubs, soccer on the other hand costs parents a fortune as the money from rego goes up to support the Australia team.

 

[Ned Kelly]

On the NRL webb site Jamie Soward predicts the Tigers finishing 15th next year. They were my thoughts too, I figured as we progress to the bottom of the ladder why rush it? Why not spread it out....2nd last next year then in the final year of Madge's current contract (which will be extended for stability when talk resumes about him not having success and the inability to attract quality players) we get the spoon.

That all changed when to my delight on the Wests Tigers webb site they announced..

"Wests Tigers unveil new look ahead of 2022 NRL season Wests Tigers have proudly unveiled a new logo and brand as the club embarks on a new direction for the 2022 season and beyond."

A new direction. Wow. Pretty exciting stuff eh? I had no idea. Here I was thinking we are heading into a new year with pretty much the same crap as the last few years.

"The new logo is a natural progression from the previous logo — ensuring the rich history of Wests Tigers is still encased within — while also providing an up-to-date modern look."

Interesting way to ensure the rich history of the club is encased by removing any trace of the Magpie. I thought our logo to date had been very clever.

“With the official completion of our Centre of Excellence in the coming months, we are about to embark on an incredibly exciting new era for Wests Tigers and the revitalisation of our logo and brand aligns with the bright future that lies ahead.”

What a relief. New Centre of Excellence and a new logo changes everything to a bright future. I'm buying my Grand Final tickets today.

 

[Tiger05]

I'm with you Ned. I've never felt more confident that we are going to win the comp with our new logo.

f**k yeah !