Rugby Australia to target top NRL talent

[T.S Quint]

Household names in this article. To quote the great one, "never heard of the f***ers", unless they originally came from League, ie Vunivalu.

There was a time around 20 years ago when I could have named maybe half of the players in the Wallabies team, and I don't watch Union at all.

These days the only one I could name is Suaalii. They don't seem to have much of a presence in the media anymore.

 

[ParraEelsNRL]

The ARLC should gift each NRL club an extra 1 million a year to blow on any junior Springboks they can get and bring through the system. In 3-5 years we'd have a decent Test playing nation to add to the list and I'm quite sure it would piss every single Union fan off more than anything else besides merging with League and adopting League rules. Please do it Peter, even just for the shits n giggles it would cause.

 

[Billythekid]

Good post. The numbers don't stack up. The NRL and AFL have billion plus dollar broadcast deals but RA with $30M coming in has Australia's highest paid football player at $2M a season. Seems incredibly unsustainable to spend just under 10% of your broadcast revenue on one player at a time when you are $50M in debt.

Also incredibly risky taking on debt based on projected revenue rather than based on hard assets. Looking forward to the already feeble house of cards falling in on itself further.

The players they’re talking about poaching are also much better and in higher demand. They would have to pay a small fortune to lure Cleary across. The truth is they’ve almost bankrupted their game competing with the NRL and wasting huge amounts of money poaching our players.

We’re about to expand aggressively, there is going to be more money in league than ever before. There is also going to be more teams looking for players than ever before. This is a losing strategy from the ARU.

Im not saying I have the answer either, they’re in a tough spot. Trying to outspend and outmuscle your rival who has FAR more resources doesn’t feel like the answer to me though.

 

[bazza]

if anything, the NRL should give salary cup discounts to any player that choses to play for an international team that isn't Australia

That way it could build up the international game and also allow discounts for RU players from outside Australia

 

[Foreign Legion]

How many NRL players dose the ARU want they only have 4 pro clubs Australia wide... The best will end up playing in European Rugby for bigger $$$ and the Super rugby will end up being super zhitter then it already is. Remember the Wallabhave just won one game, wait until they hit the loosing streak.

 

[Wb1234]

How many NRL players dose the ARU want they only have 4 pro clubs Australia wide... The best will end up playing in European Rugby for bigger $$$ and the Super rugby will end up being super zhitter then it already is. Remember the Wallabhave just won one game, wait until they hit the loosing streak.

If they could fill the wallabies with all league players that would be their dream

Oh wait that’s the kangaroos

 

[shadowformz]

Not shore if this is the right spot for this link, but I've popped it here anyway. It's starting to feel like there's big changes coming for rugby union/league internationally. The sooner the NRL secures extra funding to increase salary caps the better .

https://www.theroar.com.au/2024/11/15/rugby-stars-sign-up-to-f1-style-breakaway-competition-in-bombshell-move/

 

[taste2taste]

Not shore if this is the right spot for this link, but I've popped it here anyway. It's starting to feel like there's big changes coming for rugby union/league internationally. The sooner the NRL secures extra funding to increase salary caps the better .

https://www.theroar.com.au/2024/11/15/rugby-stars-sign-up-to-f1-style-breakaway-competition-in-bombshell-move/

Highly doubt this will happen and if it did it will flop after 1 season. They are talking about selling out stadiums in the USA to watch union. Dream on !

They won’t be interested in NRL players that no one outside of Australia has heard of. To get someone like Cleary they’d have to offer about 3mil, anything below that and the NRL would match it To keep him here.

If this comp went ahead it would decimate domestic union comps all over the world.

If Union fans don’t want it who’s going to watch?