Rugby Australia to target top NRL talent

[Perth Red]

so those 2 South African union school boys would have made it in the NRL if there were cap incentives?


What is the value for the NRL in using money to pay top line union players rather than spend it in other ways?
Owen farrell looks to be getting 1m/year playing union in france so imagine he would want 1.5m to play in the NRL. Spread that over 5 RU players could just increase the NRL salary cap by $500k per club instead

Not necessarily but instead of 2 signings maybe its 20 plus and then some of them would have likely made it.
At the moment there is little incentive to sign a Union player in the hope they can make the switch to league skills. Take away the cap risk and we'd see a lot more given a go I suspect. Also its not a 'and or situation'. It should be a multi pronged attack strategy!
Bigger overall cap than union can afford, targeting of best Union kids with incentives such as schools and scholarships, cap incentives for the new clubs to sign established union players, scouting systems in PI and South African Union camps etc etc.

 

[Wb1234]

I wouldnt be doing it for publicity, Id be doing it for talent and to help build three new squads without too much dilution to the other 17.
I dont follow Union so no idea where there talent currently is but having enjoyed watching the likes of Offiah, Davies, Tait, Fairburn, Sullivan and many many other Union converts over the decades I'm sure there is plenty of talent in the Union ranks that could be adapted to be quality players in League.

Those days are long gone

Top level Union players would take ages to get used to the defence required in league

And the fitness too

It’s funny seeing Union weakened but if the nrl really wants more players it should start rewarding clubs who invest in juniors

There’s those two wallabies players signed to the titans and roosters let’s see how they adapt to the nrl

 

[bazza]

The point I was making about the Sth African union players is that’s it’s a high risk signing for nrl clubs, if there were cap incentives clubs would be more willing to take the risk. The roosters have recently signed 2 french players, 1 of them has gone back to France while the other is in their SG ball team, again another high risk signing by the roosters but other clubs could take the risk with cap incetives.

Is there a salary cap on Flegg/SG Ball?
Seems the Roosters are willing to take a risk given they don't have access to juniors like other clubs. Maybe as the comp grows other clubs might search further afield.
There seem to be next to no PNG players in the junior rep teams despite having plenty of juniors actually playing RL there

What is the value for NRL clubs to sign top Union players ?? The obvious answer is to add a world class player to their team, if average union players like Warbrick and Thompson can be successful imagine what the elite union players could do. The NRL could also increase interest OS leading to an increase to international broadcast rights.

so paying $2m for Owen Farrell to play for the Eels would make the money back five fold with extra interest from British RU fans become Eels fans?

 

[bazza]

Bigger overall cap than union can afford, targeting of best Union kids with incentives such as schools and scholarships, cap incentives for the new clubs to sign established union players, scouting systems in PI and South African Union camps etc etc.

don't need cap incentives to offer scholarships to SA/PI union players to come to Australia or to have scouts in those regions

 

[Perth Red]

don't need cap incentives to offer scholarships to SA/PI union players to come to Australia or to have scouts in those regions

no you don't., but you do need them to encourage clubs to sign established Union players who are already earning a decent wage and who would be a gamble to take on the books in a cap controlled world.
Costs NRl nothing and could be a boost to playing talent depth at a time we need to find an additional 100 first graders within 5 years.

 

[taste2taste]

so paying $2m for Owen Farrell to play for the Eels would make the money back five fold with extra interest from British RU fans become Eels fans?

If there were cap incentives the eels would lose roughly 1m out of their cap, the other 1m would be paid from 3rd parties. Getting arguably the best half in world union would absolutely be worth the risk.

Would 1 player signing with the eels increase international broadcast rights ? No, of course not. But signing half a dozen of the top union players would 100% increase OS interest. And that was my point many posts ago, the NRL should be aiming to be the NBA of rugby union/league, having the worlds best players in the NRL.

 

[Wb1234]

If there were cap incentives the eels would lose roughly 1m out of their cap, the other 1m would be paid from 3rd parties. Getting arguably the best half in world union would absolutely be worth the risk.

Would 1 player signing with the eels increase international broadcast rights ? No, of course not. But signing half a dozen of the top union players would 100% increase OS interest. And that was my point many posts ago, the NRL should be aiming to be the NBA of rugby union/league, having the worlds best players in the NRL.

What’s he actually worth as a league player if Cleary is 1.3 million? 700k

If you pay him 2 million then the actual good league players will all want pay rises

 

[Perth Red]

What’s he actually worth as a league player if Cleary is 1.3 million? 700k

If you pay him 2 million then the actual good league players will all want pay rises

And there in lies the problem, and the risk. He might be better than Cleary, unlikely but possible but would you take that much of a cap risk? No.

This is where the overall cap rising comes into play. Ideally you'd want your star NRL players to be earning say 10-20% more than any star Union player could. Say a star Union player is earning $1.5mill in union, your star NRL player is earning $1.8mill. (Googling it looks like there's only a couple of Union players on that sort of money with the rest under $1mill https://frontofficesports.com/highest-paid-rugby-players/)

You're not going to risk $1mill+ of your cap on a Union player but you could offer him $1.2mill if its only costing $600k on the cap then it would be worth the risk. It'd be time limited say 2-3 years each player. Takes the risk away whilst attracting their top talent to NRL. I reckon if you seriously scouted across the Union world there'd easily be 50 or so players you'd take the risk on.

IF the next TV deal lands the $100millplus a year increase then its quite possible we could see NRL star earnings heading to around $1.5mill

 

[taste2taste]

What’s he actually worth as a league player if Cleary is 1.3 million? 700k

If you pay him 2 million then the actual good league players will all want pay rises

As well as salary cap incentives to sign union players we should have 2 marquee players per team, the same as super league.

That will insure that the top 34 players are paid their true worth, we never lose them to union and we spread the top talent over all 17 teams so the sme 3 teams don’t win every year.

 

[shadowformz]

I think you missed the point of his post tbh. Signing quality union players, particularly under 20s from other countries like SA expands the player pool and potential growth outside of Australia. Rugby union has quite a strong presence in WA by the way

There's a very large expat South African population in Perth, and I think if the Perth Bears were ever able to sign a topline Springbok it would be a good way to engage this population. Someone like Canan Moodie would be perfect.

 

[Perth Red]

There's a very large expat South African population in Perth, and I think if the Perth Bears were ever able to sign a topline Springbok it would be a good way to engage this population. Someone like Canan Moodie would be perfect.

Way back when the Western reds had a strategy of having a footprint in Sth Africa and using it as a talent pool. Some of the first games the Reds club played were on a 3 match tour in Sth Africa in 1994!


It'd be good if the new club had the same ambition and vision.

 

[Wb1234]

As well as salary cap incentives to sign union players we should have 2 marquee players per team, the same as super league.

That will insure that the top 34 players are paid their true worth, we never lose them to union and we spread the top talent over all 17 teams so the sme 3 teams don’t win every year.

Who do we lose these days that’s any good

Union wanna pay wingers one million a season let them lol

Nrl wages will grow in time with the new tv deal and expansion

 

[taste2taste]

Who do we lose these days that’s any good

Union wanna pay wingers one million a season let them lol

Nrl wages will grow in time with the new tv deal and expansion

We lost Suallii and Joey Manu this year and would have lost Crichton if RA hadn’t stuffed up the deal.

The best reason for marquee players is spreading the top talent across all 17 teams so all teams have a chance of winning the comp. If the NRL wants to maximise attendance and broadcast revenue having fans engaged across all 17 teams is the only way to do it.

 

[Jetka100]

RA go for the big sugar rush of signing a player like Suaalii on overs and get some initial publicity. NRL needs to concentrate on slowly choking union out by taking away the promising juniors and ensuring the Wallabies remain a mid tier country. Their television broadcast money will fall even more behind NRL and Super Rugby will become even further irrelevant. Good junior players will be faced with the option of trying to crack a spot in 4 super rugby teams and earn less or try and get a spot in 18 to 20 NRL teams. A national under 21 competition also allows junior league players even more professional development. If the NRL were smart they would agree to either fund these players with a uni degree or arrange an apprenticeship or a decent job, so if they don’t make the leap to the top grade, they know there is something to fall back on. This should be made mandatory for all players in the under 21s. This would be a great way to attract talent, especially from Pacific nations.

 

[Wb1234]

RA go for the big sugar rush of signing a player like Suaalii on overs and get some initial publicity. NRL needs to concentrate on slowly choking union out by taking away the promising juniors and ensuring the Wallabies remain a mid tier country. Their television broadcast money will fall even more behind NRL and Super Rugby will become even further irrelevant. Good junior players will be faced with the option of trying to crack a spot in 4 super rugby teams and earn less or try and get a spot in 18 to 20 NRL teams. A national under 21 competition also allows junior league players even more professional development. If the NRL were smart they would agree to either fund these players with a uni degree or arrange an apprenticeship or a decent job, so if they don’t make the leap to the top grade, they know there is something to fall back on. This should be made mandatory for all players in the under 21s. This would be a great way to attract talent, especially from Pacific nations.

Channel nine may be dropping the Union tv rights to focus on a big bid for nrl

Current nrl tv deal 430 million

Nz and Australia combined union deal 130 million

 

[bazza]

If there were cap incentives the eels would lose roughly 1m out of their cap, the other 1m would be paid from 3rd parties. Getting arguably the best half in world union would absolutely be worth the risk.

Would 1 player signing with the eels increase international broadcast rights ? No, of course not. But signing half a dozen of the top union players would 100% increase OS interest. And that was my point many posts ago, the NRL should be aiming to be the NBA of rugby union/league, having the worlds best players in the NRL.

signing multiple top line NRL players to the Wallabies certainly made them popular

 

[bazza]

We lost Suallii and Joey Manu this year and would have lost Crichton if RA hadn’t stuffed up the deal.

The best reason for marquee players is spreading the top talent across all 17 teams so all teams have a chance of winning the comp. If the NRL wants to maximise attendance and broadcast revenue having fans engaged across all 17 teams is the only way to do it.

Manu said that he didn't want to play for another NRL team so went to Japan. Not sure how this would help that situation

 

[bazza]

If the NRL were smart they would agree to either fund these players with a uni degree or arrange an apprenticeship or a decent job, so if they don’t make the leap to the top grade, they know there is something to fall back on. This should be made mandatory for all players in the under 21s. This would be a great way to attract talent, especially from Pacific nations.

Pretty sure that the NRL have these programs all ready

 

[Jetka100]

Pretty sure that the NRL have these programs all ready

I’m sure they do to a limited degree, but this was more about leveraging off a new national u21 competition to really ramp up the pursuit of young talent into the game, especially the Pacific nations. Maybe they could use it to get a few US athletes on board who don’t want to end up with horrendous student loans.

 

[bazza]

Maybe they could use it to get a few US athletes on board who don’t want to end up with horrendous student loans.

Pretty sure if you are a good athlete in the US you can get a university degree without paying