Crawley Files: Leadership needed over NRL transfer market fiasco
Paul Crawley, The Daily Telegraph
May 18, 2017 10:25am
Subscriber only
SO
Mitchell Moses will have his first game for Parramatta on Saturday and already we’ve moved on.
On the same day the Wests Tigers soap opera was finally put to bed a new drama emerged at South Sydney.
Apparently,
Cody Walker is upset the Rabbitohs have offered Dane Gagai a three-year deal worth around $2 million to quit Newcastle.
I totally understand what Walker is on about. Imagine if you found out your company wanted to bring in a new person to do your job and pay them three times as much?
You’d be filthy.
But apparently NRL players aren’t allowed to get filthy because they are “professionals”.
Not since Super League have players been hung out to dry as badly as this year because of the transfer market fiasco.
It is time for one of those highly-paid suits at the NRL to stand up and fix the problem.
Give direction. Show leadership.
Stop allowing players to be used up by a system that seems specifically designed to destroy any semblance of loyalty that remains in the game today.
Artwork: Scott ‘Boo’ Bailey
Critics say these players are highly paid and it is their responsibility to go out and play to the best of their ability regardless of turmoil behind the scenes.
Get real. Moses is 22, for goodness sake.
Everyone wonders why he played like a busted against Souths last Friday night.
Ivan Cleary came out and recognised the transfer market was having an impact on players.
Let’s not forget the Tigers’ part in this.
Moses had an offer on the table, then it was taken away the moment Luke Brooks committed to his new deal.
It was Cleary who decided to make re-signing James Tedesco and Aaron Woods his priority.
Of course, Cleary then signed Josh Reynolds for huge money but still missed out on Tedesco and Woods. So the fans booed the players.
Cleary then said Moses wouldn’t be released. Then he said he would.
Then Cleary played no talkies before last week’s performance obviously forced his hand.
Wests Tigers coach Ivan Cleary.
People will say Cleary and the Tigers were within their rights.
But Moses should have honoured his deal for this year?
Talk about double standards. This is across the game.
What everyone seems to forget, or conveniently ignore, is that NRL players are also human, and often it is the youngest and least experienced who struggle most.
Peter Sterling suggested Moses came across as though he was sulking.
“Once you cross that white line you’re a first grade player,” Sterling said.
“And your reputation is on the line and he dented it last week.”
Which is fair enough in theory, but is it reality?
Players are open to public scrutiny every waking moment of their lives. Not just in the mainstream press.
When Sterlo played in the 1980s, only two games a week were on TV, and there were no mobile phones or social media.
Now every game is live, every player’s stats are live.
As well as all the free-to-air games and panel shows, the NRL now has its own dedicated channel full of shows like Sterlo On The Couch that dissect every player’s performance and personality hour after hour.
In the 80s, Rex Mossop’s Sunday show was it.
Today fans will know before a player if his partner is up to no good. Even if she isn’t, that doesn’t stop speculation becoming public, as we have seen.
Cody Walker in action for the Rabbitohs.
Last weekend Brooks was out with his brother and a fight allegedly started through no fault of the Tigers halfback.
Again, that didn’t stop the moment being filmed and run as lead story on the national Sunday evening news.
It even got priority over Donald Trump v Kim Jong-un.
And we wonder why players are struggling to cope, why there is a growing use of illicit drugs?
Coaches tell you a team only has to be a bit off on any given day and it will have a significant impact on their performance.
You see clubs like Canberra and Penrith struggling this year because of weight of expectation.
This transfer market circus is affecting so many players, even if we don’t realise how much in respect to individuals who aren’t even having their contracts played out in the headlines.
Only the NRL can fix this.
No one is saying it should have a plan right now but by the start of next season it should.
It is no use continuing to ignore the problem. The NRL needs to work with the coaches, the players’ association, the clubs and agents to come up with a best solution. It is never going to please everyone, never going to be perfect, but can’t the game do better than this?
For someone to stand up and say: “We are going to do it because we want to protect the players, the fans, and the clubs.”
If you are running any business with problems it is up to the people in charge to come up with answers. Otherwise, you get someone else to do the job, or that company dies.
That’s how it works everywhere bar the NRL, it seems.