The Irvine solution: market principles can save rugby league from itself
ADRIAN PROSZENKO
May 2, 2010 AFTER all the bleating about the cheating, someone has finally provided a reasoned alternative to the much-maligned salary cap.
Cronulla chairman Damian Irvine (right) has proposed a points system to replace the cap, which rewards loyalty and allows players to earn as much as clubs are prepared to pay them. Instead of players being ascribed a monetary value under a cap, they would be given a points rating depending on their level of experience. Players without NRL experience take up two points under Irvine's proposal, while those with recent representative experience take up the maximum number, six. NRL clubs have the task of assembling their top-25 squad without going over 100 points.
Irvine first came up with the idea eight years ago but finally decided to make it public following the Melbourne Storm's rorting revelations.
''The salary cap system has proven very difficult to police over the years, despite all the auditing,'' Irvine said. ''Even one of the perceptively better-run clubs over the years, the one we have all looked to as the benchmark, has fallen foul of the cap.
''It's probably fair to say that it's not the best way to do it. My point here is that you need to use market principles and say 'how can we make that player less attractive [to rivals]?'.''
To that end, Irvine has formulated a series of incentives which reward players and clubs for loyalty. After three years at any club, a player's points index decreases by one point a season, although the value can never drop below four points. So a Test player such as Benji Marshall, for instance, would normally cost the Wests Tigers six points. However, because he has remained loyal to the club at which he made his NRL debut in 2003, the Tigers can keep him on the books at a cost of only four points. But rival clubs that want to poach him would have to put him on their roster at the full six points. Irvine was also fine-tuning a discount system for local juniors.
The fans have clearly lost faith in the salary cap system. In a
Herald website poll this week (see above), readers were asked whether Melbourne was the only club cheating the salary cap. The poll received more than 10,000 responses, with 92 per cent saying 'no'.
''Clubs often get decimated after a grand final win because footballers who have made their name at the club they are at get squeezed out by the cap,'' Irvine said. ''This plan solves the local junior problem and encourages clubs to develop them.
''The artificial balance that the quota system gives also ensures that the richest club doesn't always get the best players, you can only have X amount.
''Those points could possibly be in the
Big League [program] every week, they can't be fudged.''
Another interesting aspect of the proposal is the clubs' ability to selectively discount unwanted players.
If a player falls out with a coach, for instance, the ''holding'' club can offer him to rivals at a reduced points value. For instance, Willie Mason would have been a six-point player at the Roosters last year due to his representative status. However, the Bondi Junction club would have had the option of shopping him around to rivals at a lesser value, making him a more attractive buy. The plan also allows clubs to pay players as much as they like, with no restrictions on third-party sponsorships.
Irvine stressed he was putting forward his proposal as a long-time fan of the game and not on behalf of the Cronulla Sharks. He also stated it would probably need tweaking to work in the NRL landscape and welcomed feedback.
''I'm a young chairman without a lot of administrative experience and not for a second am I suggesting that I have all the answers,'' Irvine said. ''I'm just throwing up an idea as a fan of the game.
''Every time something big happens in the game we tend to bicker a lot and not come up with solutions.''
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