How the IPL Experiment Could Have kept Israel and Karmichael in rugby league.
These three players all are arguably the best at what they do. Only one gets paid appropriately. Let's change that.
The Beginning
7 February 2001 was the day that changed everything. The Australian Rugby Union dropped a bombshell on league fans and the game in general by announcing that premiership winning winger, origin and test star Wendell Sailor was defecting to play rugby union. Whilst there had been code hoppers before (most in the other direction), none had been such high profile, nor at the peak of their careers the way Sailor was. But by far the biggest aspect of the defection was the money, reported to be about $700k a season. This was an amount beyond the capacity of all NRL clubs (except maybe the Bulldogs at the time). Big Dell had clearly turned mercenary, and who could blame him?
He also wouldn’t be the last. The next decade saw a litany of the games best and brightest leave for greener pastures. Lote Tuqiri, Matt Rogers, Mark Gasnier, Craig Gower, Sonny Bill Williams, Matt King and Willy Mason all left to chase riches in either Rugby Union or English Super League.
Things started to get a little out of hand in the last two years with both Karmichael Hunt and Israel Folau defecting for huge sums to be glorified mascots for the AFL’s expansion teams. This problem began with Wendell and only appears to be getting worse. So what to do about it? There are a number of key issues which need to be understood first:
1. It is all about the money.
Sorry Jessie J, but its true. The money is the only reason the stars are defecting. Some such as Israel are honest enough to admit it. Others, like Sonny Bill and Karmichael Hunt and Sonny Bill tried to say that it was about finding “new challenges[1].” They lied. It is all about the money.
2. We are not talking about THAT much money.
Wendell’s signed for only a hundred thousand or so more than he could have commanded from an NRL club. Lote did the same. Israel and Special K’s deals arose out of marketing exceptions allotted to the expansion clubs and therefore can be discounted as anomalies. The fact is that we are not talking about millions of dollars. Whenever a young NRL superstar talks about “exploring his options” to play for $2 million a season in France or Japan you can bet that he is lying[2], and also that Anthony Mundine is involved somehow.
If we could find a system that put an extra $100k - $200k a year into the top player’s pockets, this would probably be enough to save most of them.
3. We Should Care About This
Whilst it is strictly correct to say that there will always be another Sonny Bill or Israel, we should not let our current ones go so easily. The bottom line is that the game would be considerably better off if Williams, Hunt and Folau were still playing. They are not playing and it is our loss. We should care about this.
4. The Salary Cap Must Stay
At various times during the recent player exodus, players such as Mason and Williams, (again, generally speaking under the influence of Anthony Mundine) called for an increase in the salary cap or its abolishment altogether. Make no mistake that the NRL is a league where the Brisbane Broncos on one hand are consistently and significantly more profitable than most other clubs put together and the Cronulla Sharks on the other hand can not even afford to meet the salary cap. Abolishment of the cap is not the answer, unless you are a fan of the Broncos, the Knights or the English Premier League.
The Solution
The solution is cricket[3]. The IPL have given us a ready made blueprint of how you can make some changes to an already popular game, showcase the superstars that the punters will want to watch, and make a shed load of money for all involved.
And so, readers, I give you the Australian Premier League.The key aspects are as follows.
1. The Tournament
The APL would be a four team “sevens” rugby league tournament held over two weekends immediately after the grand final. Teams would play 20 minute halves with seven players on the field and three reserves. Round robin matches would be played over one weekend with the final and 3rd place playoff to take place the next Friday night. Games would be rotated each year between Sydney and Brisbane.
2. The Teams
Team franchises would be auctioned each year to the highest bidders (as with the IPL, but on an annual basis). The winning bidders would obtain total control over team selection (more on that later), team names, jersey designs and sponsorship.
3. The Draft
The winning franchises would select 10 players each in a nationally televised draft to take place during grand final week. All players who played in the NRL that year would be draft eligible. The highest bidding franchise gets first pick. The draft. Would. Be. Awesome. Most people’s first experiences of sport involve every player lining up to be selected one by one by respective team captains. This is the same thing, except instead of choosing between the big but clumsy kid and the little fast kid you choose between Benji and JT. I would pay money to watch the draft alone. And I would talk about it for weeks beforehand.
4. The Game
The game would be standard league rules, but seven a side and 20 minute halves. Fast play the balls and one-on-one contests. Hayne v Slater, Vatevei v Hodges, or maybe all four on the same team. Players would have a license to entertain and they would do so.
5. The Money
All money goes initially to the independent commission (who I assume is running the game by that point) and then is distributed to the 40 players who were selected. This includes the money raised from the franchise auction, television revenues for the draft and for all games, jersey sales, ticket sales and sponsorship. You think this plan can’t generate $6 Million? I think it can. And if it can, then you give the top 40 players in the NRL an average of $150k extra a season. Simple.
The bottom line is if you can get the top 40 players in the NRL and extra $150k a year you will keep most of them in the game.
And on top of that you get two weeks of fast paced action packed spectacle showcasing the stars of the game.
This would have kept Israel Folau and Karmichael Hunt playing rugby league. Why is this bad idea? And why hasn’t anyone else thought of it. Oh right. They have!
[1] Sonny Bill of course had achieved a lot in Rugby League. That is apart from winning a premiership, making a grand final, winning a test series, captaining his club and country, and winning a Daly M for second rower of the year. So it was clear with so few “challenges” left that he had to look elsewhere.
[2] French Rugby Club Perpignan recently offered Daniel Carter $1.1 million a season. This was their absolute maximum. So if one of the best established players in the world is only worth $1 million, who the hell is paying Mark Gasnier double that? Certainly not Anthony Mundine.
[3] Not actual cricket. Although with time I could definitely see Cam Smith fielding at slip and opening the batting for Australia.
These three players all are arguably the best at what they do. Only one gets paid appropriately. Let's change that.
The Beginning
7 February 2001 was the day that changed everything. The Australian Rugby Union dropped a bombshell on league fans and the game in general by announcing that premiership winning winger, origin and test star Wendell Sailor was defecting to play rugby union. Whilst there had been code hoppers before (most in the other direction), none had been such high profile, nor at the peak of their careers the way Sailor was. But by far the biggest aspect of the defection was the money, reported to be about $700k a season. This was an amount beyond the capacity of all NRL clubs (except maybe the Bulldogs at the time). Big Dell had clearly turned mercenary, and who could blame him?
He also wouldn’t be the last. The next decade saw a litany of the games best and brightest leave for greener pastures. Lote Tuqiri, Matt Rogers, Mark Gasnier, Craig Gower, Sonny Bill Williams, Matt King and Willy Mason all left to chase riches in either Rugby Union or English Super League.
Things started to get a little out of hand in the last two years with both Karmichael Hunt and Israel Folau defecting for huge sums to be glorified mascots for the AFL’s expansion teams. This problem began with Wendell and only appears to be getting worse. So what to do about it? There are a number of key issues which need to be understood first:
1. It is all about the money.
Sorry Jessie J, but its true. The money is the only reason the stars are defecting. Some such as Israel are honest enough to admit it. Others, like Sonny Bill and Karmichael Hunt and Sonny Bill tried to say that it was about finding “new challenges[1].” They lied. It is all about the money.
2. We are not talking about THAT much money.
Wendell’s signed for only a hundred thousand or so more than he could have commanded from an NRL club. Lote did the same. Israel and Special K’s deals arose out of marketing exceptions allotted to the expansion clubs and therefore can be discounted as anomalies. The fact is that we are not talking about millions of dollars. Whenever a young NRL superstar talks about “exploring his options” to play for $2 million a season in France or Japan you can bet that he is lying[2], and also that Anthony Mundine is involved somehow.
If we could find a system that put an extra $100k - $200k a year into the top player’s pockets, this would probably be enough to save most of them.
3. We Should Care About This
Whilst it is strictly correct to say that there will always be another Sonny Bill or Israel, we should not let our current ones go so easily. The bottom line is that the game would be considerably better off if Williams, Hunt and Folau were still playing. They are not playing and it is our loss. We should care about this.
4. The Salary Cap Must Stay
At various times during the recent player exodus, players such as Mason and Williams, (again, generally speaking under the influence of Anthony Mundine) called for an increase in the salary cap or its abolishment altogether. Make no mistake that the NRL is a league where the Brisbane Broncos on one hand are consistently and significantly more profitable than most other clubs put together and the Cronulla Sharks on the other hand can not even afford to meet the salary cap. Abolishment of the cap is not the answer, unless you are a fan of the Broncos, the Knights or the English Premier League.
The Solution
The solution is cricket[3]. The IPL have given us a ready made blueprint of how you can make some changes to an already popular game, showcase the superstars that the punters will want to watch, and make a shed load of money for all involved.
And so, readers, I give you the Australian Premier League.The key aspects are as follows.
1. The Tournament
The APL would be a four team “sevens” rugby league tournament held over two weekends immediately after the grand final. Teams would play 20 minute halves with seven players on the field and three reserves. Round robin matches would be played over one weekend with the final and 3rd place playoff to take place the next Friday night. Games would be rotated each year between Sydney and Brisbane.
2. The Teams
Team franchises would be auctioned each year to the highest bidders (as with the IPL, but on an annual basis). The winning bidders would obtain total control over team selection (more on that later), team names, jersey designs and sponsorship.
3. The Draft
The winning franchises would select 10 players each in a nationally televised draft to take place during grand final week. All players who played in the NRL that year would be draft eligible. The highest bidding franchise gets first pick. The draft. Would. Be. Awesome. Most people’s first experiences of sport involve every player lining up to be selected one by one by respective team captains. This is the same thing, except instead of choosing between the big but clumsy kid and the little fast kid you choose between Benji and JT. I would pay money to watch the draft alone. And I would talk about it for weeks beforehand.
4. The Game
The game would be standard league rules, but seven a side and 20 minute halves. Fast play the balls and one-on-one contests. Hayne v Slater, Vatevei v Hodges, or maybe all four on the same team. Players would have a license to entertain and they would do so.
5. The Money
All money goes initially to the independent commission (who I assume is running the game by that point) and then is distributed to the 40 players who were selected. This includes the money raised from the franchise auction, television revenues for the draft and for all games, jersey sales, ticket sales and sponsorship. You think this plan can’t generate $6 Million? I think it can. And if it can, then you give the top 40 players in the NRL an average of $150k extra a season. Simple.
The bottom line is if you can get the top 40 players in the NRL and extra $150k a year you will keep most of them in the game.
And on top of that you get two weeks of fast paced action packed spectacle showcasing the stars of the game.
This would have kept Israel Folau and Karmichael Hunt playing rugby league. Why is this bad idea? And why hasn’t anyone else thought of it. Oh right. They have!
[1] Sonny Bill of course had achieved a lot in Rugby League. That is apart from winning a premiership, making a grand final, winning a test series, captaining his club and country, and winning a Daly M for second rower of the year. So it was clear with so few “challenges” left that he had to look elsewhere.
[2] French Rugby Club Perpignan recently offered Daniel Carter $1.1 million a season. This was their absolute maximum. So if one of the best established players in the world is only worth $1 million, who the hell is paying Mark Gasnier double that? Certainly not Anthony Mundine.
[3] Not actual cricket. Although with time I could definitely see Cam Smith fielding at slip and opening the batting for Australia.
when would this be played? players want less games not more... high marks for creativity, but zero chance of it happening. flawed plan.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, your not going to end up with the top 40 NRL players playing this. Most of them are going to be absolutely wrecked after a year of playing rep and finals footy, all they are going to want to do is get some rest before they start preseason again after an ever shortening offseason. At best I think you might be able to get a few young up and comers like yow yeh and idris to headline it - it'd still be exciting but most of the players playing in it would probably be toyota cup blokes nobody has heard of and doesn't really go to help keeping the genuine superstars in the game - it would help keep these young blokes from leaving for a couple of seasons no doubt - until they decide its too much on the bodies and would probably rather get paid the same amount of money for half the games at half the intensity in the south of france.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, who is going to put up the money for these franchises? You might be able to get Nathan Tinkler to roll over and find a spare mill or two, but there's no way the NRL is going to fork money out for such a speculative venture when they are flatout trying to keep the clubs and all the players financially healthy enough to keep participating and keep wanting to participate in the regular season competition.
Thirdly, you'd have to be absolutely insane as a club to let your players go out and do this in the offseason (even if it is only a couple of weeks). And while we do have some lunatics in charge of the clubs these days, I don't think any of them are stupid enough to let their best players go and play in this sort of thing when there is comparatively nothing in it for them.
That all being said, I would love to see it happen.
I think this is a fantastic idea Marc. But it's the timing that's the issue, as mentioned, the players are already whinging that the season is long enough, run this as the preseason "NAB Cup", As a NRL fan, I couldn't think of anything better to whet fans appetites than short sharp and bloody exciting games showing players at their best - at let's be honest, it's probably not a bad way for the players to ease into form.
ReplyDeleteObviously it won't be an overnight sucess, but a couple of successful runs at it and sponsors will be lining up, reminds me of the beach touch comp they ran a few years back.
I hate him, but without a doubt, first man picked is Slater, unless your team has green and gold on its jersey.
I had thought about running it before the season but thought that clubs may be a bit nervous about injuries, also they have the All Star Game then anyway and I don't think that should be changed.
ReplyDeleteAnd I would be picking Benji before Slater but each to their own.
As for players not wanting to play, I think you would be surprised at just how many would be keen turn out for two weekens of softer contact sevens for a lazy $150k. And in any case, it is the young rep stars like Yow Yeh and Idris (this seasons Special K and Folau) that are vulnerable to cross code raids.