Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

[WT2K]

Quality off contract 13 

 

[Krammy]

A Malcolm Knox article in SMH about salary cap and how entrenched the inequalities of the NRL are (and why no one wants to change this).

The more agitated people are, the less the fundamentals change. When everyone seems angry, the underlying order – who’s on top, who’s underneath – entrenches itself. Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose. It was a Frenchman, Alphonse Karr, who coined the phrase in 1862, and, rugby league being to us what philosophy is to the French, it’s true of the NRL in 2021.

The more the game enters uncharted new bubbles, the more deeply it reinforces the status quo. The 2021 season is about to end with virtually the same top, middle and bottom groupings as last year. And, with some small variations, the year before, and the year before that. Fourteen of the 16 NRL clubs are stuck in Groundhog Year.

In the modern game, every gut feeling has to stand up to statistical analysis. Is it actually true?

The NRL is clearly segmented into three divisions, which were quite predictable from the outset given the uneven spread of talent. Some clubs can afford to play representative stars off the bench, in positions where other clubs select reserve-graders. Whether the better clubs have poached or developed their talent matters little; the roster differences are vast. The top six at the outset of 2021 were Melbourne, Penrith, the Roosters, Parramatta, South Sydney and Canberra. The bottom five were Canterbury, Brisbane, North Queensland, Manly and the Wests Tigers. The inconsistent swill bogged in the middle were Newcastle, St George Illawarra, Cronulla, the Gold Coast and the Warriors.

What’s the point?
What’s the point?CREDIT:SIMON LETCH
There have been just two divisional changes this season: Manly (assuming Tom Trbojevic is playing) have risen from third division to first, while Canberra have slipped from first to second. Trbojevic has saved not only the Sea Eagles; he has saved the entire league from the embarrassment of a top-to-bottom repeat set.

For a lockdown project, I broke down the 172 matches played up to this weekend’s round into divisional contests. Forty-eight matches were within the divisions. Of the remaining 124 matches, 91 ran completely as predicted: three in four matches were won by the team in the higher division. Of the 33 that went against the flow, nine featured Trbojevic. Take him out, and five out of six NRL games produced the same result they would have produced in the previous two years.

The Origin period should upset this kind of runaway apple cart. To a degree, it did, with the Tigers beating the Origin-gutted Panthers. But even during that mid-year flux, of 29 matches played between teams from different divisions, 20 were won by this year’s (ie, last year’s, and the year before’s) higher team.

Who’s saved the NRL from complete predictability in 2021? Tom Trbojevic says hi.
Who’s saved the NRL from complete predictability in 2021? Tom Trbojevic says hi.CREDIT:GETTY
Advertisement

Such results might be just what you’d expect at the top and bottom, but they are similarly repetitive for the water-treading middle teams. The Knights, the Sharks, the Warriors, the Titans and the Dragons are all having virtually the same season they had last year and the year before. Their fans must be dying from déjà vu all over again.

Why should this be worthy of commentary? The strong dominate the weak, duh. Better clubs win more matches. Isn’t this the way of the world, the entrenched interests using a crisis to dig themselves in?

Rugby league is meant to have a salary cap that stops this being the way of the NRL world. The salary cap, aside from saving clubs from spending themselves into insolvency, is supposed to offer the game’s supporters a version of hope: a competition that constantly recirculates its winners and losers, generating new leaders, a game in which everybody can start the season feeling they have a chance. Otherwise, you get the dreaded social Darwinism of the European football leagues.

Juventus won nine Serie A titles in a row before their run was ended by Inter Milan last season.
Juventus won nine Serie A titles in a row before their run was ended by Inter Milan last season.CREDIT:AP
The evidence is clear, to everyone except the governing body, that the salary cap is a failed model. When Canterbury or Brisbane or the Tigers have to pay second-rate spine players first-rate money to convince them to serve under their coaches, while clubs led by Craig Bellamy or Trent Robinson or Ivan Cleary can get away with securing quality individuals for “unders” - a beautiful euphemism for market manipulation - then the economic measurement of player value is no longer valid. Lower clubs overspend out of desperation and, to confirm the injustice, those clubs are usually the ones who get caught breaching their salary cap. For what, their fans ask – for those players?

The NRL has proposed a salary cap review, but its stomach to take on vested interests has been weakened by the challenges of COVID. Never waste a crisis, say those in prime position. The ruling junta are pretty happy to leave things the way they are, and if the Roosters hadn’t suffered the misfortune of an injury crisis, they would be even happier.

I feel like I’ve made this argument before (plus c’est la meme chose). Plenty of other frustrated observers have. Measuring rugby league players by what they are paid might have been valid if the difference was between a $60,000 contract and a $150,000 one. But in a world where they are certainly happier to take $500,000 and a premiership than $700,000 and a wooden spoon, the rugby league salary is not only an obsolete way to assess value, it’s a sure formula for prolonging the existing order. Alternatives are available – fantasy competitions use non-financial values every week – but few in the NRL are interested in developing them. Why upset the old men’s way of doing business when it is those old men who speak in support of every NRL decision? You scratch my back …

RELATED ARTICLE
Nathan Cleary will need to alter his kicking game under the rule change.
Exclusive
NRL 2021
The rule change set to transform the NRL kicking game forever
Perhaps the NRL has faith that we will be distracted by the dazzle. Every week, the game produces such astonishing acts of talent that even a lot of the blowouts can entertain for the virtuosity on display. Ten times a week, you will see tries scored which, if, say, the Wallabies did something like that once a year, it would be preserved and paraded like the shroud of Turin. That’s how superior the NRL is right now in terms of skill.

The only thing is, when the excitement wears off, the end result is too often the same as it was. Next year, when fans have more choices over how to spend their leisure time, they will decide how long they can keep on taking it.

The most valid and interesting yet known article I have read in a long time

Paul Kent said as much on NRL 360 when he compared Melbourne with 11 million 'worth' of talent on the open market compared with Bulldogs 6 mill. Unless they do something about this unfair situation, more and more of the bottom placed teams' fans will have enough and walk away from the game.

 

[hugh1954]

Brian To'o is off contract 2023


...... easily top 5 wingers in the comp

Would love him, but you will never drag him from the Riff

The bastard is so damn slippery.... breaks tackles with ease...has speed to burn..good defender.... and is a metre eater...

Damn good talent

Only if we lose Noffa dont want two dwarfs

 

[JC99]

Quality off contract 13 

How many of them do we sign? Probably 4 or 5 😂

 

[iofthetigers]

The most valid and interesting yet known article I have read in a long time

Rubbish, the Tigers won the comp without spending the cap, the Tigers are where they are at
because of poor decisions over the years from the top all the way down, usually chasing quick fixes.

 

[supercoach]

A Malcolm Knox article in SMH about salary cap and how entrenched the inequalities of the NRL are (and why no one wants to change this).

The more agitated people are, the less the fundamentals change. When everyone seems angry, the underlying order – who’s on top, who’s underneath – entrenches itself. Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose. It was a Frenchman, Alphonse Karr, who coined the phrase in 1862, and, rugby league being to us what philosophy is to the French, it’s true of the NRL in 2021.

The more the game enters uncharted new bubbles, the more deeply it reinforces the status quo. The 2021 season is about to end with virtually the same top, middle and bottom groupings as last year. And, with some small variations, the year before, and the year before that. Fourteen of the 16 NRL clubs are stuck in Groundhog Year.

In the modern game, every gut feeling has to stand up to statistical analysis. Is it actually true?

The NRL is clearly segmented into three divisions, which were quite predictable from the outset given the uneven spread of talent. Some clubs can afford to play representative stars off the bench, in positions where other clubs select reserve-graders. Whether the better clubs have poached or developed their talent matters little; the roster differences are vast. The top six at the outset of 2021 were Melbourne, Penrith, the Roosters, Parramatta, South Sydney and Canberra. The bottom five were Canterbury, Brisbane, North Queensland, Manly and the Wests Tigers. The inconsistent swill bogged in the middle were Newcastle, St George Illawarra, Cronulla, the Gold Coast and the Warriors.

What’s the point?
What’s the point?CREDIT:SIMON LETCH
There have been just two divisional changes this season: Manly (assuming Tom Trbojevic is playing) have risen from third division to first, while Canberra have slipped from first to second. Trbojevic has saved not only the Sea Eagles; he has saved the entire league from the embarrassment of a top-to-bottom repeat set.

For a lockdown project, I broke down the 172 matches played up to this weekend’s round into divisional contests. Forty-eight matches were within the divisions. Of the remaining 124 matches, 91 ran completely as predicted: three in four matches were won by the team in the higher division. Of the 33 that went against the flow, nine featured Trbojevic. Take him out, and five out of six NRL games produced the same result they would have produced in the previous two years.

The Origin period should upset this kind of runaway apple cart. To a degree, it did, with the Tigers beating the Origin-gutted Panthers. But even during that mid-year flux, of 29 matches played between teams from different divisions, 20 were won by this year’s (ie, last year’s, and the year before’s) higher team.

Who’s saved the NRL from complete predictability in 2021? Tom Trbojevic says hi.
Who’s saved the NRL from complete predictability in 2021? Tom Trbojevic says hi.CREDIT:GETTY
Advertisement

Such results might be just what you’d expect at the top and bottom, but they are similarly repetitive for the water-treading middle teams. The Knights, the Sharks, the Warriors, the Titans and the Dragons are all having virtually the same season they had last year and the year before. Their fans must be dying from déjà vu all over again.

Why should this be worthy of commentary? The strong dominate the weak, duh. Better clubs win more matches. Isn’t this the way of the world, the entrenched interests using a crisis to dig themselves in?

Rugby league is meant to have a salary cap that stops this being the way of the NRL world. The salary cap, aside from saving clubs from spending themselves into insolvency, is supposed to offer the game’s supporters a version of hope: a competition that constantly recirculates its winners and losers, generating new leaders, a game in which everybody can start the season feeling they have a chance. Otherwise, you get the dreaded social Darwinism of the European football leagues.

Juventus won nine Serie A titles in a row before their run was ended by Inter Milan last season.
Juventus won nine Serie A titles in a row before their run was ended by Inter Milan last season.CREDIT:AP
The evidence is clear, to everyone except the governing body, that the salary cap is a failed model. When Canterbury or Brisbane or the Tigers have to pay second-rate spine players first-rate money to convince them to serve under their coaches, while clubs led by Craig Bellamy or Trent Robinson or Ivan Cleary can get away with securing quality individuals for “unders” - a beautiful euphemism for market manipulation - then the economic measurement of player value is no longer valid. Lower clubs overspend out of desperation and, to confirm the injustice, those clubs are usually the ones who get caught breaching their salary cap. For what, their fans ask – for those players?

The NRL has proposed a salary cap review, but its stomach to take on vested interests has been weakened by the challenges of COVID. Never waste a crisis, say those in prime position. The ruling junta are pretty happy to leave things the way they are, and if the Roosters hadn’t suffered the misfortune of an injury crisis, they would be even happier.

I feel like I’ve made this argument before (plus c’est la meme chose). Plenty of other frustrated observers have. Measuring rugby league players by what they are paid might have been valid if the difference was between a $60,000 contract and a $150,000 one. But in a world where they are certainly happier to take $500,000 and a premiership than $700,000 and a wooden spoon, the rugby league salary is not only an obsolete way to assess value, it’s a sure formula for prolonging the existing order. Alternatives are available – fantasy competitions use non-financial values every week – but few in the NRL are interested in developing them. Why upset the old men’s way of doing business when it is those old men who speak in support of every NRL decision? You scratch my back …

RELATED ARTICLE
Nathan Cleary will need to alter his kicking game under the rule change.
Exclusive
NRL 2021
The rule change set to transform the NRL kicking game forever
Perhaps the NRL has faith that we will be distracted by the dazzle. Every week, the game produces such astonishing acts of talent that even a lot of the blowouts can entertain for the virtuosity on display. Ten times a week, you will see tries scored which, if, say, the Wallabies did something like that once a year, it would be preserved and paraded like the shroud of Turin. That’s how superior the NRL is right now in terms of skill.

The only thing is, when the excitement wears off, the end result is too often the same as it was. Next year, when fans have more choices over how to spend their leisure time, they will decide how long they can keep on taking it.

Malcolm Knox always does his homework before publishing. Can you imagine any of the current troglodytes masquerading as RL journalists getting off their self serving butts to do the research required for an article like this? Maybe too busy ghost writing articles for recently retired dumbass players.

There's a simple solution.
An independent panel or computer algorithm that sets a points value for each player and clubs can have a maximum 1000 points on their roster.

Mate have been saying this for a decade but every time I bring it up I get smashed. The salary cap at present is killing the lower teams and giving a leg up to the good teams.

 

[Snake]

A Malcolm Knox article in SMH about salary cap and how entrenched the inequalities of the NRL are (and why no one wants to change this).

The more agitated people are, the less the fundamentals change. When everyone seems angry, the underlying order – who’s on top, who’s underneath – entrenches itself. Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose. It was a Frenchman, Alphonse Karr, who coined the phrase in 1862, and, rugby league being to us what philosophy is to the French, it’s true of the NRL in 2021.

The more the game enters uncharted new bubbles, the more deeply it reinforces the status quo. The 2021 season is about to end with virtually the same top, middle and bottom groupings as last year. And, with some small variations, the year before, and the year before that. Fourteen of the 16 NRL clubs are stuck in Groundhog Year.

In the modern game, every gut feeling has to stand up to statistical analysis. Is it actually true?

The NRL is clearly segmented into three divisions, which were quite predictable from the outset given the uneven spread of talent. Some clubs can afford to play representative stars off the bench, in positions where other clubs select reserve-graders. Whether the better clubs have poached or developed their talent matters little; the roster differences are vast. The top six at the outset of 2021 were Melbourne, Penrith, the Roosters, Parramatta, South Sydney and Canberra. The bottom five were Canterbury, Brisbane, North Queensland, Manly and the Wests Tigers. The inconsistent swill bogged in the middle were Newcastle, St George Illawarra, Cronulla, the Gold Coast and the Warriors.

What’s the point?
What’s the point?CREDIT:SIMON LETCH
There have been just two divisional changes this season: Manly (assuming Tom Trbojevic is playing) have risen from third division to first, while Canberra have slipped from first to second. Trbojevic has saved not only the Sea Eagles; he has saved the entire league from the embarrassment of a top-to-bottom repeat set.

For a lockdown project, I broke down the 172 matches played up to this weekend’s round into divisional contests. Forty-eight matches were within the divisions. Of the remaining 124 matches, 91 ran completely as predicted: three in four matches were won by the team in the higher division. Of the 33 that went against the flow, nine featured Trbojevic. Take him out, and five out of six NRL games produced the same result they would have produced in the previous two years.

The Origin period should upset this kind of runaway apple cart. To a degree, it did, with the Tigers beating the Origin-gutted Panthers. But even during that mid-year flux, of 29 matches played between teams from different divisions, 20 were won by this year’s (ie, last year’s, and the year before’s) higher team.

Who’s saved the NRL from complete predictability in 2021? Tom Trbojevic says hi.
Who’s saved the NRL from complete predictability in 2021? Tom Trbojevic says hi.CREDIT:GETTY
Advertisement

Such results might be just what you’d expect at the top and bottom, but they are similarly repetitive for the water-treading middle teams. The Knights, the Sharks, the Warriors, the Titans and the Dragons are all having virtually the same season they had last year and the year before. Their fans must be dying from déjà vu all over again.

Why should this be worthy of commentary? The strong dominate the weak, duh. Better clubs win more matches. Isn’t this the way of the world, the entrenched interests using a crisis to dig themselves in?

Rugby league is meant to have a salary cap that stops this being the way of the NRL world. The salary cap, aside from saving clubs from spending themselves into insolvency, is supposed to offer the game’s supporters a version of hope: a competition that constantly recirculates its winners and losers, generating new leaders, a game in which everybody can start the season feeling they have a chance. Otherwise, you get the dreaded social Darwinism of the European football leagues.

Juventus won nine Serie A titles in a row before their run was ended by Inter Milan last season.
Juventus won nine Serie A titles in a row before their run was ended by Inter Milan last season.CREDIT:AP
The evidence is clear, to everyone except the governing body, that the salary cap is a failed model. When Canterbury or Brisbane or the Tigers have to pay second-rate spine players first-rate money to convince them to serve under their coaches, while clubs led by Craig Bellamy or Trent Robinson or Ivan Cleary can get away with securing quality individuals for “unders” - a beautiful euphemism for market manipulation - then the economic measurement of player value is no longer valid. Lower clubs overspend out of desperation and, to confirm the injustice, those clubs are usually the ones who get caught breaching their salary cap. For what, their fans ask – for those players?

The NRL has proposed a salary cap review, but its stomach to take on vested interests has been weakened by the challenges of COVID. Never waste a crisis, say those in prime position. The ruling junta are pretty happy to leave things the way they are, and if the Roosters hadn’t suffered the misfortune of an injury crisis, they would be even happier.

I feel like I’ve made this argument before (plus c’est la meme chose). Plenty of other frustrated observers have. Measuring rugby league players by what they are paid might have been valid if the difference was between a $60,000 contract and a $150,000 one. But in a world where they are certainly happier to take $500,000 and a premiership than $700,000 and a wooden spoon, the rugby league salary is not only an obsolete way to assess value, it’s a sure formula for prolonging the existing order. Alternatives are available – fantasy competitions use non-financial values every week – but few in the NRL are interested in developing them. Why upset the old men’s way of doing business when it is those old men who speak in support of every NRL decision? You scratch my back …

RELATED ARTICLE
Nathan Cleary will need to alter his kicking game under the rule change.
Exclusive
NRL 2021
The rule change set to transform the NRL kicking game forever
Perhaps the NRL has faith that we will be distracted by the dazzle. Every week, the game produces such astonishing acts of talent that even a lot of the blowouts can entertain for the virtuosity on display. Ten times a week, you will see tries scored which, if, say, the Wallabies did something like that once a year, it would be preserved and paraded like the shroud of Turin. That’s how superior the NRL is right now in terms of skill.

The only thing is, when the excitement wears off, the end result is too often the same as it was. Next year, when fans have more choices over how to spend their leisure time, they will decide how long they can keep on taking it.

Malcolm Knox always does his homework before publishing. Can you imagine any of the current troglodytes masquerading as RL journalists getting off their self serving butts to do the research required for an article like this? Maybe too busy ghost writing articles for recently retired dumbass players.

There's a simple solution.
An independent panel or computer algorithm that sets a points value for each player and clubs can have a maximum 1000 points on their roster.

Mate have been saying this for a decade but every time I bring it up I get smashed. The salary cap at present is killing the lower teams and giving a leg up to the good teams.

Is it the salary cap or is it lucrative third party deals plus players wanting to play with a successful club . I don’t think it’s the salary cap itself . This season alone the club threw heaps overs for the some elite players and they went somewhere else !

 

[supercoach]

A Malcolm Knox article in SMH about salary cap and how entrenched the inequalities of the NRL are (and why no one wants to change this).

The more agitated people are, the less the fundamentals change. When everyone seems angry, the underlying order – who’s on top, who’s underneath – entrenches itself. Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose. It was a Frenchman, Alphonse Karr, who coined the phrase in 1862, and, rugby league being to us what philosophy is to the French, it’s true of the NRL in 2021.

The more the game enters uncharted new bubbles, the more deeply it reinforces the status quo. The 2021 season is about to end with virtually the same top, middle and bottom groupings as last year. And, with some small variations, the year before, and the year before that. Fourteen of the 16 NRL clubs are stuck in Groundhog Year.

In the modern game, every gut feeling has to stand up to statistical analysis. Is it actually true?

The NRL is clearly segmented into three divisions, which were quite predictable from the outset given the uneven spread of talent. Some clubs can afford to play representative stars off the bench, in positions where other clubs select reserve-graders. Whether the better clubs have poached or developed their talent matters little; the roster differences are vast. The top six at the outset of 2021 were Melbourne, Penrith, the Roosters, Parramatta, South Sydney and Canberra. The bottom five were Canterbury, Brisbane, North Queensland, Manly and the Wests Tigers. The inconsistent swill bogged in the middle were Newcastle, St George Illawarra, Cronulla, the Gold Coast and the Warriors.

What’s the point?
What’s the point?CREDIT:SIMON LETCH
There have been just two divisional changes this season: Manly (assuming Tom Trbojevic is playing) have risen from third division to first, while Canberra have slipped from first to second. Trbojevic has saved not only the Sea Eagles; he has saved the entire league from the embarrassment of a top-to-bottom repeat set.

For a lockdown project, I broke down the 172 matches played up to this weekend’s round into divisional contests. Forty-eight matches were within the divisions. Of the remaining 124 matches, 91 ran completely as predicted: three in four matches were won by the team in the higher division. Of the 33 that went against the flow, nine featured Trbojevic. Take him out, and five out of six NRL games produced the same result they would have produced in the previous two years.

The Origin period should upset this kind of runaway apple cart. To a degree, it did, with the Tigers beating the Origin-gutted Panthers. But even during that mid-year flux, of 29 matches played between teams from different divisions, 20 were won by this year’s (ie, last year’s, and the year before’s) higher team.

Who’s saved the NRL from complete predictability in 2021? Tom Trbojevic says hi.
Who’s saved the NRL from complete predictability in 2021? Tom Trbojevic says hi.CREDIT:GETTY
Advertisement

Such results might be just what you’d expect at the top and bottom, but they are similarly repetitive for the water-treading middle teams. The Knights, the Sharks, the Warriors, the Titans and the Dragons are all having virtually the same season they had last year and the year before. Their fans must be dying from déjà vu all over again.

Why should this be worthy of commentary? The strong dominate the weak, duh. Better clubs win more matches. Isn’t this the way of the world, the entrenched interests using a crisis to dig themselves in?

Rugby league is meant to have a salary cap that stops this being the way of the NRL world. The salary cap, aside from saving clubs from spending themselves into insolvency, is supposed to offer the game’s supporters a version of hope: a competition that constantly recirculates its winners and losers, generating new leaders, a game in which everybody can start the season feeling they have a chance. Otherwise, you get the dreaded social Darwinism of the European football leagues.

Juventus won nine Serie A titles in a row before their run was ended by Inter Milan last season.
Juventus won nine Serie A titles in a row before their run was ended by Inter Milan last season.CREDIT:AP
The evidence is clear, to everyone except the governing body, that the salary cap is a failed model. When Canterbury or Brisbane or the Tigers have to pay second-rate spine players first-rate money to convince them to serve under their coaches, while clubs led by Craig Bellamy or Trent Robinson or Ivan Cleary can get away with securing quality individuals for “unders” - a beautiful euphemism for market manipulation - then the economic measurement of player value is no longer valid. Lower clubs overspend out of desperation and, to confirm the injustice, those clubs are usually the ones who get caught breaching their salary cap. For what, their fans ask – for those players?

The NRL has proposed a salary cap review, but its stomach to take on vested interests has been weakened by the challenges of COVID. Never waste a crisis, say those in prime position. The ruling junta are pretty happy to leave things the way they are, and if the Roosters hadn’t suffered the misfortune of an injury crisis, they would be even happier.

I feel like I’ve made this argument before (plus c’est la meme chose). Plenty of other frustrated observers have. Measuring rugby league players by what they are paid might have been valid if the difference was between a $60,000 contract and a $150,000 one. But in a world where they are certainly happier to take $500,000 and a premiership than $700,000 and a wooden spoon, the rugby league salary is not only an obsolete way to assess value, it’s a sure formula for prolonging the existing order. Alternatives are available – fantasy competitions use non-financial values every week – but few in the NRL are interested in developing them. Why upset the old men’s way of doing business when it is those old men who speak in support of every NRL decision? You scratch my back …

RELATED ARTICLE
Nathan Cleary will need to alter his kicking game under the rule change.
Exclusive
NRL 2021
The rule change set to transform the NRL kicking game forever
Perhaps the NRL has faith that we will be distracted by the dazzle. Every week, the game produces such astonishing acts of talent that even a lot of the blowouts can entertain for the virtuosity on display. Ten times a week, you will see tries scored which, if, say, the Wallabies did something like that once a year, it would be preserved and paraded like the shroud of Turin. That’s how superior the NRL is right now in terms of skill.

The only thing is, when the excitement wears off, the end result is too often the same as it was. Next year, when fans have more choices over how to spend their leisure time, they will decide how long they can keep on taking it.

Malcolm Knox always does his homework before publishing. Can you imagine any of the current troglodytes masquerading as RL journalists getting off their self serving butts to do the research required for an article like this? Maybe too busy ghost writing articles for recently retired dumbass players.

There's a simple solution.
An independent panel or computer algorithm that sets a points value for each player and clubs can have a maximum 1000 points on their roster.

Mate have been saying this for a decade but every time I bring it up I get smashed. The salary cap at present is killing the lower teams and giving a leg up to the good teams.

Is it the salary cap or is it lucrative third party deals plus players wanting to play with a successful club . I don’t think it’s the salary cap itself .

It’s lots of thing, but as Knox said, it costs a bottom team a lot more to buy players than a top team. The top teams are also a lot more attractive destination for the very elite juniors..ie Walker and Suali.

I look at the AFL, look how many different teams have played in the grand final over the past ten years. Anyway the NRL will perish if they don’t react and change the status quo

 

[GCfan]

Anyone named Dudley is my favourite player. I’m coining it now, “Dudley Do-right”

 

[851]

Not sure if this story has been posted before
Doesn't sound good.
https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/up-and-adam-why-covid-is-threatening-to-ruin-tigers-2022-campaign-20210827-p58mi6.html

Up and Adam? Why COVID is threatening to ruin Tigers’ 2022 campaign
Christian Nicolussi
By Christian Nicolussi
August 27, 2021 — 3.27pm

Wests Tigers’ future captain, Adam Doueihi, fears he could be forced to wait months to undergo knee surgery because of Sydney’s COVID-19 outbreak, which would potentially push his comeback to the middle of next season.

Doueihi said his immediate concern is establishing exactly when he can undergo a second operation on his left knee to repair the ACL he tore against Cronulla last weekend.

The five-eighth heard a “click” during a tackle in the second half but had two shots at goal before coming from the field.

All elective surgeries in NSW have been put on hold so public and private hospital beds are kept available during the latest pandemic.

Parramatta baulked at sending winger Maika Sivo back to Sydney and kept him in Queensland, where he has already undergone knee surgery. And Penrith plan on having Nathan Cleary’s shoulder operated on up north at the end of the season before he returns home.

Now Doueihi is back in Sydney, and no chance of returning north because of the border closures, the Tigers must play the waiting game with their best player.

The Tigers wanted Doueihi to consult with the Sydney-based David Parker. Given recovery time from knee surgery is nine months, Doueihi and the Tigers hope it is only a matter of weeks, not months, before he is operated on by Parker.

Wests Tigers crash out of finals contention for 10th straight year
“I’m definitely going ahead with surgery. It’s now a question of how soon we can do it because it’s not classified as essential surgery,” Doueihi told the Herald.

“The doc hasn’t been told when they can re-open for surgery. The two hospitals he works out of are not available right now.

“There could be a smaller hospital he can work out of, but we’re just waiting to see what happens.

“Because I’m a professional sportsman and it’s my job, we’re looking to see if there can be any exemptions.”


Exactly when elective surgeries re-commence will be determined by Sydney’s COVID numbers. Just last week it was reported NSW Health Deputy Secretary Paul Minns fired off a letter to private hospitals informing them category 2 surgeries, including knee operations, could be performed but only “if the patient’s clinical condition indicates that an emergency admission may eventuate if the condition is not treated within 30 days”.

Doueihi partially tore his ACL during the 2020 pre-season, and scans confirmed the same tear had become bigger after last Saturday’s loss to the Sharks.

“It’s only partially torn, not fully ruptured, but I knew there was something wrong straight away,” Doueihi said.

“It just felt unstable. I took two goal kicks with it.”

Doueihi has been one of the few positives for the Tigers, who will miss playing finals for a 10th straight year. Losing Doueihi for any amount of time is hardly what the club needs.

Jackson Hastings will arrive from the UK and likely partner Luke Brooks in the halves to begin next season, while Jock Madden gets his shot in the No.6 on Sunday against Penrith, who will start $1.02 favourites with the bookies.

As for what fans could expect from Madden in his first starting game in the NRL, Doueihi said: “He’s a good kid who works hard. I like watching him train and I’m always teaching him stuff. I’m so happy he’s got the call-up.

“He’s probably more of a No.7 but we’ll see how he goes in the No. 6. He’s good at managing games and did a good job of that in [NSW] Cup games this year.

 

[Snake]

Brian To'o is off contract 2023


...... easily top 5 wingers in the comp

Would love him, but you will never drag him from the Riff

The bastard is so damn slippery.... breaks tackles with ease...has speed to burn..good defender.... and is a metre eater...

Damn good talent

I like watching this kid play .. can only dream of signing someone with his drive !

 

[bathursttiger1]

A Malcolm Knox article in SMH about salary cap and how entrenched the inequalities of the NRL are (and why no one wants to change this).

The more agitated people are, the less the fundamentals change. When everyone seems angry, the underlying order – who’s on top, who’s underneath – entrenches itself. Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose. It was a Frenchman, Alphonse Karr, who coined the phrase in 1862, and, rugby league being to us what philosophy is to the French, it’s true of the NRL in 2021.

The more the game enters uncharted new bubbles, the more deeply it reinforces the status quo. The 2021 season is about to end with virtually the same top, middle and bottom groupings as last year. And, with some small variations, the year before, and the year before that. Fourteen of the 16 NRL clubs are stuck in Groundhog Year.

In the modern game, every gut feeling has to stand up to statistical analysis. Is it actually true?

The NRL is clearly segmented into three divisions, which were quite predictable from the outset given the uneven spread of talent. Some clubs can afford to play representative stars off the bench, in positions where other clubs select reserve-graders. Whether the better clubs have poached or developed their talent matters little; the roster differences are vast. The top six at the outset of 2021 were Melbourne, Penrith, the Roosters, Parramatta, South Sydney and Canberra. The bottom five were Canterbury, Brisbane, North Queensland, Manly and the Wests Tigers. The inconsistent swill bogged in the middle were Newcastle, St George Illawarra, Cronulla, the Gold Coast and the Warriors.

What’s the point?
What’s the point?CREDIT:SIMON LETCH
There have been just two divisional changes this season: Manly (assuming Tom Trbojevic is playing) have risen from third division to first, while Canberra have slipped from first to second. Trbojevic has saved not only the Sea Eagles; he has saved the entire league from the embarrassment of a top-to-bottom repeat set.

For a lockdown project, I broke down the 172 matches played up to this weekend’s round into divisional contests. Forty-eight matches were within the divisions. Of the remaining 124 matches, 91 ran completely as predicted: three in four matches were won by the team in the higher division. Of the 33 that went against the flow, nine featured Trbojevic. Take him out, and five out of six NRL games produced the same result they would have produced in the previous two years.

The Origin period should upset this kind of runaway apple cart. To a degree, it did, with the Tigers beating the Origin-gutted Panthers. But even during that mid-year flux, of 29 matches played between teams from different divisions, 20 were won by this year’s (ie, last year’s, and the year before’s) higher team.

Who’s saved the NRL from complete predictability in 2021? Tom Trbojevic says hi.
Who’s saved the NRL from complete predictability in 2021? Tom Trbojevic says hi.CREDIT:GETTY
Advertisement

Such results might be just what you’d expect at the top and bottom, but they are similarly repetitive for the water-treading middle teams. The Knights, the Sharks, the Warriors, the Titans and the Dragons are all having virtually the same season they had last year and the year before. Their fans must be dying from déjà vu all over again.

Why should this be worthy of commentary? The strong dominate the weak, duh. Better clubs win more matches. Isn’t this the way of the world, the entrenched interests using a crisis to dig themselves in?

Rugby league is meant to have a salary cap that stops this being the way of the NRL world. The salary cap, aside from saving clubs from spending themselves into insolvency, is supposed to offer the game’s supporters a version of hope: a competition that constantly recirculates its winners and losers, generating new leaders, a game in which everybody can start the season feeling they have a chance. Otherwise, you get the dreaded social Darwinism of the European football leagues.

Juventus won nine Serie A titles in a row before their run was ended by Inter Milan last season.
Juventus won nine Serie A titles in a row before their run was ended by Inter Milan last season.CREDIT:AP
The evidence is clear, to everyone except the governing body, that the salary cap is a failed model. When Canterbury or Brisbane or the Tigers have to pay second-rate spine players first-rate money to convince them to serve under their coaches, while clubs led by Craig Bellamy or Trent Robinson or Ivan Cleary can get away with securing quality individuals for “unders” - a beautiful euphemism for market manipulation - then the economic measurement of player value is no longer valid. Lower clubs overspend out of desperation and, to confirm the injustice, those clubs are usually the ones who get caught breaching their salary cap. For what, their fans ask – for those players?

The NRL has proposed a salary cap review, but its stomach to take on vested interests has been weakened by the challenges of COVID. Never waste a crisis, say those in prime position. The ruling junta are pretty happy to leave things the way they are, and if the Roosters hadn’t suffered the misfortune of an injury crisis, they would be even happier.

I feel like I’ve made this argument before (plus c’est la meme chose). Plenty of other frustrated observers have. Measuring rugby league players by what they are paid might have been valid if the difference was between a $60,000 contract and a $150,000 one. But in a world where they are certainly happier to take $500,000 and a premiership than $700,000 and a wooden spoon, the rugby league salary is not only an obsolete way to assess value, it’s a sure formula for prolonging the existing order. Alternatives are available – fantasy competitions use non-financial values every week – but few in the NRL are interested in developing them. Why upset the old men’s way of doing business when it is those old men who speak in support of every NRL decision? You scratch my back …

RELATED ARTICLE
Nathan Cleary will need to alter his kicking game under the rule change.
Exclusive
NRL 2021
The rule change set to transform the NRL kicking game forever
Perhaps the NRL has faith that we will be distracted by the dazzle. Every week, the game produces such astonishing acts of talent that even a lot of the blowouts can entertain for the virtuosity on display. Ten times a week, you will see tries scored which, if, say, the Wallabies did something like that once a year, it would be preserved and paraded like the shroud of Turin. That’s how superior the NRL is right now in terms of skill.

The only thing is, when the excitement wears off, the end result is too often the same as it was. Next year, when fans have more choices over how to spend their leisure time, they will decide how long they can keep on taking it.

Malcolm Knox always does his homework before publishing. Can you imagine any of the current troglodytes masquerading as RL journalists getting off their self serving butts to do the research required for an article like this? Maybe too busy ghost writing articles for recently retired dumbass players.

There's a simple solution.
An independent panel or computer algorithm that sets a points value for each player and clubs can have a maximum 1000 points on their roster.

Mate have been saying this for a decade but every time I bring it up I get smashed. The salary cap at present is killing the lower teams and giving a leg up to the good teams.

I’ve also been smashed for suggestions the same thing.

 

[dazza65]

Not sure if this story has been posted before
Doesn't sound good.
https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/up-and-adam-why-covid-is-threatening-to-ruin-tigers-2022-campaign-20210827-p58mi6.html

Up and Adam? Why COVID is threatening to ruin Tigers’ 2022 campaign
Christian Nicolussi
By Christian Nicolussi
August 27, 2021 — 3.27pm

Wests Tigers’ future captain, Adam Doueihi, fears he could be forced to wait months to undergo knee surgery because of Sydney’s COVID-19 outbreak, which would potentially push his comeback to the middle of next season.

Doueihi said his immediate concern is establishing exactly when he can undergo a second operation on his left knee to repair the ACL he tore against Cronulla last weekend.

The five-eighth heard a “click” during a tackle in the second half but had two shots at goal before coming from the field.

All elective surgeries in NSW have been put on hold so public and private hospital beds are kept available during the latest pandemic.

Parramatta baulked at sending winger Maika Sivo back to Sydney and kept him in Queensland, where he has already undergone knee surgery. And Penrith plan on having Nathan Cleary’s shoulder operated on up north at the end of the season before he returns home.

Now Doueihi is back in Sydney, and no chance of returning north because of the border closures, the Tigers must play the waiting game with their best player.

The Tigers wanted Doueihi to consult with the Sydney-based David Parker. Given recovery time from knee surgery is nine months, Doueihi and the Tigers hope it is only a matter of weeks, not months, before he is operated on by Parker.

Wests Tigers crash out of finals contention for 10th straight year
“I’m definitely going ahead with surgery. It’s now a question of how soon we can do it because it’s not classified as essential surgery,” Doueihi told the Herald.

“The doc hasn’t been told when they can re-open for surgery. The two hospitals he works out of are not available right now.

“There could be a smaller hospital he can work out of, but we’re just waiting to see what happens.

“Because I’m a professional sportsman and it’s my job, we’re looking to see if there can be any exemptions.”


Exactly when elective surgeries re-commence will be determined by Sydney’s COVID numbers. Just last week it was reported NSW Health Deputy Secretary Paul Minns fired off a letter to private hospitals informing them category 2 surgeries, including knee operations, could be performed but only “if the patient’s clinical condition indicates that an emergency admission may eventuate if the condition is not treated within 30 days”.

Doueihi partially tore his ACL during the 2020 pre-season, and scans confirmed the same tear had become bigger after last Saturday’s loss to the Sharks.

“It’s only partially torn, not fully ruptured, but I knew there was something wrong straight away,” Doueihi said.

“It just felt unstable. I took two goal kicks with it.”

Doueihi has been one of the few positives for the Tigers, who will miss playing finals for a 10th straight year. Losing Doueihi for any amount of time is hardly what the club needs.

Jackson Hastings will arrive from the UK and likely partner Luke Brooks in the halves to begin next season, while Jock Madden gets his shot in the No.6 on Sunday against Penrith, who will start $1.02 favourites with the bookies.

As for what fans could expect from Madden in his first starting game in the NRL, Doueihi said: “He’s a good kid who works hard. I like watching him train and I’m always teaching him stuff. I’m so happy he’s got the call-up.

“He’s probably more of a No.7 but we’ll see how he goes in the No. 6. He’s good at managing games and did a good job of that in [NSW] Cup games this year.

Jeebus. 2021 hasn’t finished yet 2022 is already in a shambles according to sections of the media…..lol

 

[2005magic]

Not sure if this story has been posted before
Doesn't sound good.
https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/up-and-adam-why-covid-is-threatening-to-ruin-tigers-2022-campaign-20210827-p58mi6.html

Up and Adam? Why COVID is threatening to ruin Tigers’ 2022 campaign
Christian Nicolussi
By Christian Nicolussi
August 27, 2021 — 3.27pm

Wests Tigers’ future captain, Adam Doueihi, fears he could be forced to wait months to undergo knee surgery because of Sydney’s COVID-19 outbreak, which would potentially push his comeback to the middle of next season.

Doueihi said his immediate concern is establishing exactly when he can undergo a second operation on his left knee to repair the ACL he tore against Cronulla last weekend.

The five-eighth heard a “click” during a tackle in the second half but had two shots at goal before coming from the field.

All elective surgeries in NSW have been put on hold so public and private hospital beds are kept available during the latest pandemic.

Parramatta baulked at sending winger Maika Sivo back to Sydney and kept him in Queensland, where he has already undergone knee surgery. And Penrith plan on having Nathan Cleary’s shoulder operated on up north at the end of the season before he returns home.

Now Doueihi is back in Sydney, and no chance of returning north because of the border closures, the Tigers must play the waiting game with their best player.

The Tigers wanted Doueihi to consult with the Sydney-based David Parker. Given recovery time from knee surgery is nine months, Doueihi and the Tigers hope it is only a matter of weeks, not months, before he is operated on by Parker.

Wests Tigers crash out of finals contention for 10th straight year
“I’m definitely going ahead with surgery. It’s now a question of how soon we can do it because it’s not classified as essential surgery,” Doueihi told the Herald.

“The doc hasn’t been told when they can re-open for surgery. The two hospitals he works out of are not available right now.

“There could be a smaller hospital he can work out of, but we’re just waiting to see what happens.

“Because I’m a professional sportsman and it’s my job, we’re looking to see if there can be any exemptions.”


Exactly when elective surgeries re-commence will be determined by Sydney’s COVID numbers. Just last week it was reported NSW Health Deputy Secretary Paul Minns fired off a letter to private hospitals informing them category 2 surgeries, including knee operations, could be performed but only “if the patient’s clinical condition indicates that an emergency admission may eventuate if the condition is not treated within 30 days”.

Doueihi partially tore his ACL during the 2020 pre-season, and scans confirmed the same tear had become bigger after last Saturday’s loss to the Sharks.

“It’s only partially torn, not fully ruptured, but I knew there was something wrong straight away,” Doueihi said.

“It just felt unstable. I took two goal kicks with it.”

Doueihi has been one of the few positives for the Tigers, who will miss playing finals for a 10th straight year. Losing Doueihi for any amount of time is hardly what the club needs.

Jackson Hastings will arrive from the UK and likely partner Luke Brooks in the halves to begin next season, while Jock Madden gets his shot in the No.6 on Sunday against Penrith, who will start $1.02 favourites with the bookies.

As for what fans could expect from Madden in his first starting game in the NRL, Doueihi said: “He’s a good kid who works hard. I like watching him train and I’m always teaching him stuff. I’m so happy he’s got the call-up.

“He’s probably more of a No.7 but we’ll see how he goes in the No. 6. He’s good at managing games and did a good job of that in [NSW] Cup games this year.

Jeebus. 2021 hasn’t finished yet 2022 is already in a shambles according to sections of the media…..lol

Fly him to Singapore for surgery and rehab.

 

[weststigerman]

The more I think about it, the areas we need to address is mentally strong players.

The reason we missed the 8 is not down to talent (should have beaten warriors twice, cowboys at Leichhardt and Titans at Campbelltown). Those losses came from an inability to handle pressure.

Madge will know who these players are (Mbye is one), and if we can get rid of them and replace them with tough players, that’s the difference IMO.

 

[PabloX]


 

[PabloX]


 

[hsvjones]

Not sure if this story has been posted before
Doesn't sound good.
https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/up-and-adam-why-covid-is-threatening-to-ruin-tigers-2022-campaign-20210827-p58mi6.html

Up and Adam? Why COVID is threatening to ruin Tigers’ 2022 campaign
Christian Nicolussi
By Christian Nicolussi
August 27, 2021 — 3.27pm

Wests Tigers’ future captain, Adam Doueihi, fears he could be forced to wait months to undergo knee surgery because of Sydney’s COVID-19 outbreak, which would potentially push his comeback to the middle of next season.

Doueihi said his immediate concern is establishing exactly when he can undergo a second operation on his left knee to repair the ACL he tore against Cronulla last weekend.

The five-eighth heard a “click” during a tackle in the second half but had two shots at goal before coming from the field.

All elective surgeries in NSW have been put on hold so public and private hospital beds are kept available during the latest pandemic.

Parramatta baulked at sending winger Maika Sivo back to Sydney and kept him in Queensland, where he has already undergone knee surgery. And Penrith plan on having Nathan Cleary’s shoulder operated on up north at the end of the season before he returns home.

Now Doueihi is back in Sydney, and no chance of returning north because of the border closures, the Tigers must play the waiting game with their best player.

The Tigers wanted Doueihi to consult with the Sydney-based David Parker. Given recovery time from knee surgery is nine months, Doueihi and the Tigers hope it is only a matter of weeks, not months, before he is operated on by Parker.

Wests Tigers crash out of finals contention for 10th straight year
“I’m definitely going ahead with surgery. It’s now a question of how soon we can do it because it’s not classified as essential surgery,” Doueihi told the Herald.

“The doc hasn’t been told when they can re-open for surgery. The two hospitals he works out of are not available right now.

“There could be a smaller hospital he can work out of, but we’re just waiting to see what happens.

“Because I’m a professional sportsman and it’s my job, we’re looking to see if there can be any exemptions.”


Exactly when elective surgeries re-commence will be determined by Sydney’s COVID numbers. Just last week it was reported NSW Health Deputy Secretary Paul Minns fired off a letter to private hospitals informing them category 2 surgeries, including knee operations, could be performed but only “if the patient’s clinical condition indicates that an emergency admission may eventuate if the condition is not treated within 30 days”.

Doueihi partially tore his ACL during the 2020 pre-season, and scans confirmed the same tear had become bigger after last Saturday’s loss to the Sharks.

“It’s only partially torn, not fully ruptured, but I knew there was something wrong straight away,” Doueihi said.

“It just felt unstable. I took two goal kicks with it.”

Doueihi has been one of the few positives for the Tigers, who will miss playing finals for a 10th straight year. Losing Doueihi for any amount of time is hardly what the club needs.

Jackson Hastings will arrive from the UK and likely partner Luke Brooks in the halves to begin next season, while Jock Madden gets his shot in the No.6 on Sunday against Penrith, who will start $1.02 favourites with the bookies.

As for what fans could expect from Madden in his first starting game in the NRL, Doueihi said: “He’s a good kid who works hard. I like watching him train and I’m always teaching him stuff. I’m so happy he’s got the call-up.

“He’s probably more of a No.7 but we’ll see how he goes in the No. 6. He’s good at managing games and did a good job of that in [NSW] Cup games this year.

even before this I was confused why we didn't get this done up here straight away but thought the club had a plan and booked in.. I'm sorry but this is just not acceptable and the good clubs are thinking long term unlike us.

 

[tigerballs]

A Malcolm Knox article in SMH about salary cap and how entrenched the inequalities of the NRL are (and why no one wants to change this).

The more agitated people are, the less the fundamentals change. When everyone seems angry, the underlying order – who’s on top, who’s underneath – entrenches itself. Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose. It was a Frenchman, Alphonse Karr, who coined the phrase in 1862, and, rugby league being to us what philosophy is to the French, it’s true of the NRL in 2021.

The more the game enters uncharted new bubbles, the more deeply it reinforces the status quo. The 2021 season is about to end with virtually the same top, middle and bottom groupings as last year. And, with some small variations, the year before, and the year before that. Fourteen of the 16 NRL clubs are stuck in Groundhog Year.

In the modern game, every gut feeling has to stand up to statistical analysis. Is it actually true?

The NRL is clearly segmented into three divisions, which were quite predictable from the outset given the uneven spread of talent. Some clubs can afford to play representative stars off the bench, in positions where other clubs select reserve-graders. Whether the better clubs have poached or developed their talent matters little; the roster differences are vast. The top six at the outset of 2021 were Melbourne, Penrith, the Roosters, Parramatta, South Sydney and Canberra. The bottom five were Canterbury, Brisbane, North Queensland, Manly and the Wests Tigers. The inconsistent swill bogged in the middle were Newcastle, St George Illawarra, Cronulla, the Gold Coast and the Warriors.

What’s the point?
What’s the point?CREDIT:SIMON LETCH
There have been just two divisional changes this season: Manly (assuming Tom Trbojevic is playing) have risen from third division to first, while Canberra have slipped from first to second. Trbojevic has saved not only the Sea Eagles; he has saved the entire league from the embarrassment of a top-to-bottom repeat set.

For a lockdown project, I broke down the 172 matches played up to this weekend’s round into divisional contests. Forty-eight matches were within the divisions. Of the remaining 124 matches, 91 ran completely as predicted: three in four matches were won by the team in the higher division. Of the 33 that went against the flow, nine featured Trbojevic. Take him out, and five out of six NRL games produced the same result they would have produced in the previous two years.

The Origin period should upset this kind of runaway apple cart. To a degree, it did, with the Tigers beating the Origin-gutted Panthers. But even during that mid-year flux, of 29 matches played between teams from different divisions, 20 were won by this year’s (ie, last year’s, and the year before’s) higher team.

Who’s saved the NRL from complete predictability in 2021? Tom Trbojevic says hi.
Who’s saved the NRL from complete predictability in 2021? Tom Trbojevic says hi.CREDIT:GETTY
Advertisement

Such results might be just what you’d expect at the top and bottom, but they are similarly repetitive for the water-treading middle teams. The Knights, the Sharks, the Warriors, the Titans and the Dragons are all having virtually the same season they had last year and the year before. Their fans must be dying from déjà vu all over again.

Why should this be worthy of commentary? The strong dominate the weak, duh. Better clubs win more matches. Isn’t this the way of the world, the entrenched interests using a crisis to dig themselves in?

Rugby league is meant to have a salary cap that stops this being the way of the NRL world. The salary cap, aside from saving clubs from spending themselves into insolvency, is supposed to offer the game’s supporters a version of hope: a competition that constantly recirculates its winners and losers, generating new leaders, a game in which everybody can start the season feeling they have a chance. Otherwise, you get the dreaded social Darwinism of the European football leagues.

Juventus won nine Serie A titles in a row before their run was ended by Inter Milan last season.
Juventus won nine Serie A titles in a row before their run was ended by Inter Milan last season.CREDIT:AP
The evidence is clear, to everyone except the governing body, that the salary cap is a failed model. When Canterbury or Brisbane or the Tigers have to pay second-rate spine players first-rate money to convince them to serve under their coaches, while clubs led by Craig Bellamy or Trent Robinson or Ivan Cleary can get away with securing quality individuals for “unders” - a beautiful euphemism for market manipulation - then the economic measurement of player value is no longer valid. Lower clubs overspend out of desperation and, to confirm the injustice, those clubs are usually the ones who get caught breaching their salary cap. For what, their fans ask – for those players?

The NRL has proposed a salary cap review, but its stomach to take on vested interests has been weakened by the challenges of COVID. Never waste a crisis, say those in prime position. The ruling junta are pretty happy to leave things the way they are, and if the Roosters hadn’t suffered the misfortune of an injury crisis, they would be even happier.

I feel like I’ve made this argument before (plus c’est la meme chose). Plenty of other frustrated observers have. Measuring rugby league players by what they are paid might have been valid if the difference was between a $60,000 contract and a $150,000 one. But in a world where they are certainly happier to take $500,000 and a premiership than $700,000 and a wooden spoon, the rugby league salary is not only an obsolete way to assess value, it’s a sure formula for prolonging the existing order. Alternatives are available – fantasy competitions use non-financial values every week – but few in the NRL are interested in developing them. Why upset the old men’s way of doing business when it is those old men who speak in support of every NRL decision? You scratch my back …

RELATED ARTICLE
Nathan Cleary will need to alter his kicking game under the rule change.
Exclusive
NRL 2021
The rule change set to transform the NRL kicking game forever
Perhaps the NRL has faith that we will be distracted by the dazzle. Every week, the game produces such astonishing acts of talent that even a lot of the blowouts can entertain for the virtuosity on display. Ten times a week, you will see tries scored which, if, say, the Wallabies did something like that once a year, it would be preserved and paraded like the shroud of Turin. That’s how superior the NRL is right now in terms of skill.

The only thing is, when the excitement wears off, the end result is too often the same as it was. Next year, when fans have more choices over how to spend their leisure time, they will decide how long they can keep on taking it.

The most valid and interesting yet known article I have read in a long time

And spot on! Look how much the game has changed since the super league war, rules wise, but how little the salary cap has changed other than the maximum value. They tweak the rules, for better or worse, every year but the salary cap structure remains untouched. And why is it that privately owned teams ( Roosters included ) seem to dominate the league? Only 3 leagues club owned teams have won the comp since WT in 2005. Why has there never been an incentive to develop ( and be able to keep ) juniors? In fact, the teams with the fewest juniors ( Storm and Roosters ) are the most successful.

 

[Harvey]


All not lost, just next season