Headlines....

12/04/09 – From James Hooper of DailyTelegraph.com.au - SOUTH Sydney have made a big-money play for Brisbane forward Dave Taylor, dangling a $750,000 carrot in front him. The Broncos prop, who has attracted interest from six rival NRL clubs, has been offered a three-year deal to join the Rabbitohs.

The Broncos are in HUGE trouble at the moment. There are three major contractual issues hanging over their corporate head.

1. The impending David Taylor loss.
2. The just-around-the-corner Karmichael Hunt loss.
3. The oh-so-quiet, yet uncomfortably rapid, demise of their highest paid player—el capa-tan, Darren Lockyer.

That’s like your puppy dying, followed by your girlfriend dumping you, and it all happening why your parents are terminally sick, and fading faster then expected. Meanwhile you can’t help but wonder if you could have salvaged the puppy and the relationship with the money you just spent on a 6 month old second hand Ferrari (That would be Folou. Should we call him F50 from now on?).

Either way, the Broncs better hope some good luck comes their way, and quick, or they will face their first real rebuilding period in club history.

The thing that bugs me about this as a fan of the game, is the lack of compensation. What’s fair about a team bringing a player all the way through from high-school and losing him just as he is about to peak?

(And I understand the Broncos have reaped the spoils (Wallace and F50 for starters) on occasion in these situations as well.)

So, this really is a question to the league, from the league.

Just look at Thurston’s move from the Bulldogs, Tonga’s move from the Eels and then from the Bulldogs, Finch’s move from the Eels, Stagg’s move from the Bronco’s, Amos Roberts move from the Panthers, Soward’s move from the Roosters; the list goes on. Hunt and Taylor are perfect examples.

The Broncos, like any good club, put both of them through private schooling in Brisbane, nurtured them physically and emotionally into first grade, developed them into world class players, and now, just as they are about to attain some form of authority in the game, are forced to give them up.

So once again, how is this fair?

Sure, this spreads talent around the league, but where is the compensation for big market teams like the Broncos, the Bulldogs, the Roosters, the Rabbitohs, and the good developmental teams like the Cowboys, the Wests Tigers, and the Knights, who perennially seem to put more effort and resources into developing and aiding youths?

There just isn’t any. But that doesn’t mean there can’t be any.

The NRL needs two things:

1. A soft cap like the NBA has. This would allow big market teams to develop and retain players by exceeding the salary cap. The catch is, if they do so, they pay a luxury tax (the marginal cost) which is distributed among the teams with payrolls under the salary cap. In theory, these are small market teams who could use the added revenue.
2. Trades

With a soft cap the Bulldogs could have conceivably kept Sonny-Bill Williams. They could have signed him for Europe money knowing his name would cover his salary and merely paid any luxury tax they accumulated in building a competent side around him. At least all that money would have stayed in the NRL.

And if they couldn’t keep him they could have traded him for three or four quality players from another team, and that team could have inked a new huge contract with him and suffered any luxury tax consequences.

Trades would ensure the biggest players always went to the markets with the biggest revenue. Sure, parity is good in theory, but for a league to thrive, it needs its biggest stars in its biggest markets.

For instance, The Storm knew they had a limited chance of resigning Folou in 2008 so why wouldn’t they have traded him when his value was highest (the end of 2007), and got something in return? In theory they could have traded him to the Broncos for cash and a then unproven David Taylor.

Talking about Taylor. The Broncos could have traded Taylor at the end of last year if they thought they wouldn’t resign him this year. They could have traded Stagg and Ennis to the Bulldogs for superstar prospect Ben Barba.

This would have left them with adequate compensation, giving them the room to either hold on to Barba or ship him to fill other needs, and on top of this they would’ve been able to resign Hunt even if this meant paying luxury tax. Once again the incentive to keep players by exceeding the cap would spread more money among the league.

The Eels could have got something in return for a quality commodity like Finch. Instead, they get nothing. Meanwhile the savvy Storm capitalise on a broken system. The raiders are poised to lose their one commodity (Terry Campese). The list goes on and on.

I realise its not as simple I have laid it out to be, but dreams start somewhere. The current system is outdated. It’s unprofessional in a professional era.

I have no problem with what the South Sydney is doing or with Taylor making $750,000. In fact I hope he makes that annually at some point in his career, but there needs to be some extra incentive for teams like the Broncos to keep investing so heavily in youth development.

It just isn’t fair, to the teams, the league, or the fans.

Brisbane Sports Fan