Here's the issue...
Say you're the Wests Tigers and you blood 10 players but you win the wooden spoon. The coach is sacked, new coach comes in and right away is under pressure to deliver results. There's pressure from up-stairs about some out of favour star player that they want to sign to sell season tickets and those 10 players that were blooded, 6 of them are off contract and they want to be the highest players at the club.
Meanwhile you've got this 17 year old, he can kick the ball 80m, throws a great bullet pass and is bloody quick but he's 70kgs and can't look at you in the eyes when you speak to him. He needs development but his money grubbing manager is already talking to Politis about this kid.
It's a two prong attack, they're taking your immediate future and then they're taking the long term player and benefiting from it. Now you're getting articles written about you that you thought the kid was too small for first grade.
So you're left with the scraps, watching Moneyball for the umpteenth time, carrying that one to try and find value in these players no one else can, but your club is no longer pure.
So the rich get richer, you get poorer and 3 years from now Matt Nable is narrating your demise because the skinny kid who couldn't look you in the eyes is sporting a dumb hair-cut and scoring grand final winning tries. Oops!
However the NRL keeps holding the game back trying to cater to these clubs.
So what can they do?
Canabalise another struggling club, try to poach their bright eyed bushy tail kid who just wants a game. Sure, the kid gets the yips anytime the team needs him to come up with a big play, but his highlight reels during the junk minutes is fantastic and he's getting positive press. As long as you avoid getting flogged every other week, you're golden and may even sign a three year contract on the back of it.
But nothing changes as everyone just sits absolutely gobsmacked at how brilliant Sydney are at managing the cap. The same teams just dominate as they use the struggling clubs as glorified reserve grade. 'Thanks for giving our kid the experience, now prepare to lose by 40'.
We need to find a way to break that cycle. Penrith appear to be the model but they didn't get their on development alone. They recruited a stack of marquee players and bought themselves enough time in development, basically going through three generations 2011-14, 2015-17, 2018-2021 before it finally led to success. Is there enough Gus Gould's around to exploit his connections and convince these players to come to him? Are there enough nurseries like Penrith pumping these kids out?
Let's fix a few things first. Let's get a proper free agency period so clubs and players can actually make a proper assessment of their worth. Let's support the lower grades, whether that means a national reserve grade or better funding for the NSW/Qld Cup so we can entice players to stick with the game and hire better coaches. Then on the other side, keep promoting the game at skills, get players and ex-players over into schools they haven't hit in their local area. Get them running drills during Phys Ed and lets try to get more boys and girls into the game.
The more 'local' players you bring through, the more you get off the cap. Expansion clubs can receive an exception but that will cease over time. I'm pretty sure there's a system in the NFL with rookie contracts, see if something like that can be done in the NRL.
