NRL General Discussion Thread - 2016

[Big Pete]

Drew was one of the Broncos brighter young prospects. As Fozz said, made his debut at age 18 to relieve Maranta from first grade when Lachlan was under all sorts of pressure and handled himself well on debut.

Has had his share of injuries which has hampered his development somewhat. He was more fortunate in that regard last year and had a nice combination going with NYC Player of the Year Ashley Taylor.

A fair comparison would be Steve Bell. Not the flashiest player around, but a well balanced runner with good foot-work who can run really good lines back on the inside. The NYC boys couldn't handle it, but it remains to be seen whether it'll be successful in first grade.

Another area of concern is his defence. He's very inconsistent in this regard where he'll make the right option one set and completely blow it the next. A lot of it comes down to development but it'll take him a few years for him to get it right and I'm sure we'll see a few clangers.

Personally, I believe it's the best move for all parties. Drew had seemingly hit his ceiling at the Broncos and was behind others in the pecking order. A change in environment could do him the world of good and I hope the Sharks work their wonders with another young Queensland back - they love 'em at the Shire right now!

 

[Broncoman]

With Matt Bowen returning to the 9's I've been thinking how cool it would be if a team of retired high profile/great players joined the comp and competed. It would be so cool to watch a team with Matt Bowen, Fittler, Lockyer, Johns, Menzies etc playing.

 

[ivanhungryjak]

[h=4]Sport: The week's best plays[/h]From offloads to Open glory, these are the most exciting, silly and downright crazy plays in the sporting world this week.



I hesitate, of course, to draw parallels with the structure of rugby league and the illegal drug trade, but ... here we go.
(Hold on to your hats, sports fans, this might get ugly.)
Whether you and I like it or not – and I don't – trying to enforce a law against illegal drugs when there is a huge demand for those drugs doesn't work, never has worked, and never will work. When market forces contrive to give an illegal drug that is in high demand the value of "X" dollars a kilo, a simple factor comes into play when you put huge resources behind stopping that drug.

Pay players what they're worth: A TPA deal beween Parramatta and Anthony Watmough is being investigated by the NRL. Photo: Getty Images
Supply is limited, and people go outside the law to provide it anyway, even as the value goes up to "3X" or "4X" or "10X". So now you want to put evenmore resources to stopping that drug, put more people into prison dealing in it? OK, it becomes rarer still and it's value is now up to "20X" meaning the Mr Bigs that provide it, are rolling in it!
As your humble correspondent has long maintained, simply passing a law against something that is in such high demand, moves it beyond regulation, and the net result is the government loses control, and revenue, and the drug itself is more dangerous than ever. The drug is still out there, and the only result is the baddies make profits that would kill a brown dog.
Which brings us of course to rugby league ...
(He pauses. Shifts uncomfortably. Hopes he can bring this off ...)


The current system, as you know, is that rugby league is a fabulously popular game. People love it, television stations pay squillions to broadcast it and the players who provide the raw material for that spectacle are rightly paid a lot of money for that trouble.
But they are not paid their true market worth.
In fact, an illegal cartel formed by their employers, the clubs, under the auspices of the NRL, contrives to pay them well below what they are worth by virtue of the salary cap. Other employees work with the benefit of a minimum wage. The league players work under a collective maximum wage.
The net result, when a whole slew of players have a worth far beyond what they are actually being paid? Well, back in 1995, it resulted in Super League. Rupert Murdoch came in, started a competition of his own, and there was hell to pay. The whole shemozzle was only possible because the players were being paid only a fraction of their worth.


But, here and now, a more obvious example of what happens when a club can afford to pay a player more than the NRL will allow them to pay, is any variety of third-party arrangements. For decades the cliche used to be that they would sign the player for X dollars to play for the club, while employing his wife in the office for 2X – and not worry too much if she didn't turn up. These days, third-party agreements are OK under the rules, with several caveats. One of them as noted in the Herald yesterday is that "salary cap rules forbid any company involved in a commercial relationship with an NRL club to also serve as a third-party agreement sponsor". It is under this regulation that the Eels are being investigated for their TPA with Anthony Watmough.
Ummmm, can I ask what the point of that regulation is? If the Parramatta business community has the wherewithal to come up with the money to bring a player the calibre of Watmough to the Eels, what precisely, is the downside? Where is the conflict of interest, that the TPA is with a club sponsor?
Does it damage Watmough? Clearly not. It gets him closer to his actual market worth.
Does it damage the Eels? Clearly not. Their ranks are stronger for his presence, and he helps make the turnstiles click.


Does it damage the NRL? Obviously not. The more money they can get to their players, particularly money that doesn't come from their own hide, the better. Beyond everything else, it helps keep their players from the ravaging rah-rahs who risk descending from the hills on their regular raids and carrying off their best and brightest to their hilltop citadels to have them play in English, French and Japanese rugby.
So why persist with the nonsense?
Let the players get their market worth, and all is sorted ... except the proclivity of one or two, not Watmough, to partake of illegal drugs ... but that is another story!

Twitter: @Peter_Fitz

Somebody please post this on Greenhouse and duck for cover!

Why the NRL's salary cap makes no sense

 

[Morkel]

Somebody please post this on Greenhouse and duck for cover!

Why the NRL's salary cap makes no sense

Where it makes no sense is that it becomes very easy for it to not be a genuine 3rd party agreement. A club sponsor is already involved with the club. Let's say they pay a million bucks in sponsorship. Instead, the club says "how about you pay us $800k, and play Player X $200k, and you still get your million bucks worth of sponsorship exposure?" Effectively $200k extra on your salary cap is way more valuable than $200k sponsorship money. That's why anyone who has 3rd party arrangements must have ZERO to do with the club.

 

[Unbreakable]

Mose Masoe out for the season with an ACL.

Masoe Suffers ACL Injury - Dragons

 

[GCBRONCO]

Yeah big blow for the Dragons.

 

[ivanhungryjak]

Channel Seven saying Cordner out for three months with a torn pec.

 

[Unbreakable]

Roosters are goneeeee.

Tuivasa-Scheck gone
Maloney gone
Jennings gone
Warea-Hargreaves out for first couple of months
Cordner out for first couple of months
Pearce suspended for an unknown amount of time

They're gonna struggle to put 17 first graders together this year, a far cry from them in previous seasons.

1. Ferguson
2. Tupou
3. Elliot
4. Copley
5. Kenny-Dowall
6. Nikorima
7. Hastings
8. Moa
9. Friend (c)
10. Napa
11. Guerra
12. Liu
13. Taukeiaho

14. Aubusson
15. Evans
16. Afu
17. Frei

Boy, that's horrible.

 

[Unbreakable]

Brett Morris out for first month of the season, unsure of any more details.

 

[ningnangnong]

Brett Morris out for first month of the season, unsure of any more details.

Is it his ankle or gall stones?

 

[broncos4life]

Is it his ankle or gall stones?

Hahahahaha

 

[Unbreakable]

Is it his ankle or gall stones?

 

[Rhino1001]

Roosters are goneeeee.

Tuivasa-Scheck gone
Maloney gone
Jennings gone
Warea-Hargreaves out for first couple of months
Cordner out for first couple of months
Pearce suspended for an unknown amount of time

They're gonna struggle to put 17 first graders together this year, a far cry from them in previous seasons.

1. Ferguson
2. Tupou
3. Elliot
4. Copley
5. Kenny-Dowall
6. Nikorima
7. Hastings
8. Moa
9. Friend (c)
10. Napa
11. Guerra
12. Liu
13. Taukeiaho

14. Aubusson
15. Evans
16. Afu
17. Frei

Boy, that's horrible.

Joe Burgess?

 

[tommy]

http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport...s/news-story/151e3711b92eef8af02837c6cf6b5d7b

 

[broncos4life]

Yeah let's restrict everyone because some clubs are incompetent. Well done NRL, knocking it out of the park once again.

 

[GCBRONCO]

What do you expect from the game's administration, team success must be held back by incompetence from others, nothing new.

 

[Mitch06]

Denman Kemp just released a locker room Ep with Sandor Earls insight on everything that happened from the offence to the court hearings for his trafficking charge. Groundbreaking interview Imo.....compared to other scandals, the penalty he copped is an absolute fucking joke. Check it out, awesome video.

 

[Harry Sack]

Denman Kemp just released a locker room Ep with Sandor Earls insight on everything that happened from the offence to the court hearings for his trafficking charge. Groundbreaking interview Imo.....compared to other scandals, the penalty he copped is an absolute fucking joke. Check it out, awesome video.

At this point I believe it's customary to supply a link of some description.