What rubs me the wrong way is that we're already discussing 2021.
The season hasn't even started yet and the poor Gold Coast Titans fanbase have to suffer through another season knowing their best player has his bags packed to go join another club. It just makes it really difficult for their fanbase to get invested in this season and creates this scenario where they've got to try and win back their losses by signing a prospect like Tino Fa'asuamaleaui.
That may sound hypocritical from the Gold Coast, but none of these parties should be in this position. There should be a grace period where the clubs and the players can focus on the upcoming season and when everything has settled, then we can worry about free agency.
With the way everything played out, it came across like Sam Burgess was a shell of the player he once was so he was pressured into retiring. As soon as the NRL cleared his retirement, they went out and offered his money to Arrow and made it known they'd like to have him right away, breaking his contract with the Gold Coast.
Now I'm sure it didn't play out EXACTLY like that, but that's the impression I took from the news. Had their been this gap to distract from the cause and effect it wouldn't have been as glaring but this is just the lay of the land.
I'm trying to think of a scenario where it wouldn't be so on the nose. In the case of Souths, if one of your best players retires that late into free agency, it should just be an unfortunate set of circumstances. It's a shame but clubs always find themselves in these type of predicaments, you just have to wait for the appropriate opportunity to address the problem. Whether it was mid to late 2020 or if they could pick up a reject (like Brisbane did with Croft) that would have been acceptable. With the way it all worked out, it just exposed a major issue with the game and was a major turn off.
And I've got nothing against Souths, they played to the rules of the game and they came away with two excellent players. I don't think they've done anything wrong and I applaud them for their recruitment. I just don't think this should be allowed to continue in it's current format.
Especially when you get a Kalyn Ponga situation. I honestly think the game shot themselves in the foot in that 2016/17 pre-season when they allowed Ponga to sign that $3,000,000+ contract after two games. He wasted a year of his life waiting for the season to end so he could leave Townsville, that was awful for the NRL, especially since he's marketed as the best player in the game.
I agree that something desperately needs to be done, because the format as it stands is not working and it's creating huge discontent within the fan base.
I'd imagine the RLPA would state that allowing a player to negotiate a deal 12 months out provides security to players by knowing their future is sorted... I can see how this applies to lesser known players like the Tagatese's of the world who aren't really guaranteed a contract and would like as much time as possible to sort out a deal and secure their future. However in reality it is very rarely, if ever, the lesser known players that are signing deals 12 months in advance.
Instead it's the star players who are signing new deals 12 months out, because that is the time when clubs have the most cap available and can therefore splash the cash on a new star to build the club around... and it is more often than not the Taga's of the world that are scrambling for spots to fill in the club's quotas at the end of the period. So in a sense the RLPA's suggestion that it is protecting all players isn't really legitimate, because star players are pretty much guaranteed to get a contract and lesser knowns are scrambling at the end of their contracts.
The other issue with signing a deal 12 months out is the pressure applied to the existing club to release the player early so everyone can get on with life, but when does this actually benefit the existing club... they lose a star player, rarely get anything in return (player or cash) and are left with a ton of cap, but nothing to spend it on.
I'm unsure how they can resolve the issue without a nominated free agency period.
I think the best case scenario is a free agent period after the grand final, but that only gives about 4 weeks to when the contract expires on November 1, which is unfair for the borderline NRL players.
To alleviate this they could allow negotiations to commence from July 1 onwards of their last contract year. This would be similar to the NFL, NBA, Football leagues, etc. where a bunch of transfers are agreed in principle and announced on day 1 of free agency (usually the big end contracts).
Would this create disruption from constant media speculation?? Of course it would, but at least it would be constrained to the last 6 months of the player's contract. In 2019 we've had nonstop speculation about Fifi, Staggs, Oates, Flegler, etc. and that was with the November 1 rule. Also in the AFL there appears to be speculation all year long despite them having a dedicated trade period (Dustin Martin from Richmond comes to mind).
If it is limited to the last 6 months at least the player would be required to play out the contract length... if Arrow signed with Souths on July 1 2020 there would be no speculation about moving early, because he is literally not allowed to move from June 30 onwards. There would be speculation about Arrow leaving for all of 2020 leading up to it, which would piss off Titans fans, but at least they would have some confidence that they might retain him... that glimmer of hope that he hasn't signed yet.
I think they should also allow player trades up to June 30 for each year (they basically do anyway, but they should formalize it)... again in the Arrow case if Titans realise they are not going to sign Arrow during 2020 regardless of the offer, then they could at least look to setup a trade with Souths to get something out of it.
I would also allow transfer fees to be off the cap. If a rich club (Souths) is willing to pay Titans $1m or so to get Arrow early they should be allowed to do so, because at least the Titans would be getting something for originally identifying the talent. Also it's not like rich clubs aren't getting the players they want anyway... Matterson leaving tigers early because he wondered around training with the shits. Tigers get nothing for having identified the talent and Eels get a shiny new player with zero outlay... make the eels pay a premium to get Matterson rather than letting him walk for nothing.
I keep mentioning the Titans, but imagine if Fifi signed elsewhere. The pressure would be on us to release him and let everyone get on with it.... but that doesn't favour us in any way and would only strengthen one of our rivals at zero cost to them.
