LittleDavey
NRL Captain
- Mar 25, 2013
- 3,876
- 7,661
Oh look, I believe that players should be able to sign on for whatever they want. But the NRL supposedly doesn't work that way, right? Like Jarryd Hayne being unable to sign for unders. Or the few other highly publicised cases where contracts were knocked back for being "too low". But those seem to be the exception rather than the rule, otherwise how can players willingly take less to stay with their junior club/teammates/etc? Hell the Roosters' squad was judged to be what, $2M over the cap at market value? So how can the NRL on one hand say that's fine, nothing to see there, but then tell Jack that no, he can't sign with Souths for $300k less than Canberra's offer because it's not market value?The Storm didn't complain, Raiders are unhappy and don't want him to go. It's the last card they have to play.
Smith said all his five offers were similar in money anyway.
Even if they send the deal back and want something amended it's not going to make him stay at the Raiders. It's a last desperate act.
I might be misunderstanding how it all works but it just seems so dumb IMO. Either the NRL sets a salary for each player (like Supercoach), or they should just stay out of the $$ amounts and scrutinise the contracts for their legality/compliance with the rules otherwise. I have no issues whatsoever if for example Haas is offered $1.5M a year from rugby, $1.2M a year from the Phins and chooses to stay with us for $900k. Surely that's his prerogative as a player to choose where he wants to suit up for. Same for Jack, if he wants to take $300k less to get out of Canberra and chase a premiership, he's entitled to do it in my view.
The NRL wanting to look at selective contracts in detail and potentially butt in about how much they deem a player is worth, is just another component of the shady shit that goes on with contracts, TPA's etc. And is yet another papercut maligning the game in this country. Whatever happened to the investigation into Smith's manager's claims of brown paper bags? It took the inept NRL days to even comment on it, and that amounted to "well if he knows something he should come forward to the Integrity Committee". So what happened with all that? Those crickets are deafening.