St George Illawarra and NSW centre Mark Gasnier to retire at season's end

[Ari Gold]

so who decides what reasons for leaving are valid?

he couldnt have loved the club that much since he just up and left them to play in france one day lol.

You don't decide if reasons for leaving are valid. You simply put/keep in some sort of deadline where players can't make mid season transfers after a certain date so what you described can't happen.

I understand why not allowing mid seasons transfers to get a ring (a.k.a. Lebronning) is a concern, but really, what's so bad about the Gasnier case? He's never even played for another NRL club. It's basically no different to when TC returned to play for us. Or Alfie in 2002 for that matter.

 

[Anonymous person]

What's so bad is the fact that he would not have been able to sign with the dragons for 2010/2011 without having the huge back-loaded contract that he is now walking out of. That's what's so dodgy about it.

 

[Ari Gold]

What's so bad is the fact that he would not have been able to sign with the dragons for 2010/2011 without having the huge back-loaded contract that he is now walking out of. That's what's so dodgy about it.

Why should that have been the case to begin with though? I understand it for players moving clubs, but what's so bad about a one club player playing for less money than they are worth? I'm pretty sure TC did it. So why shouldn't Gasnier? It's not like he's being a LeBron and just assembling his own all-star team at a new organization.

 

[Kimlo]

Why should that have been the case to begin with though? I understand it for players moving clubs, but what's so bad about a one club player playing for less money than they are worth? I'm pretty sure TC did it. So why shouldn't Gasnier? It's not like he's being a LeBron and just assembling his own all-star team at a new organization.

Stop comparing TC to Gasnier, it's not the same thing.
Gasnier is a current rep player, TC is more comparable to Devere, not Gasnier.

Gasnier is a star player only 28 years old when he signed and would never have been allowed to sign a 50k contract under any circumstances unless it was heavily backloaded so it averaged out.

In this situation the Dragons got a star player for 50k and the backloading penalty didn't really apply. It's like us signing Locky again towards the end of next year for 50k and him retiring start of the next season, that's not fair and is totally against the spirit of the salary cap.

 

[Ari Gold]

Stop comparing TC to Gasnier, it's not the same thing.
Gasnier is a current rep player, TC is more comparable to Devere, not Gasnier.

Gasnier is a star player only 28 years old when he signed and would never have been allowed to sign a 50k contract under any circumstances unless it was heavily backloaded so it averaged out.

In this situation the Dragons got a star player for 50k and the backloading penalty didn't really apply. It's like us signing Locky again towards the end of next year for 50k and him retiring start of the next season, that's not fair and is totally against the spirit of the salary cap.

When TC returned from the ESL he went on and played for both QLD and Australia, so he was a rep player just like Gasnier. DeVere might have played one game for NSW, but TC's representative honours are much closer to Gasnier's than DeVere's. You don't think TC was a star player from 2003-2008? Because I think he was. The extent to which he discounted himself obviously wouldn't have been as extreme as Gasnier's, but he still discounted himself.

And all this talk about being against the cap? Couldn't give a rats ass. If the idea of the cap is to force out players who want to be loyal to a club, then I really don't care. And I'm sure there are similar sorts of instances going on. I doubt Yow Yeh is on much money at the moment, and unless he's been upgraded since achieving rep status, then he too is being massively underpaid to his true value. Should the NRL now force us to pay him more this year just so it's fair?

 

[Kimlo]

When TC returned from the ESL he went on and played for both QLD and Australia, so he was a rep player just like Gasnier. DeVere might have played one game for NSW, but TC's representative honours are much closer to Gasnier's than DeVere's. You don't think TC was a star player from 2003-2008? Because I think he was. The extent to which he discounted himself obviously wouldn't have been as extreme as Gasnier's, but he still discounted himself.

And all this talk about being against the cap? Couldn't give a rats ass. If the idea of the cap is to force out players who want to be loyal to a club, then I really don't care. And I'm sure there are similar sorts of instances going on. I doubt Yow Yeh is on much money at the moment, and unless he's been upgraded since achieving rep status, then he too is being massively underpaid to his true value. Should the NRL now force us to pay him more this year just so it's fair?

But that's the whole point, rules are rules and I believe the Dragons have got away with it easily.
Yow Yeh is completely different club junior who debuted with us, he'll get an upgrade when his contract renews. Gasnier on the other hand cost under the cap less than what a minimum wage player costs which is 55k + match payments. They again got him cheap for this year and next year when the Dragons should have been making up for his first 2 years they no longer have to. So they got a very good player for very cheap, so cheap that the NRL would not have accepted the terms if it was a 1.5 year contract highlighted by the fact it was only agreed to because it was a heavily backloaded 4 year contract.

 

[Ari Gold]

I would agree that it's unfair -- I just don't care (in the instance where a one club player returns to their home club). Gasnier took big money from another code/competition, and then after taking that money, decided to repay the club that he loves by playing at a discounted rate. Whilst you don't like to see players leave the game for big money, you can't exactly begrudge them either. And if they then use that payday to return to both their home clubs and the game, and do so for pittance, then I say good on them.

Personally if other codes want to pay our players the big money so they can return to the game at a discounted rate, then I think that's awesome. Great way to stick it to union. And as a matter of principle, I find it ridiculous that the NRL would refuse to allow a player to play for less than value so they can play for the club they love. Obviously not acceptable if it's just Lebronning, but where it's the same club they've played with their entire NRL career, isn't that the kind of thing you want to see in the game?

 

[Kimlo]

I definitely agree with you and I think that's how it SHOULD be but it's not and to me it appears the Dragons blatantly broke the rules which is what pisses me off.

I can see why you don't care and I don't really care so much except that I feel no club should get an unfair advantage, if it's fair game for every club to do that then I would have no problems with it.

 

[schmix]

I don't like Gasnier or the Dragons, but I'm with Ari on this one. If Gasnier wants to come back and help out his club for minimum wage then good on the Dragons for creating the kind of environment where blokes will play for the love of the game/club.

And I don't think the Dragons have broken the rules, they simply found a loophole and exploited it.

 

[Nashy]

And probably ruining the chance for other teams to use back ended contracts in the future to get players into the team.

 

[Jeba]

And I don't think the Dragons have broken the rules, they simply found a loophole and exploited it.

Agreed. And like Nashy said, they've probably ****ed up the ride for other clubs, but it's just smart management if you ask me (by whoever involved, not sure if it was coach, CEO, water boy or whoever).

 

[m1c]

It's quite odd IMO, given he became so disillusioned over channel 9 welching on 150k he left the club. Now he's pulling the pin, leaving a good few hundred k at the club.