The NRL draft **Bourbon Bec Warning**

[I bleed Maroon]

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Rebecca Wilson: NRL boss Dave Smith embarks on quest of massive reforms

Rebecca Wilson
The Daily Telegraph
August 10, 2014 12:00AM

The National Rugby League’s head office has finally gone where no administration before it has dared to tread with the decision to explore the very real possibility of a rookie draft within three years.

NRL boss Dave Smith has signalled in no uncertain terms that the reform agenda at headquarters is about to hit its straps.

The mild-mannered former banker has sat back and assessed the league landscape in his first 18 months in the chair.

He has not liked a lot of what he has seen and found.

The draft will just be the first of many massive reforms that will change the face of the game forever.

Board reform at club level, the possible reduction or relocation of teams and a broadcast deal that reflects a better, stronger competition are among the items on Smith’s agenda.

He is now determined to ensure rugby league has a long term survival strategy.

The draft, he believes, will be a symbol of the seismic shift in policy from previous administrations.

Former boss, David Gallop, resisted with dogged determination the introduction of a draft, claiming young men just out of school should not be forced to leave their home towns.

He discussed it, threw it open for debate, and then shut it down whenever it looked like becoming a genuine possibility.

So, too, several powerful rugby league club bosses.

This minority have been very, very vocal in their opposition because it did not suit their own agendas.

Those clubs accustomed to ‘stealing’ other clubs’ young player talent and ‘buying’ competitions saw the draft as something that had to be stopped at any cost.

Smith has heard their complaints and protests but still believes the only rational and fair thing to do is to develop a draft that will improve the competition across all 16 clubs.

He will undoubtedly face more pressure from this lot in coming months.

Already, several of them have begun their opposition campaign.

What they have underestimated is that Smith will not resile from something that he genuinely believes will improve the health of the code.

The days of being able to pick up the phone and call the boss’s bluff over issues like the draft are over.

Smith’s resolve is strong. This week, the backroom machinations began in earnest.

Already, NRL officials are in Melbourne working with the AFL to see how their hugely successful rookie draft works.

The AFL model has produced an enviable October event for Australian Rules that rivals the draft systems in the National Football League, the National Basketball Association and American baseball.

The rookie draft has become a highlight of the sporting calendar for all of these codes.

It is almost a cultural event, a reference point for sports that brings into sharp focus the sports’ regeneration process.

Fans see the new breed come through each season. They become part of the discussion, rating their picks and hoping the Next Big Thing is coming their club’s way.

Cities even vie for the right to play host.

Above all, Smith is determined to create equity in the long term.

The present system is a random mishmash of recruitment, secret deals and poaching.

A draft makes the recruitment process totally transparent, ensuring those who finish near the bottom can eventually find their way to the top again.

A rich club will not have any advantage over a cash-strapped one.

There are at least four clubs who are regularly appearing in the bottom half of the competition ladder.

Cronulla and Canberra, in particular, stand to benefit the most from a draft because they simply do not have the resources to buy the top picks in a free market each season.

It is game on at Moore Park.

After decades of debate, petty sniping and self interest, rugby league is finally on the brink of getting something it has desperately needed for so long.

Smith will need his hard hat on in coming months but change is coming.

There is nothing more certain.

Get ready to welcome tanking into the NRL. If the draft existed this year, Stuart can ride on the assumption that the team is playing like shit on purpose to get priority picks.

I feel really bad for any young kid that is forced to start their career in Canberra. Not the sort of lottery you want to win.

 

[Ari Gold]

Wasn't there some sort of legal ruling with Terry Hill that caused it to go away in the first place?

Regardless of it's legality, I don't know how the NRL can possibly think this would work. The minute you introduce a draft every single NRL team abandons it's junior development program, because what's the point? It works in the US because you have a strong collegiate program but you'd need something else to develop these players from the 14-18 range. Can bet your bottom dollar no club will be helping if there's a draft.

 

[I bleed Maroon]

Wasn't there some sort of legal ruling with Terry Hill that caused it to go away in the first place?

Regardless of it's legality, I don't know how the NRL can possibly think this would work. The minute you introduce a draft every single NRL team abandons it's junior development program, because what's the point? It works in the US because you have a strong collegiate program but you'd need something else to develop these players from the 14-18 range. Can bet your bottom dollar no club will be helping if there's a draft.

Completely ban signing fresh talent under a certain age. Youth has to come from somewhere. The established players and their managers will love it, because if you are in a certain age bracket that is legal and established as a first grade footballer, your value sky rockets.

 

[Mr Fourex]

David Smith has NFI what RL fans want. He has no understanding for our game.

 

[broncos4life]

Smith is a nutbag. Absolutely no idea. This can't work, because as someone already said the is no central development of juniors. You can't have a draft where each individual club has to develop the junior pool. It concerns me that the CEO of the nrl can't see or comprehend this simple concept.

If the draft comes in, it will last a year tops.

Can you imagine a team that has finished middle of the table and a ready for a tilt at the premiership in the coming years because the missing piece of their puzzle is this star halfback the have developed and groomed is ready to come through. Then some shit stain of a club like Canberra come through with their number one draft pick and take him

What a joke

 

[Foordy]

I fear that a Draft will penalize teams who spend plenty of money on junior development (like the Broncos) to a point where they no longer are prepared to spend that money. Just to reward teams that spend SFA on development programs.

Apparently, one idea they are contemplating is a rule allowing every club to pick their best 5 juniors, and those players would be exempt from the Draft.

But a big question is how they get around the restraint of trade ruling.

 

[Mortician]

The deluded hag thinks that a crappy backwater sport like fumbleball can be compared to the NFL or NBA? :laugh:

 

[Mister Wright]

I disagree. I think the draft is a MUST for the NRL. There are plenty of ways this can work. You could have a system where all pre-U/20s players picked up in the draft are signed on a 3 year deal. The club can therefore 'develop' them and sign them to a full contract. You could do a post-U/20s draft where a club gets to keep 5 players and the others all go into the draft. There are plenty of options and it is really the only way a salary cap can be truly successful.

 

[1910]

Smith is a nutbag. Absolutely no idea. This can't work, because as someone already said the is no central development of juniors. You can't have a draft where each individual club has to develop the junior pool. It concerns me that the CEO of the nrl can't see or comprehend this simple concept.

If the draft comes in, it will last a year tops.

Can you imagine a team that has finished middle of the table and a ready for a tilt at the premiership in the coming years because the missing piece of their puzzle is this star halfback the have developed and groomed is ready to come through. Then some **** stain of a club like Canberra come through with their number one draft pick and take him

What a joke

I don't even understand how you could think that your situation would come about? A draft doesn't mean you can take any player off any club in some sort of smash and grab.

Why not just re-sign your star half that you're talking about?

 

[1910]

For starters the research is being done into a rookie draft.

It actually would reward you if you're developing players.

The proposal is that you would get to pick five juniors that are exempt from the draft, that would mean that the clubs with a history of developing players would get first crack at their top five players and it would keep players at home.

Hill took it to the High Court siting a restraint of trade, and was successful and got to play for Wests over Easts, and that is all it would take again.

 

[Bucking Beads]

I can't see it working. A draft would add a lot but it will be difficult to make a reality.

 

[1910]

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Get ready to welcome tanking into the NRL. If the draft existed this year, Stuart can ride on the assumption that the team is playing like **** on purpose to get priority picks.

I feel really bad for any young kid that is forced to start their career in Canberra. Not the sort of lottery you want to win.

The tanking issue wouldn't be an issue with a rookie draft. Raiders represent an excellent place to start your career, a fact that dozens of players have proven over the last five years.

Raiders are excellent at development.

 

[1910]

I can't see it working. A draft would add a lot but it will be difficult to make a reality.

Maybe but that's why they're researching it.

Coupled with the proposals for changes to NYC which are already at board level they're looking at lots of ways to keep players at home and to foster development.

 

[Ari Gold]

For starters the research is being done into a rookie draft.

It actually would reward you if you're developing players.

The proposal is that you would get to pick five juniors that are exempt from the draft, that would mean that the clubs with a history of developing players would get first crack at their top five players and it would keep players at home.

Hill took it to the High Court siting a restraint of trade, and was successful and got to play for Wests over Easts, and that is all it would take again.

How does what you describe reward a club for developing players more than it currently does right now? I don't see how it possibly could.

I also disagree with the article saying this helps the Raiders. How? They have had some of the best juniors in recent years - Todd Carney, Josh Dugan, Shaun Fensom, Anthony Milford, Jack Wighton, Mitch Cornish etc. Obviously doesn't hurt them too much if they still get to keep 5 a year, but honestly, to suggest that this helps the Raiders confuses me no end. Juniors are literally the only thing they have going for them.

No, this benefits teams like the Roosters more than the Raiders IMO.

 

[ivanhungryjak]

If each club gets to exempt their top five rookies though, it's really only a Claytons draft then, isn't it?

 

[1910]

How does what you describe reward a club for developing players more than it currently does right now? I don't see how it possibly could.

I also disagree with the article saying this helps the Raiders. How? They have had some of the best juniors in recent years - Todd Carney, Josh Dugan, Shaun Fensom, Anthony Milford, Jack Wighton, Mitch Cornish etc. Obviously doesn't hurt them too much if they still get to keep 5 a year, but honestly, to suggest that this helps the Raiders confuses me no end. Juniors are literally the only thing they have going for them.

No, this benefits teams like the Roosters more than the Raiders IMO.

Under the proposal they could keep at least five of those that no one else could touch under the current system they might not even keep five.

 

[1910]

If each club gets to exempt their top five rookies though, it's really only a Claytons draft then, isn't it?

You've got to make the call on your five and in making that call you might be not picking 1000's of other juniors.

 

[Ari Gold]

Kind of pointless then if that's the case though. We get a lot of good young players each year come through but we don't see 80 of them each year, which is what we are looking at -- 80 juniors being kept across all 16 clubs (max figure). One or two hidden gems will be missed but really it'd be pretty pointless to have a draft to select the 81st best junior in the country and the rest stay where they are.