NRL 2021: Fans vote for introduction of a rookie draft to evenly distribute talent
Are the benefits of an NRL rookie draft too good to ignore? Or would the concept destroy junior development programs? Our experts battle it out.
NRL
Don't miss out on the headlines from NRL. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Debate rages on about whether a draft is needed in the NRL.
Some say it will help balance the distrbution of talent others say it destroys aspiration and work clubs put into young talent.
We asked our reporters for their view.
WHY A DRAFT WOULDN’T WORK IN THE NRL
Picture for a second, you’re an 18-year-old emerging rugby league talent from Penrith.
You started in under-6s and have played your whole juniors there, while at the same time always supporting the Panthers in the NRL.
Your long-held dream is to play first-grade there and the club has invested many years and dollars into your development.
The only problem is the NRL has just brought in a draft and you’ll now end up going anywhere, against your will.
Like some junior AFL players have done, you tell clubs on the quiet you don’t want to leave your home state.
You’re still a teenager and don’t feel ready to live away from home, either interstate or across the ditch in NZ without a support network.
Pick me and I won’t come, you say.
While the clubs are sympathetic, they don’t care. They tell you it’s an international competition, this is the new system and bad luck.
After all, you’re a highly rated junior, exactly what they need and they’re not passing you up.
So, it gets to draft night and, after nervously waiting, your worst fears are realised when you get selected by a club where you have to leave your family and friends behind.
And there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it.
At least not for at least two years, because if the NRL follows the AFL model, then draftees will automatically sign a two-year contract on draft night. So, there you are, Penrith-born and -raised and developed by the club only for another team to benefit from your development which it has not spent a cent on. And all you wanted to do was play for the Panthers.
NRL clubs have traditionally developed their own players.
If a draft is introduced, clubs would pull enormous amounts of funding from their own junior development programs. Because, after all, what’s the point for them?
- Nick Smart
WHY A DRAFT WOULD WORK IN THE NRL
The benefits are too good to ignore, the most important one being that the best rugby league talent in Australia and New Zealand would be spread fairly among all 16 clubs.
The salary cap system goes some way to helping even out the competition, but as this season’s lopsided scorelines show, much more needs to be done. A step in the right direction would be a rookie draft.
Forget about clubs warehousing talent, this is all about making the best young players available to every side in the competition — not those just fortunate enough to be situated in the middle of league “nurseries”.
Draft night — and the lead-up to it — is massive in sports like the NFL, NBA and AFL, and it would be just the same for NRL.
It also gives fans of struggling teams hope for the future and keeps everyone engaged well beyond the end of the playing season. Imagine Manly, Canterbury and North Queensland fans looking forward to drafting the next Sam Walker, Joseph Suaalii or Harry Grant?
An argument that’s often thrown up to shoot down the idea of a draft in rugby league is that clubs and fans love seeing local juniors turn out in their team colours. But for every Steve Menzies who came through Manly lower grades, there is a Benji Marshall, who didn’t grow up in Concord, but is a Tigers legend.
- Dominic Burke
HOW BRONCOS COULD HAVE LANDED SUAALII
On the back of a horribly lopsided start to the competition, a whopping 71 per cent of Daily Telegraph readers have voted in favour of the NRL introducing a draft.
With a trade window now increasingly likely, the NRL is also exploring the structures of other leading competitions in the world, like the NBA, NFL and even the AFL, all which have rookie drafts to level out the distribution of talent.
The Daily Telegraph understands the man leading the working group responsible for overhauling the current contract systems, NRL CFO Richard Gardham, is a strong advocate for change.
While management of the salary cap, the equal distribution of junior talent and the introduction of new rules have been discussed as reasons for the lack of competitiveness between the top and bottom sides, Peter Mulholland, the game’s leading recruitment manager believes the lack of stability in coaching ranks is a determining factor in a side’s success.
Without a remedy to the lopsided competition, the NRL is at risk of disenfranchising the frustrated fans of clubs struggling to compete.
In this special report, we explore the possibility of introducing a draft, rookie or internal.
How would it work? Would it make a difference? What are the pros and cons of a draft?
ROOKIE DRAFT
Under a rookie draft the country‘s best young talent would be scouted from a national competition run by the NRL from which clubs can identify talent.
Bottom placed teams would get first pick from the talent pool, increasing their chances of snaring a Joseph Suaalii, Sam Walker or Reece Walsh.
For New Zealand Warriors recruitment guru Peter O‘Sullivan, a rookie draft would help eliminate the disadvantage struggling sides face in luring the best talent to their clubs.
“It would equalise talent, there is no doubt about that,” O’Sullivan said.
“The process of getting players to your club depends how well the NRL team is going at the time.
“So when teams are down the bottom they can stay there a fair while without the draft concept.”
Watch The 2021 NRL Telstra Premiership Live & On-Demand with No Ad-Breaks During Play. New to Kayo? Try 14-Days Free Now >
But O‘Sullivan warned that while a draft placed a greater emphasis on the “art of scouting”, it was not a true guarantee of success.
“With a draft you don’t have to worry about your perception as a club, you just have to back your ability to pick out the best kids. That’s not to say the club with the first pick will get it right but it’s certainly an advantage,“ O‘Sullivan said.
In lieu of a draft, the Warriors are placing a greater emphasis on the development and have hired Phil Gould to help strengthen pathways across the ditch.
“With the junior base of New Zealand, I’d prefer the current system and to back ourselves to change the perception of our NRL team, which I think is happening quickly, and back ourselves to keep the best kids anyway,” O’Sullivan said.
As it stands, the NSWRL and QRL run all lower grades and junior representative competitions but the production of talent through development and pathways falls on NRL clubs.
But junior nurseries aren't created equal.
Penrith has established a leading development academy with access to an abundance of talent with about 9000 players in their nursery.
In comparison, struggling clubs like Manly have around 2500 players and Canterbury have around 3500 registered players within their respective catchment areas.
“It’ll help clubs like the Canterbury, the Sea Eagles … clubs without the big junior areas more easily acquire players.
“Realistically, a draft won‘t help struggling clubs in the short term but in the long run it would help a club like Manly,“ Sea Eagles recruitment manager Scott Fulton said.
While a rookie draft has it‘s merit to some, for South Sydney CEO Blake Solly it not only dilutes the tribalism element in rugby league but robs our sport of a distinct competitive advantage.
“One of the unique selling points of rugby league as a sport in comparison to some of our competitors in Australia and around the world, is the fact you can grow up in an area, start playing for your junior club, get into the junior rep system, into the NRL squad, win NRL premierships and go back into that community as local hero and as someone that everyone looks up to and wants to emulate,” Solly said.
“John Sutton is the perfect example, the NRL creates local heroes like John Sutton on an annual basis, no other competition in the world can do that. The ability to do that is a competitive advantage in our sport.”
ROOKIE PAY SCALES
In the AFL, a player drafted as a rookie starts their career as a professional footballer on a first-year contract of $105,000 in addition to a $5,000 match payment for every game played.
But in the NRL, teenagers rising through the junior ranks can earn lucrative deals without having played a single game of NRL. The inflation of rookie contracts is another area of concern in the game.
On Tuesday, the Warriors poached boom back Reece Walsh from Brisbane on a three-year deal worth around $1.2 million.
For O’Sullivan, the man who recruited Walsh, introducing a pay scale in the NRL without a rookie draft only devalues the ability of talent scouts like himself.
“From my point of view, that takes away my judgment as a talent scout,” O’Sullivan said.
“If I want to back my judgment and pay Welsh a certain amount of dollars then I am paying a sum of money that I think will be cheap in the long run. Why should the best young players be able to earn only 100,000?”
But if a rookie draft is introduced a pay scale would be inevitable, which in theory would put a stop to bidding wars between clubs for talent.
INTERNAL PLAYER DRAFT
Thirty years after an ill-fated attempt, there appears little appetite within clubs and the playing fraternity for an internal player draft to replace the current November 1 contract system.
Warriors recruitment guru Peter O’Sullivan believes a huge cultural shift must take place if the NRL are to have any chance of getting a draft up and running.
“Terry Hill challenged it in court and won because it’s a restraint of trade. If you end up with a player that doesn’t want to go to a particular club, the first thing they are going to do is challenge it, and win. Draft systems, like in the AFL work, but in our case it is not ingrained in our psyche, it would take a huge buy in from stakeholders to get it off the ground again.
The NSWRL draft in 1991 failed after the full bench of the Federal Court ruled a draft was a restraint of trade.
At the time Terry Hill was drafted to Eastern Suburbs instead of Western Sydney Magpies, where he wanted to play.
While Hill was the face of the failed draft, there was widespread disapproval in the playing ranks for a draft system.
COACHING INSTABILITY
Canberra’s Peter Mulholland, the game’s most experienced recruitment gurus, believes ultimately a club’s success is tied to having stability in the coaching ranks as much as it is tied to talent distribution.
Bottom placed sides Canterbury and North Queensland have new coaches in 2021 and Manly have had three coaches in the space of eight years.
“Clubs that have stable coaching environments and stable administrations are the teams dominating at the moment,” Mulholland said.
“Craig Bellamy at Melbourne, Wayne Bennett at South Sydney, Ricky Stuart at Canberra and Trent Robinson at the Roosters, Brad Arthur at Parramatta.”
South Sydney CEO Blake Solly echoed Mulholland’s sentiments.
“The one thing underestimated is stability at all levels in a club,” Solly said.
RLPA RESPONSE
Ultimately any changes to the system will only happen with a buy-in from the playing group.
While the RLPA is “open” to considering changes like a trade window and a draft, CEO Clint Newton warned against ”manufacturing equality”.
“We have to be realistic about what we are trying to achieve, it would be taking a blunt instrument to an area of our game that requires far more sophistication than introducing a draft, that I’m yet to see a guaranteed outcome of equality,” Newton said.
HOW A ROOKIE DRAFT WOULD WORK
Rugby league’s most senior recruitment manager, Peter Mulholland, wants the NRL to introduce a rookie draft to help share junior talent equally.
Mulholland believes a combination of a rookie talent camp and draft are crucial for the betterment and competitiveness of the NRL.
“I’m at the back end of my career and I’d like to see that the legacy we have is that there is an ongoing opportunity for clubs to have an equal balance in attaining quality players and I think a draft,” Mulholland said.
“A rookie draft is a good way to equalise talent.
“It encourages clubs to work development and with different ownership models across the game, some clubs haven’t got the capacity to do that work.
“But we all need to do development and if you’re working hard enough in development, it gives you the opportunity to keep your best identified talent but also spread other talent around.”
Under Mulholland’s model, NRL clubs would only take over the development of players once drafted into a club from age 18.
Before then junior players would be the responsibility of either the NRL, through national youth competitions, and NSWRL or QRL, through state-based competitions.
Clubs will have the capacity to quarantine up to five players once identified as a prospect. Quarantined players would not enter the rookie draft.
“My suggestion would be, I’d keep my best top five kids isolated, I have to identify them,” Mulholland said.
“So, I nominated the kid I’d like to isolate, I have the whole month of October to sign him. If at the end of that period we can’t come to an agreement but some other clubs want him after that, then there is a development fee that has to be paid to the club that originally nominated the player.
“If a contract can’t be finalised at either club then that kid is free to go into the draft.
“There would also be a week-long national tournament where NRL club scouts could get one last look at prospects leading into the draft.”
Mulholland says a rookie draft is a way of ensuring clubs do not stockpile talent to the detriment of rugby league.
Powerhouse clubs like Penrith have access to around 9000 junior players and a nursery abundant with talent.
“Penrith might produce 30 prospects in a season that are eligible for a draft but what do they do with those 30? They’re stockpiling … so a draft gives another club a chance at that talent,” Mulholland said.
“Penrith’s 26-40 best kids might be stronger than Manly’s best 1- 25 kids.
“It’s about talent equalisation that way.”
HOW THE NRL INTERNAL DRAFT WOULD WORK
- Off-contract players go into the draft;
- Players in first or second NRL season are ineligible unless nominated by club;
- Club can also nominate contracted players seeking release;
- Ladder position will determine the picking order;
- Two-week trade period to negotiate terms of each pick — contract length, value etc; and
- Draft day takes place when trade period closes.
HOW DRAFT AND FREE AGENCY WORK IN LEAGUES LIKE NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB & AFL
- Rookie Draft Combine (Talent ID)
- Free Agency/Trade Period Opens:
– Players who were under contract in the previous season can begin to sign contracts with new clubs for the current and future seasons;
– Clubs can begin to trade players for the coming season; and
– Prior to this date, players could only sign contracts for future seasons with their incumbent clubs.
- Rookie Draft
- Free Agency/ Trade Period closes:
– Clubs can no longer sign external players for the current season; and
– Players can only sign new contracts with their incumbent club
Gus’ ‘doctored’ claim ignites NRL conspiracy
The NRL Grand Final’s controversial no try scandal has taken a wild turn despite the game releasing the angle the decision was based on.
Kangaroos selection shocks: NRL legends’ Test careers appear over
Mal Meninga has dropped a major selection bombshell by overlooking both James Tedesco and Kalyn Ponga for Kangaroos selection, with the list of surprise omissions and debutants not ending there. See the full squad.