Crawley Files: Tigers’ shameful spending an insult to game, Bears expansion bid in NZ

Wests Tigers are simply shameless when it comes to financial accountability, splashing the cash like a teenager who got hold of mum or dad’s MasterCard.

There is growing support for a second team in New Zealand on the back of the Warriors’ incredible run.

Wests Tigers are shameless when it comes to financial accountability.

At a time when we have a game in the bush down for the count with clubs everywhere struggling just to survive, the Tigers are out there splashing the cash like a teenager who got hold of mum or dad’s MasterCard.

First they moved on Tim Sheens with a year to run on his head coaching contract, then assistant coach David Furner was pushed out the door with a year to run on his deal.

That followed Michael Maguire also reportedly copping a huge payout when he was punted last year. Fans are entitled to know what the payouts for Sheens and Furner were.

Tim Sheens (left) and David Furner both got payouts.

Especially now there is speculation the Tigers would be willing to pay current Parramatta football boss Mark O’Neill in the vicinity of $600,000-a-season to return to be an ally for his former premiership winner teammate Benji Marshall.

If that figure is close to the truth, it is absolutely outrageous. To put it in perspective, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is on just under $550,000, while the state premiers are on considerably less.

No wonder so many fans get so frustrated when they see the financial waste going on at the top end of the game.

Although it’s not like the Tigers have much to show for their spending habits, other than back-to-back wooden spoons.

WHY EZRA CAN’T GET BLINDED BY BIG DOLLARS

What price should an NRL player put on happiness and on-field success?

If Ezra Mam is looking for one good reason to seriously consider turning his back on big money offers to stay at the Broncos, the boom five-eighth needs to look no further than the Ben Hunt soap opera at the Dragons.

With the NRL now investigating anti-tampering allegations following Hunt’s mid-season revelations that he wanted to return immediately to Queensland, Hunt’s ongoing saga is also real-life proof to Mam why money is not always the answer.

It’s no wonder Mam is one of the NRL’s hottest players about to hit the open market.

Art by Boo Bailey.

Off contract at the end of 2024, Mam will be able to negotiate with rivals come November 1, and the Broncos are in a race to lock him up sooner rather than later.

The club’s rookie of the year last year is on a very modest $320,000 contract, yet has developed from a freakish talent to a genuine game-breaker, while he has also shown he certainly won’t shirk his load defensively.

But with talk Panthers’ five-eighth Jarome Luai will have clubs lining up to pay him $1 million-a-season, that would make Mam a bargain at even double his current salary.

But, again, what price do you put on on-field success given the Broncos look to be just at the start of what could become a new dynasty?

No doubt if Hunt had his time over he might have taken a bit more time to consider his future before signing that contract extension last October.

Ezra Mam is hot property on the open market. Picture: Josh Woning

EXPANSION BID: BRING BACK THE BEARS ... IN NEW ZEALAND

Kiwi rugby league player of the century Mark Graham has called on the NRL to reward New Zealand with a second team – and make them the Bears playing out of the South Island city of Christchurch.

Graham’s pitch ahead of the Warriors’ preliminary final showdown with the Broncos comes as new figures reveal an astonishing 49 per cent of the NRL’s total elite talent pool now comes directly from New Zealand or players with Pacific Island heritage.

Yet in a 17-team NRL competition, there is still only one team based in New Zealand, although there remain nine playing out of Sydney, and four more from Queensland.

“You wonder why there is not another side playing out of New Zealand when pretty much all the talent comes out of New Zealand,” Graham said. “It is only a matter of time you would think.”

But in a week where the Bears will also be shooting for their first reserve grade premiership in 30 years, arguably the Bears’ most legendary player reckons “it absolutely makes sense” to play the NRL’s 18th franchise out of Christchurch – wearing the Bears’ famous red and black colours that would match those worn by local rugby powerhouse, the Crusaders.

It’s also worth noting Christchurch is in the process of having a $683m stadium constructed to be finished in 2026.

Mark Graham has backed a second New Zealand team in Christchurch.

“It would be fantastic,” Graham said. “It absolutely makes sense. You wouldn’t be playing in Christchurch every week because you would get around the islands.

“What you could do is have a few home games in Christchurch, but also a couple in Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and Papua New Guinea.”

SECOND TEAM IN NZ LONG OVERDUE

With NRL expansion a hot topic this year on the back of the Federal Government’s push for a Papua New Guinea/Pasifika bid as soon as 2025, Graham says the question needs to be raised: Where will the game benefit most from having the new team located? And not just for political reasons.

While another team from south east Queensland has been mentioned along with a team playing out of Perth, a side aligned to Papua New Guinea and the Pacific nations playing out of far north Queensland has emerged as the hot favourite due to political pressure as China extends its influence in the Pacific region.

“There was talk of playing a Papua New Guinea side out of Cairns, but that is a hundred kilometres up the road from the Cowboys,” said Graham, who lives in Gladstone in Queensland.

“That makes no sense at all. But (Christchurch) would be a great spot for them.”

TRAILBLAZERS TO NRL DOMINATION

Voted New Zealand’s player of the century in 2007, Graham was one of the trailblazers back in the 1980s.

That was a time when you could literally count the number of Kiwis or Pacific Islanders playing in the major Australian rugby league competition on your fingers and toes.

Names like Henry Tatana, the Sorensen brothers Kurt and Dane, Olsen Filipaina, Clayton Friend, Hugh McGahan, Darrell Williams and Graham spring to mind.

But what started out as a sprinkle has developed into a flood in the decades since.

Now, almost one in every two players on average in every NRL club’s top 30 roster hails from either New Zealand or Pacific nation heritage.

We already have three previous Dally M Medal winners who grew up in New Zealand in Gary Freeman (1992), Jason Taumalolo (2016) and Roger Tuivasa-Sheck (2018), while Shaun Johnson is this year the short-priced favourite to become the fourth. Jarryd Hayne, with Fijian heritage, also won two Dally Ms in 2009 and 2014.

Throw in legends like Benji Marshall, Sonny Bill Williams and Stacey Jones, while standout stars in more recent years include Golden Boot winner Joey Manu, Jahrome Hughes, Nelson Asofa-Solomona, Dylan Brown and Joseph Tapine, just to scratch the surface.

Graham, now 67, says he can see the day when rugby league can legitimately challenge rugby union as New Zealand’s No 1 sport.

“Yeah, for sure,” Graham said.

“New Zealand is a country where everyone gets a fair go. If you have some sort of talent you are allowed to use it. In my era rugby league was shunned at school.

“But now some schools only play rugby league.

Former North Sydney Bears footballer Mark Graham and his wife on the black carpet at the 2018 NRL Hall of Fame. Picture: AAP

RIDING THE WAVE OF THE WAHS

When I called the Kiwi great this week to get his thoughts on the evolution of New Zealand rugby league, Graham said he was blown away by how far rugby league had come, and not just in the wake of the Warriors’ phenomenal success this year.

He vividly remembers when he first came to Australia in 1980 to play for the Norths Devils in Brisbane and later the North Sydney Bears.

“I am over the moon (with the Warriors’ success) but there is certainly enough room for another New Zealand side, that’s for sure,” said Graham, who coached the Warriors in 1999 and 2000.

He said the fact so many young players had to move away from their families so early was also something that needed to be looked at.

“It is actually quite frightening when you think about it,” he said.

“But that is the advantage of having another New Zealand team, they won’t have to.”

Even this week most of the NRL clubs were represented at a secondary schoolboys tournament in Auckland.

Told players from Pasifika now account for 49 per cent of the overall NRL population, Graham added: “It is a stat the NRL should be pretty mindful of because they will be struggling to have a side if they don’t watch themselves.”

As for whether the NRL was ready for expansion so soon after the Dolphins’ arrival, Graham explained: “Well, apparently the Dolphins weren’t going to go any good but they did.

“Mind you, they bought hard people, a few Kiwis, and a fantastic coach in Wayne Bennett.

“Everyone was going ‘we haven’t got enough good players, the comp is going to get weaker’, I thought the quality this year was bloody marvellous.”

The Warriors have captured the hearts of New Zealand. Picture: Fiona Goodall/Getty Images

WOULD BEARS BE ONBOARD?

Bears chairman Daniel Dickson said he was well and truly open to Graham’s idea.

“Tony Kemp interviewed me once on SEN and we spoke about this back when the whole Pacific thing started,” Dickson said.

“To be honest with you, there are some locations where we think are going to be financially tough.

“Obviously, PNG is not a financially tough one (because of Government support).

“But Kempy was saying, I think New Zealand are losing about 500 to 1000 kids per year who become decent footballers into the NSW private schools and rugby union.

“And he said it was because they just can’t see the forest through the trees when it comes to their pathways.

“I don’t know if the Warriors would have an issue with it but I think the game does want to expand to New Zealand and I think there is a really smart way how you could actually encompass the Pacific.

“We also have 860,000 people in the LGA of North Sydney that have been disenfranchised since the Bears have been gone and let me tell you they didn’t go to Manly.

“I think having a tie there of something like that for us would be great. The red and black down there is already there. I think there is huge merit there.

“We are not closing the door on any of those options.

“Look, we try to be as patient, mindful and respectful as possible.

“I don’t think it is really our position to be saying where we think the 18th team is going to go.

“We are hoping we can be flexible and mobile when it comes to geographical repositioning.

“There have been plenty of areas we like.”

Sam Walker playing for the Bears at North Sydney Oval this season. Picture: Jonathan Ng

TALENT ALONE IS NOT ENOUGH

NRL Players Wellbeing Program Manager David Solomona has his own theory.

Solomona was another of the early graduates who came across in the 1990s to play with the Roosters.

“I spent my junior years at the Warriors and I was part of the first group of guys that decided to leave the Warriors and move to Australia,” Solomona said.

“I left at the end of 1998 and never went back, so I have been gone for a long while.

“The growth of the game has been amazing. The support networks have definitely changed.

“It looks a lot different in 2023 to the 1990s when you were hard pressed to find a Pacific Islander at a club. You’d be lucky to find three or four, where there are 15 in their (the Roosters) top squad now.”

As for where he believes the best location for expansion is, he added: “My passion really is players’ life outside sport.

“Obviously as a proud Pasifika person it would be great to have another team either in New Zealand or from the Pacific.

“But again, my hope is that wherever they go we really develop those countries and have the structure around it to support players away from the game.”