Paul Kent: Raiders teach Broncos a lesson in roster management in John Bateman contract saga
The Raiders have taught the Broncos a valuable lesson in how to run a football club, and handle powerful player managers, with their astute handling of the John Bateman contract saga.
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The hole the Broncos are in has no bottom. The Raiders taught them a lesson on Tuesday on how to run a football club.
John Bateman signed with Canberra from England, with his English manager, and had a breakout season last year.
The Raiders were so pleased with this breakout season they offered him an upgrade and an extension. From $580,000 a year to $750,000.
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It was about this time Isaac Moses, the player manager, told Bateman he was being undersold and Bateman listened, to a soundtrack of money, and sacked his manager in England and hired Moses as his manager. Nothing makes a player smile like money.
Bateman quietly began being offered around the NRL for $900,000 a season. Word went around that Bateman had a clause in his contract allowing him to go to market, which was never a clause, but the Raiders wanted him to remain happy so allowed him to explore his options.
They hoped he would discover his true market value and stay.
Somewhere about this time Bateman appeared to tweet chief executive Don Furner was a “dickhead” after Furner confirmed the story that Bateman had asked for a release, which Bateman had earlier denied on Twitter.
Bateman then said his account had been hacked and he didn’t really tweet that about Furner at all, even though he has form in this area.
The Raiders started to realise John Bateman was not what the club was about.
When Moses was unable to generate interest in Bateman for $900,000 from any serious premiership contender, with only Canterbury and St George Illawarra prepared to pay overs, and perhaps Wigan back in England, Bateman told the Raiders that $750,000 was all right by him.
Bad luck, said the Raiders, the money was no longer available in their cap.
Managers have a significant weight in this game but their advice is not always the right pitch.
Clubs have a responsibility to remain cautious and level when a manager walks through the door with bells ringing, a reality where the Broncos have been sadly derelict.
The Broncos have a roster bent so badly out of shape that potentially the best forward in the NRL, David Fifita , still remains unsigned while the Broncos went about signing the likes of Matt Lodge, Tevita Pangai and others.
The Broncos will claim the Fifita delay is a managerial issue, but that is not entirely true.
The Broncos are in the hold of Moses and his growing stable to the point it is strangling the club.
Lodge and Pangai, for instance, are both managed by Moses. As is Alex Glenn, Sean O’Sullivan, Tesi Niu and Ethan Bullemore.
It was Moses who moved Andrew McCullough, who he manages, to Newcastle to bring in Ben Te’o, who he also manages.
He manages about a third of the Broncos’ squad, significantly less than just a few years back when he had 17, 18 players through the ranks.
The hole the Broncos are in with Moses goes deeper than that, though.
The Broncos have developed an “Enter At Your Own Risk” reputation among other managers, now wary of shopping their players to Brisbane.
This came after Josh McGuire and Kodi Nikorima both left manager Simon Mammino to sign with Moses while playing with the Broncos. Pangai left Sam Ayoub to sign with Moses.
Kotoni Staggs signed with Moses once at the Broncos. Jake Turpin as well.
The Broncos, apparently unconcerned that one manager could wield such influence at the club, then doubled down when Anthony Seibold, also managed by Moses, was hired as coach.
The power base of a coach and most senior players gave Moses even greater power at the club. Such a cluster can become a problem for the club. It becomes difficult to move players in and out.
Managers have, in the past, tried to strongarm clubs into signing certain players, threatening to take other players out of the club if they don’t play ball. The manager’s job is the welfare of his players, remember, not the club.
The Raiders, on Tuesday, moved to prevent a manager dictating to their club by releasing Bateman a season early after he signed with Moses, who has been deregistered by the NRL.
Furner put a deadline on negotiations and, while Bateman was still scrambling for a competitive offer to bring the Raiders to the table, the deadline passed.
“Proud of the club,” said coach Ricky Stuart.
“The last thing we’re going to be is a club such as the Broncos, or the Warriors, where they’ve been ruined by agitation and manipulation of roster.”
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Meanwhile, the Broncos still haven’t got it.
Faced with trying to dig their way out of their current problems, chairman Karl Morris has gone public saying Seibold needs help. Kevin Walters was mentioned, as was Stephen Kearney.
Walters, the Queensland coach and a club great, missed the job at the Broncos and now shapes as everything the Broncos are missing.
Seibold is said to be favouring Stephen Kearney, with Morris’s support, who is the safer option. Kearney, of course, is managed by Moses.
In a sign of the times for the Broncos, though, Kearney has indicated he wants nothing to do with the coaching there.