NRL clubs to pay for poaching: Proposal

POACHERS must pay in a bold new proposal that will forever change the NRL and force clubs to develop their own.

POACHERS must pay in a bold new proposal that will forever change the NRL and force clubs to develop their own.

The Courier-Mail can reveal exclusive details of the pathway review for rugby league in Australia that will finally address the increasing gap between the NRL’s haves and have nots.

The NRL is formally reviewing its development structures with the $28 million failing National Youth Competition to be scrapped at the end of 2017.

Replacing it will be enlarged NRL squads and standardised rookie contracts.

One of the key points of the new pathway proposal, which the majority of NRL clubs are pushing for, is a development fee for poaching a player which acts as a reward for the club who built the player’s skills.

The development fee harks back to the 80s when you could not take players from rival clubs without paying them.

The Courier-Mail understands the poaching payment could be more than $50,000 per player and juniors who stay at their club could be rewarded with future salary cap concessions.

The fee plus cap concessions means it could cost a notorious poaching club like the Roosters more than $100,000 on top of the player’s salary to steal another club’s junior.

Those costs will make poaching prohibitive unless it is on a genuine superstar, forcing clubs to do what the Broncos, Cowboys and Panthers have done and invest heavily in academies.

For too long a select few clubs have developed players for the rest of the competition

NRL clubs are correctly arguing that the gap between the haves and have nots is growing larger by the season.

There is a fear among NRL chief executives the competition will soon resemble the AFL where the majority of games are too easy to tip.

Kodi Nikorima was developed by the Broncos but is set to leave for the Storm. Picture: Liam Kidston

In last year’s NRL season, there were six competition points between team three and four on the ladder.

There was a 20 competition point difference between the minor premier Roosters and the wooden spoon Knights.

In the 2013 season there were six competition points between first and seventh.

The Broncos have lost several players they spent hundreds of thousands of dollars developing only for other clubs to profit.

Corey Norman at Parramatta, Ash Taylor at the Titans, Jayden Nikorima and Dale Copley at the Roosters, Matt Parcell at Manly and now Kodi Nikorima is set to be taken by the Storm.

The Cowboys are set to lose James Tamou, a player they developed from a Roosters reject to a Test prop.

Kodi Nikorima was developed by the Broncos but is set to leave. Picture: Annette Dew

Former NRL strategist Shane Richardson created the initial pathway model but it will be significantly different when it is presented to the ARL Commission late this year.

Among the considerations will be standardised rookie contracts meaning, regardless of talent, every 19 and 20-year-old or rookie aged player will be paid the same wage.

A proposal is being discussed that each club will only be able to contract six rookies among those age groups.

Prior to the rookie contract, players in the 17 and 18 year age group will be offered a generic junior contract with a set value.

The clubs that invest in these age groups through a professional player development program will be rewarded with first options on the player’s services and possible future cap concessions.

These changes would lead to more one club players and mean far less player transfers and market movement, particularly at the younger age levels.