Australian players could pool their earnings for blockbuster clash with Tonga
AUSTRALIA’S Test stars could waive their usual $20,000 match payments if an international blockbuster with Tonga goes ahead later this year.
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AUSTRALIAN Test players could waive their usual $20,000 match payments if an international blockbuster with Tonga goes ahead later this year — with both countries instead pooling all salaries for equal distribution.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal Kangaroos coach Mal Meninga is open to the idea of all player salaries being thrown into the one pot for the Test match, likely to be played in October.
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While nothing has yet been signed off, the radical move would represent a significant boost for international rugby league while also encouraging more NRL stars like Jason Taumalolo and Andrew Fifita to align themselves with minnow nations such as Tonga, Samoa, Fiji and PNG.
Usually, Australian Test players earn $20,000 per international.
During the most recent World Cup, each player also received an additional $50,000 for winning the tournament, as negotiated as part of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
On top of this bounty, most Kangaroos also earn $90,000 throughout the State of Origin series — three games at $30K each — while also receiving high into six figures with their own club contracts.
However, Tongan players get paid only $500 per game, a figure more in line with wealthier bush footy clubs.
Yet in a bid to help increase the standard of international football, Meninga and his staff are currently discussing the idea of both countries pooling all those payments — with the 34 members of each squad then paid an equal share.
As reported by The Daily Telegraph last November, NRL officials had wondered aloud about countries pooling payments for the 2021 World Cup.
As part of those talks, it was suggested the only real stumbling block was whether elite players from Australia and New Zealand — many of them millionaires — would accept drastic pay cuts to help out their poorly paid rivals.
Yet rather than wait another three years, Meninga is open to discussing the move for as soon as the end of this year.
Should it go ahead, the money sharing would be a huge show of goodwill from likely Kangaroos including Greg Inglis, Boyd Cordner, James Maloney and James Tedesco.
While they are still a tier-two nation, the Tongans have quickly established themselves as the most exciting country on the international rugby league scene, with eighth Immortal Andrew Johns among a host of heavyweight supporters for an end-of-year game with Australia.
When quizzed on the divide between nations back in November, shortly after his Tongan side had upset New Zealand, coach Kristian Woolf said: “My issue is in terms of what the tier-one teams are paid and their budgets. There is a massive difference.
“I’d love to see the day where everything is equal — all the benefits are equal. We struggle to get money for physios, massages and rehab equipment.
“I know there’s not an abundance of money, but the nations who are really starting to improve, I would love to see them get more funds.
“Even if we can’t get $20,000 for a Test, maybe we could get paid $5,000 … at least the players would feel appreciated for the efforts they have put in.”
Originally published as Australian players could pool their earnings for blockbuster clash with Tonga
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