NRL 2022: Canterbury boss Phil Gould blasts the NRL over salary cap, lopsided competition
The NRL is pushing for an overhaul of the player market and is pushing for a radical changes that would stop players from signing contracts 12 to 18 months in advance.
Canterbury general manager of football Phil Gould has taken to social media to blast the NRL, blaming the salary cap for playing a role in creating a lopsided competition.
Rugby League Players’ Association boss Clint Newton backed Gould’s view and believes the cap is no longer working as it was intended — as a competition equaliser.
Gould, who played a key role in designing Penrith’s junior pathways, said the salary cap in its current form punishes clubs, like the Panthers, for its success.
“Salary cap punishes success. Doesn’t reward development. No incentive for development. Dilutes talent levels,” Gould said.
Penrith’s junior development program has emerged as the driving force behind the club’s back-to-back premierships
But the Panthers are now facing the challenge of keeping its premiership-winning local juniors as title success has inflated the market value of players, making it harder for the club to keep all their talent under the salary cap.
It’s an issue Gould has taken exception to over the last decade.
“And our game still hasn’t learned the lesson. Hopefully someone will soon,” Gould said about the restrictiveness of the salary cap model.
Newton said factors external to the salary cap now play a greater role in determining a club’s sustained success and ability to keep local juniors.
“It doesn’t work as it was intended as a competition equaliser, we’ve seen that more over the last couple of decades,” Newton said. “There are so many other reasons why a player will stay at a club on or less than market value.
“Great teams that stay at the top, it is not necessarily because of the cap. It’s because of the culture of the club, the development, the connection a player has to the region and stability at senior management, like CEOs and coaches.
“What we’re seeing now is the salary cap move down the list on how we maintain competitive balance.”
Gould also took aim at the ease in which players can be released from their contracts.
“There is no restriction on movement of NRL players between clubs. These factors lead to a false market. All of these things have led to the lopsided comp we have today,” he said.
While it’s unlikely the November 1 system, which allows players to secure their future a season in advance, will be scrapped, improvements to the model are currently being discussed in CBA negotiations between the NRL and RLPA.
Newtown conceded the current player market movement model was not perfect and changes are being explored as part of CBA talks.
“Is the model perfect? No it’s not,” Newton said.
“Is there a model I’ve seen that doesn’t place significant risk on the player and restrain the player ... I haven’t seen anything I would support. I don’t think we can criticise a player for wanting to sure up their future.”
The NRL is pushing for an overhaul of the player market and is pushing for a trade window, that would stop players from signing contracts 12 to 18 months in advance.
It comes as ARLC chairman Peter V’landys revealed a rookie draft is a “talking point” at the NRL. A rookie draft is viewed by some clubs as a way to help more evenly distribute rising talent among the competition.
But there is a view that the NRL should foot part of the cost to develop players as an incentive to clubs, rather than going down the rookie draft path to better distribute talent.
As it stands in NSWRL funds clubs in the state to the tune of $350,000, leaving clubs with an annual multimillion-dollar cost burden to develop players.
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WHICH DRAFT MODEL?
Under the model preferred by the Panthers, clubs would be able to quarantine their best youngsters from a rookie draft.
“There’s a couple of different ways you could do it (draft) and the big thing for us is … I don’t think you could go to a full draft like in the American college system … but fundamentally, we’re happy to do work in development as long as we have the opportunity to keep the players we want to keep before anyone else has a crack at them,” Penrith District Rugby League chief executive Matt Cameron said.
CLUB BACKING
It is understood there is support from some clubs for a draft, where junior players are distributed among clubs, but no such appetite exists for an internal draft for players with a top-30 contract.
The NSWRL introduced an internal draft in 1991 but it was quashed by the High Court as a restraint of trade. Terry Hill was the face of a class action against the NSWRL after he was drafted to Eastern Suburbs instead of Western Suburbs, where he wanted to play.
V’landys revealed a rookie draft was discussed as part of ongoing CBA talks.
“There’s no support for a draft, not so much a rookie draft, and there is probably a difference between the two,” V’landys said. “Nonetheless, it is in discussion at the moment.
“It is certainly a talking point we are having with them.”
BIGGEST HURDLE
Historically, the biggest stumbling block in working towards a rookie draft in the NRL has been the decentralised nature of junior development, where each club is responsible for funding and nurturing its respective pathways.
“Nothing is too hard. If you put your mind to it, you can achieve it,” V’landys said.
“If we believe it’s in the best interest in the game, we will always pursue it no matter how hard the process might be.
“We’ve proven that because we made a lot of hard decisions over the Covid period.
“Anything that makes the system work better is on the table. But whatever that is, it has to satisfy the fans, the clubs and the players. Everyone has got to be happy with it, whatever path we go down.
“We are still looking at ways of improving the system.”
JUNIOR DEVELOPMENT INCENTIVE
News Corp understands one system being explored is staggered salary cap dispensation for developing juniors.
The longer a player has been in a club’s pathway, starting at the Harold Matthews level, before signing an NRL deal, the greater cap support the club would receive.
The dispensation portion of the player’s salary would not be included in the cap.
The reward for Penrith’s $2.5 million annual spend on junior pathways has been back-to-back NRL titles, with 12 players from last Sunday’s grand final triumph having come through its development program.
The Panthers were also crowned champions in NSW Cup, Jersey Flegg and SG Ball, becoming the first club in the game’s 115-year history to achieve such a feat.
For a club like Penrith, greater salary cap support, which is being negotiated as part of CBA talks, is a welcome incentive.
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