Penrith premiership great Scott Sattler’s radical plan to shake up NRL player-agent industry

He was the man who inspired Penrith’s 2003 premiership heroics. Now Scott Sattler has signed up as a player agent with a left-field approach as the NRL looks to overhaul the management industry.

Penrith grand-final legend Scott Sattler has revealed plans to “revolutionise the way contracts are negotiated” as part of a shake-up to a player-agent industry NRL bosses have labelled “outdated”.

Sattler has become an accredited player agent armed with a strategy to maximise earnings for players by offering to represent them only when they require help — such as during a contract negotiation.

Sattler’s newly-launched agency Project ONE3 is set to challenge established methods in the NRL, where players are accustomed to paying a fixed percentage of their salaries to player managers.

NRL stars traditionally pay between 6-7 per cent in annual fees to their agents.

For a player such as Penrith champion Nathan Cleary, seven per cent of his $1.2 million salary would equate to an annual fee of $84,000 to his agent.

Over the course of a 10-year career, an NRL player could pay between $500,000 to $1 million in agent’s fees, not to mention a further 20pc levy if a manager brokers a third-party sponsorship on top of their contract.

Former NRL player Scott Sattler. Picture: Adam Head

In an exclusive News Corp poll last month, conducted in partnership with the Rugby League Players Association, only 48 per cent of NRL top-liners had “extreme trust” in their agent.

NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo believes the industry needs an overhaul, with ARL Commission boss Peter V’landys particularly concerned by player agents also managing the affairs of coaches.

Sattler wants to offer another alternative. Penrith’s 2003 NRL premiership hero believes there are many excellent agents in the code, but Sattler says his Project ONE3 organisation aims to offer a more tailored service for players.

In some cases, a player may not want a full-time manager and only seek representation for a specific contract negotiation.

That’s where Sattler, a veteran of 203 first-grade games who later become the Titans’ foundation football boss, can enter the equation.

“We endeavour to change the game plan,” said Sattler, who has more than 30 years’ experience in the sport.

“Our business model will revolutionise the way I think contracts are negotiated in the NRL.

“When I was a former NRL player, having a player agent was essential, but what wasn’t essential were the annual fees that came with it.

“It’s important to us that players have a choice.

NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo is keen to push for reform of the player-agent industry.

“Our focus is to assist players to retain and maximise their contract earnings.”

RLPA boss Clint Newton told this masthead last month a review of the industry is on the cards.

“When you consider how much of a player’s salary an agent receives every month, we believe far more than half of our players should be very trusting of their agent, considering the important role they play in our industry,” Newton said.

“Agents collectively will receive more than $15m per season from players’ salary packages. We also know that almost a third of players have had a bad experience with their agents.

“With an agent review on our agenda with the NRL, we believe prioritising that and implementing our recommendations will go a long way to rewarding the good agents and stopping the minority of agents giving the rest a bad name.”

Sattler became operational as an accredited NRL player agent three weeks ago. The former Queensland Origin lock says he has no issue with the practices of current agents, but merely wants to give current NRL players another option.

RLPA player poll done in conjunction with News Corp.

“We need it to exist for familiarity and faith in the past.

“But we believe the landscape is changing whereby players have become more educated and would rather have options in how they spend their money.

“They earned it through their talent.

“There’s no need for a player to pay for a service they might need. They pay for a professional service on an as-needs basis.

“Project ONE3 will offer not only the negotiation service, but the athlete will not pay for services they don’t require.

“The intention is not to change the landscape, we just want to give the players choices.

“They have a very short window in their NRL career, so if they can build a service to be financially better off, this is another option for them.”

“I’m not in it to be greedy. I think every decision in my rugby league life has been based on the best interests of the clubs, players and game as a whole.

“This is no different.”

RLPA boss Clint Newton says a review of the player agent industry is on the cards.

NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo told Channel 9 recently the code’s player-agent industry was “definitely outdated”.

“We need to modernise it,” he said. “We need to reflect the conflict of interests but we also need to think about a scheme that’s going to show we keep up with where the game’s going professionally.

“The agents have an important role to play but ... we need to think about what the standard is and we need to think about what it takes to be in that group and what the minimum requirements are.

“That is definitely a focus of ours for the remainder of this year.”

V’landys added: “The agents and themselves want this, they want reform.

“We gave them the opportunity to make recommendations about reform because there’s a couple of bag eggs that are a reflection of everybody and they don’t want the bad eggs.

“They want to have credibility and they want to be looked at with respect and at the moment they’re not.

“They themselves want the reform and we will certainly do it.”