Joseph Suaalii’s rugby deal to be paid from RA ‘fighting fund’

Rugby Australia’s offer to Joseph Suaalii is only for two years and all of the money will come from an ‘Emerging Wallabies Fund’.

Joseph Suaalii, at the back, spent time with Mosman Whales under-10s side over the weekend.

Rugby Australia made a formal approach to teenage sensation Joseph Suaalii late last week, with both the money offered and the duration of the contract dramatically below what had been widely reported.

Suaalii, who is believed to be taking informal advice from player agent Isaac Moses, is said to have had a three-year, $3m contract dangled in front of him by Rugby Australia. Yet interim RA chief executive Rob Clarke has described those numbers as “totally fanciful” and informed sources indicated the real offer came in at less than 15 per cent of that figure.

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Moreover, the deal will expire not in three years but, at Suaalii’s apparent request, at the end of 2021. If all goes well, he could be an 18-year-old with an Olympic medal and the experience of competing in the Tokyo Games to show for his brief time in rugby.

What’s more, if Suaalii accepts the offer to remain in rugby, none of the money used to secure him would have come from Rugby Australia.

Instead, the offer has been made possible through the Emerging Wallabies Fund, which is administered by the Australian Rugby Foundation, an organisation of wealthy rugby benefactors which at various points has supported David Pocock and Israel Folau. It is effectively a fighting fund, set up by former RA chief executive Raelene Castle, to combat raids from other codes.

That surely would put at ease any fears Wallabies players might have entertained about the game almost bankrupting itself over Suaalii with an offer it simply could not afford.

Word has circulated throughout the RA organisation that no youngster is to be signed on a contract exceeding what Wallabies and Queensland sensation Jordan Petaia is to be paid for the fourth year of his recent four-year deal. That figure is about $375,000.

It would seem a fair upper limit, given that Petaia — who could return from shoulder surgery this week against the Brumbies in Canberra — emerged as Australia’s most threatening World Cup player last year.

Joseph Suaalii.

Once Suaalii turns 17 on Saturday, South Sydney will be free under NRL regulations to formally lodge the lucrative, three-year $1.7m contract offered to him a month ago. If Suaalii is motivated primarily by money, it would be almost nonsensical of him to reject league’s vastly superior offer. But far from Suaalii turning his back on the game he loves to go to rugby purely for the money, it could turn out to be the other way around.

Indications are that he is genuinely excited by the opportunity rugby presents to become an Olympian next year, an opportunity that Australian sevens coach Tim Walsh is fully prepared to entertain.

It has also come to light that RA did not breach its own “contract freeze” in making the offer late last week to the gifted King’s School First XV player.

Clarke had a conference meeting with Super Rugby CEOs on July 16 to tell them the contract freeze was over. RA chief financial officer Simon Rabbitt then emailed all CEOs and general managers of football programs the following week — some on Monday, some on Wednesday — to alert them that they could begin contracting players again. This has been confirmed by all four franchises.

Meanwhile, Clarke is hoping for more encouraging news from New Zealand about the proposed trans-Tasman competition next season. The Kiwis have offered Australia between two and four places but RA insists that it wants “a more equitably based partnership”, which is code for all five Australian teams. Otherwise, Clarke said, Australia would explore a domestic competition, akin to Super Rugby AU but with the Sunwolves of Japan possibly also involved.

Plan C is for a club competition. “That would be another relevant model to explore should the other ones not prove viable for whatever reason,” Clarke said.

In other news, Melbourne Rebels captain Dane Haylett-Petty will have a scan on his knee on Monday for possible ligament damage following Friday’s win over the Waratahs.