The 12 most bizarre NRL player agents requests revealed

From hundreds of NRL tickets, to sending players groceries and odd superstitions. We reveal the strangest and most bizarre requests received by some of the game’s most influential agents.

In case you missed it this week, which is to say you’ve been living under a rock, 50 of the most influential player agents were recently surveyed by Code Sports.

The questions, answers, insight and opinion from the game’s biggest dealmakers has captivated footy fans.

The intrigue has led to more than 200,000 readers and counting.

The player agents are the go-betweens, the advisors and contract kings for players.

But seemingly they are much more than that given the response to the survey question; What is the strangest issue you’ve had to deal with for a client?

These are the top 12 responses.

Stranger Things: The 12 most bizarre player agents requests revealed

1. “Strange? 400 game tickets for a player’s debut. They used them all,” one manager wrote. 

Why is the request so absurd? Under the RLPA agreement with the NRL, every club receives 140 tickets per game to be distributed among the players. 400 is either one almighty debut party or a massive salary cap rort.

2. “Stopping a player from confronting a journalist who wrote crap about him,” the agent replied. 

Rugby League reporter doesn’t rank in the top 100 Most Dangerous Jobs. Interestingly, garbage collector does. However, the frequency of being confronted or asked outside by an irate footballer or coach isn’t as strange as this manager portrays.

3. “Send them groceries as they’d lost their bank cards and couldn’t access their account,” this particular manager revealed.

Our editor is holding the front page empty until we find out if this request came from one of the game’s $1 million players. EXCLUSIVE: NRL superstar reveals, “I couldn’t pay for my bread and milk.‘’

4. “A player insisted that if he went to another club that he had to wear number 10 because it had always been his number,” the manager said. 

Yeah, yeah, we also did what you’re doing right now. Madly scouring the NRL for a prop-forward that wears number 10 and has switched clubs or is looking to move. Let us know, if you find him.

5. “Player’s mother wanted a commission,” the reply came through. 

Well, to be fair, who are we to judge how much influence Mum has had on this player’s ability to secure a contract? Secondly, the average Aussie male is staying home until they are 23, due to cost of living pressures. Good on Mum for sticking the hand out.

6. “A player changed their name during the currency of a contract,” the agent revealed.

The mind boggles. Was this from a player trying to get sneak the guard of a club by securing a contract under the name of someone else?

Because we have heard of clubs mistaking players. Just ask Joel Caine about being signed by the Dragons as a teenager. The head of recruitment at the time Peter O’Sullivan mistook him for Danny Buderus.

7. “Getting a deal that links with a relative/family member,” the manager gave up. 

Not overly shocking, but perhaps strange that in the salary cap era, clubs are still signing the brother, cousin or relative, in order to net the superstar.

 8. “Club leaking false narratives to the media about a player to deflect from club poor performances,” the agent stated.

To this agent, I say, welcome to the NRL jungle. Like it or not, this example is the harsh reality of professional sport where players and coaches careers are on the line every week. The game is dog eat dog at-times with club’s regularly positioning a narrative towards a player that they may no longer want on their books.

9. “Coach threatened not to pick a player if he does not re-sign,” the player manager wrote. 

There’s no other way to view this as pressure from a person in a position of influence. You would like to think that this player wasn’t a young rookie, who may not have the maturity or understanding of how to manage such a career-defining scenario.

10. “Driving him around because of a DUI (Driving Under Influence licence suspension),” the reply came back. 

An example of an agent going the extra mileage. There’s plenty of managers that do much more than just negotiate contracts and source external sponsorship. This is just one of them.

11. “Controlling parents, messy breakup, partner issues, help resolve matrimonial issues,” are just a handful of the replies that were sent in regards to player’s relationships. 

I’ve said it before, we never truly know what a player is dealing with when they run onto the football field.

12. “You think you’ve seen and dealt with everything, then something new will pop up worse. (So much so) I would prefer not to say,” this agent surmised. 

At this point, we have solid reason to why our unprecedented player agent survey was conducted under the strict terms of anonymity. It seems we’ve only scratched the surface of what NRL players and agents are dealing with everyday.

Originally published as The 12 most bizarre NRL player agents requests revealed