Joseph Suaalii age rule: Peter V’landys comes out swinging at critics
Peter V’landys is at a loss over those bagging the NRL’s bid to secure Joseph Suaalii, saying he doesn’t understand why fans of rugby league don’t want him to stay in the game.
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Peter V’landys has doubled down on his push to reduce the NRL rookie age limit to make certain boom South Sydney teenager Joseph Suaalii is not lost to rugby union.
As the Rabbitohs eagerly await Suaalii’s decision that could come this weekend, there has been a huge backlash that reducing the minimum age requirement to help Souths keep the star schoolboy was fraught with danger.
But with Suaalii also weighing up a reported $3 million three-year offer from Rugby Australia, V’landys was making no apologies for his stance.
“I don’t understand fans of rugby league that don’t want him to stay in rugby league,” V’landys told News Corp.
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“I am a fan of rugby league and I love the game. I would love to see him in the game. I make no apology on that.
“Naturally I am always going to act in the best interests of the game no matter what criticism I get.
“I really don’t care.”
It comes as Suaalii, who turns 17 on Saturday, becomes free to sign an NRL contract as of this weekend.
The star schoolboy has indicated that he wants to play NRL next year if he decides to stay with Souths.
But that would require the governing body relaxing the minimum age limit of 18.
V’landys wants to give the ARL Commission discretionary powers to make decisions on a case-by-case basis.
That doesn’t necessarily mean Souths would have to play him in the top grade next year if Wayne Bennett decided Suaalii wasn’t ready.
It just gives them the option.
There was some hope Suaalii would make his decision this weekend but that now appears unlikely.
However, V’landys was standing firm on his view that this was not just about keeping Suaalii in the game, but keeping the game on its feet during the COVID-19 crisis.
“All I am saying is we shouldn’t have prescriptive rules where you have no discretion and you have no weapons but you are stuck in your own bureaucracy,” he continued.
“Any rule that is prescriptive I want to be able to give the Commission discretion.
“As I have said, we are in a medical emergency at the moment and in these sort of emergencies organisations at the moment are applying crisis management.
“You have to adapt to the challenge of this emergency.
“Any prescriptive rules doesn’t give you the agility and flexibility to fight the crisis.”
V’landys was also fired up at criticism he has copped for supposedly helping the Sydney Roosters bring back Sonny Bill Williams to the NRL.
“Cases like this Toronto thing, I make no apology,” he added.
“If we can get eight players back so be it.
“The same with this young kid. We are in a crisis at the moment. It is not normal times so there has got to be some latitude and discretion.”
South Sydney chief executive Blake Solly has refused to comment on the matter all week, saying repeatedly that the club wants to give Suaalii and his family time to come to their decision with the Rabbitohs adding to the pressure.
While plenty of NRL players have spoken out about the dangers of allowing a 17-year-old to play in the NRL, it was interesting to hear South Sydney hooker Damien Cook’s thoughts when he spoke on Fox Sports’ NRL 360 this week.
Cook is by no means a player known for his outspoken views but had no hesitation backing Suaalii to play NRL next season.
He said Suaalii trained with the NRL squad during pre-season and Cook was blown away by his strength and physical development.
“You definitely have to earn your first grade spot,” Cook said.
“Whether he is ready or not to play, I think he will be.
“I have seen signs of him in the pre-season.
“When did some defensive work when I was there in the pre-season he cut me in half.
“Even though I am not a big body. But he is definitely capable of it and having a full pre-season hopefully under us next year and not losing him to rugby, he will be ready to go.”
THE ONLY WAY TO END SUAALII FARCE
The tug of war over 16-year-old Joseph Suaalii highlights why the NRL must revisit a rookie draft.
The AFL, NBA and NFL have one, so why can’t the NRL make it happen? For years we’ve had this debate. Now is the perfect time to try again.
With Peter V’landys headhunting Phil Gould to take on a consultancy position, this would be the ideal place for Gould to start.
Get a team around him that includes the game’s smartest minds — like they did with Project Apollo to get the competition back up and running — and ask them all to leave their agendas at the door as they decide the best way forward for the game’s junior development.
Whether it be a draft or not, just let them make decisions that are in the game’s best interests, not what’s best for individual clubs.
As the Apollo team has shown throughout this COVID-19 crisis, it doesn’t have to take years of committee meetings to make decisions if you have the right people at the table. And V’landys has shown he is the right bloke to make this happen, if it is ever going to happen.
The Rugby League Players Association would need to be on board to implement any type of draft.
But surely at a time when the game is financially struggling, it is outrageous that South Sydney and Rugby Australia have been caught up in a ludicrous bidding war in which they were prepared to splash millions on an untested schoolboy.
Make no mistake, it’s not Suaalii or his family’s fault, and I don’t necessarily blame Souths for doing what it did. The reality is any club probably would have acted the same way. If they didn’t, Suaalii would have committed to rugby union.
But the fact remains this has again exposed why things need to change, and an external draft could fix many issues.
While I think it’s a great idea for V’landys to call on Gould’s expertise and experience, I was as nervous as anyone watching his condescending performance on Channel 9’s 100% Footy this week.
Instead of coming clean and telling it as it was, especially after V’landys had already publicly conceded his interest, Gould turned it into a guessing game. What was hardest to take was how he dismissed any suggestion his various roles within the game could possibly represent a conflict of interest.
You could only shake your head, but this is something V’landys must address to calm legitimate concern about handing Gould the keys to the game’s future.
Which is also why if V’landys does decide to gamble on Gould, he needs to put a safety net in place.
It should include the likes of Wayne Bennett and Trent Robinson, Ricky Stuart and Craig Bellamy, to speak on behalf of NRL clubs. But also a selection of experts who work at the coalface of junior and school development and recruitment, and across the states and regional areas.
The idea should be to design a plan that the NSWRL and QRL could ultimately implement to take responsibility away from clubs with many staff redistributed.
Some clubs will blow up about losing power but what can’t continue is the embarrassing and dangerous predicament that engulfed Suaalii.
One of the main benefits of a rookie draft is it not only better distributes talent but caps how much kids can be paid — so it would immediately stop clubs getting caught in a bidding war.
The other important point is that all juniors remain under the control of the governing body until they have finished school. That would stop this outrageous arms race that is going on between clubs and player agents.
Because it is not just Suaalii caught up in this, but pretty much any player from as young as 14 who might show any chance of one day making it to the big league.
You wouldn’t believe how many kids are courted by clubs and managers from the time they crack their first pimple. But this is where the NRL taking ownership of development would benefit everyone while saving millions and taking enormous pressure off kids and families.
In the past, Gould has rejected calls for a rookie draft, but others, including Bennett and veteran recruitment chief Peter Mulholland, are among many who believe it is the right path. And in 2014, when the NRL employed former Souths boss Shane Richardson to come up with his blueprint for the game’s future, one thing Richo was adamant about was a rookie draft. At the time, Richo said: “It’s a win-win for everybody and I think it’s the only way forward.”
It never eventuated because agendas took over but now V’landys has arrived, it gives new hope.
One argument against a rookie draft is that locally produced players don’t get to play for their home club. But how many of the current NRL generation grew up in the catchment area they now represent?
A punter asked why the Roosters get as much funding as other clubs when they don’t develop their own talent.
I was in Newcastle watching the Knights take on Canterbury on Sunday and Mitchell Pearce grew up in St Ives, while Kalyn Ponga is from North Queensland. Bradman Best is from Woy Woy on the Central Coast. Yet that hasn’t stopped the Knights claiming him as their own because they headhunted Best at 13.
So many players are in a similar situation. Canberra spends millions each year trying to produce its own talent, and does a tremendous job. Yet half its NRL side comes from England or New Zealand.
The Roosters have done everything right by developing Boyd Cordner and Jake Friend since they were the same age as Suaalii is now. But the Roosters’ co-captains hailed from Old Bar and Noosa respectively, not Bondi.
You could name any team you want.
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NRL clubs focus on winning games, which is why the governing body should focus on the future. V’landys said this week when defending his decision to chase Gould: “Judge me on the end result.”
I just hope the next Suaalii doesn’t have to go through the same circus.
Originally published as Joseph Suaalii age rule: Peter V’landys comes out swinging at critics
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