Thomas Friedman is a writer for the New York Times, and an author whose most famous book is The World is Flat. His basic premise is that as the process of globalisation gains strength, ever more walls come down, geographical borders become irrelevant and, among other things, specific skills can find a market on the other side of the world, as if that market was right next door.
“When I was growing up,” Friedman noted, “my parents told me, ‘Finish your dinner. People in China and India are starving.’ I tell my daughters, ‘Finish your homework. People in India and China are starving for your job’.”
Broncos prop Payne Haas.Credit: Getty
Which brings us – as if you didn’t know – to Payne Haas and Nathan Cleary among others, and the whole issue of just how many NRL players are at risk of going to play rugby union – and what rugby league can do to prevent them going.
The very short answer is: plenty, and bugger all.
The world is flat, getting flatter and that level playing field is going to see ever more league players switching sides to run from the Randwick end!
Sure, there is absolutely no doubt rugby union in Australia has struggled for a couple of decades, while rugby league has broadly continued to strengthen since the Super League imbroglio.
But, globally, the power and pull of rugby union has boomed, big time, and could swallow league whole many times over. And the fact that union is ever bigger and richer overseas means rugby union clubs in Japan, France, and the rest of Europe can put huge dollars on the table and big TV money continues to flow for broadast rights to the Wallabies and Super Rugby teams.
And I repeat what I saw in France a couple of months ago, when visiting my old rugby club of Club Athletique Briviste. As I wrote, despite being right on the edge of being demoted from France’s Top 14 rugby comp, Brive has a salary cap of about $30 million, which is much more than double that of the Sydney Roosters.
When the lowest-ranked rugby union club in France has double the amount of money to spend on skilled football players than the top league club in Australia, just what can be done to save the NRL farm?
Maintain, as Andrew Johns did, that league is a better game, so yah-boo sucks to union?
“Why would you want to go and play rugby union?” said Johns, who was only prevented from switching to rugby union himself two decades ago when the ARU had a last-minute change of heart. “You touch the ball three times … Payne Haas would go over and run the ball three times.”
(Bring it in tight, Andrew. In a world where league players are dropping like flies from concussion, that may not be the argument to make right now? While it’s also an issue in union, Payne won’t be required to knock over blokes one-on-one 30 times in every game!)
He will need a much better argument than that.
So many leave the topics of love and fun, and just appeal to their “loyalty”?
Please.
The driving dynamic in the whole formation of rugby league in the first place was to go after the money and it is a greater and more important tradition than shaking hands after the game. (And I still treasure the story Steve Mascord used to tell of one league player, who at the height of the Super League war, signed four contracts. He had RSI from signing every contract whipped in front of him.)
OK, so we can leave behind the Hallmark Greeting card solutions, and get to what counts in this flat world: money for skills.
Perhaps, the NRL, as floated, can give salary cap relief, as revealed by the Herald’s Michael Chammas, “providing clubs with up to $1m in salary cap relief if they sign players from outside the Australian, New Zealand and English rugby league systems.”
Get it? We’ll allow you to spend more money, if you recruit from rugby union comps around the world.
Joseph Suaalii in action for the Roosters.Credit: Getty
Hilarious! In a competitive bidding war, where the threat is for the NRL to be denuded of its top league players like Haas and Cleary, the proposal is to throw money at global rugby union players? That’ll fix it!
Meanwhile Fox Sports reported: “They also want NRL clubs to target the American college system, to recruit those who miss out on an NFL contract.”
Even better!
While our players are being snatched in the night from cashed-up rugby union forces with twice our firepower, the plan is to first send some of what little money we have towards overseas union players, and then we’ll encourage our clubs to spend more money on failed NFL players, because, you know, there is also such an impressive track record of NFL players making it in the NRL.
Nathan Cleary.Credit: Getty Images
I mean, you remember, don’t you?
Don’t you … ?
(There was Manfred Moore. Played four matches for the Newton Jets nearly 50 years ago, and spent the rest of the season in reserve grade.)
They cannot be serious, and it would surprise me if Peter V’landys or Andrew Abdo put their names to such proposals.
Manfred Moore Credit: Fairfax Media
Perhaps, then, a special fund put towards keeping designated superstars – but therein lies another problem. Let’s say $10 million is put aside to keep the likes of Haas, Cleary, Latrell Mitchell, Joey Manu and Nicho Hynes.
Great. But that is $10 million less to spend on keeping Brian To’o, Jarome Luai, Dylan Edwards and other league stars in the game. The more invulnerable you make Haas and Cleary, the more vulnerable the others become.
I repeat, there is no solution, and ultimately the NRL will have to do what rugby union did for decades while our own best and brightest – Wally Lewis, Michael O’Connor and Ray Price among them – were carried away by the league.
Suck it up, NRL.
It hurts at first, but in the end you get used to it!
