The NRL has entered new territory with the necessary relocation of teams to Queensland, and it deserves all congratulations for what has been a monumental task.

Unfortunately, it has once again demonstrated a lack of foresight relating to the rules of our great game. This time the NRL has created the opportunity for players and clubs to orchestrate mid season transfers at a time in the premiership which is anything but the middle.

And I don’t like it one bit.

More on that later.

First to the Eels. I’m not sure how many supporters are on the same page as me, but after the first 5 minutes of Thursday’s game, I feared it was not going to have a good ending for our Eels.

Though noted many times in the coverage that Parra went 10 from 10 in their opening sets, any belief that completions alone were setting up a victory was a fool’s paradise. There was a distinct difference between the completions of past games (which I had written about in some detail) and the opening exchanges against the Raiders.

In those first ten sets I can hardly recall seeing a time that our forwards punched through the line, or got a quick play the ball so they could attack a retreating defensive line. Likewise, there was an absence of movement in and around the ruck to create scramble in that retreating defence.

Mitch Moses

Collectively our players who are normally a very reliable 8/10 in performance were collectively 6-7 and with the absence of Moses this was something that they simply could not afford to do.

The Eels met a team who were desperate for victory, and showed enormous desire. Parra did not have the ability to respond to what was a rushing defence.

Obviously, I was not at the game so I can not comment on the 10 metres, although I do think that if some of those Raiders players can genuinely move as quickly as they did they really should be at the Olympics. 

Still, it serves Parra no good to use that as an excuse as a team or as a supporter base. If we think that the Roosters next week are not going to deliberately stand offside as they have done all year and intentionally give away repeat sets to reset their defensive line we are kidding ourselves. Melbourne will do the same, the restart stats from this year prove it.

Yes, the Raiders pushed boundaries but what did the Eels do to counter it?

I sat there watching this game pondering where our offloads had gone, why our forwards were running one out to set themselves up to be bashed and dominated. There was very little interplay between our forwards, not as we had seen the previous week.

I became more and more frustrated as our backline set up deeper and deeper, taking away any opportunities to catch the fast-moving Raiders defensive line back on the inside. As the game wore on, our young half Jakob Arthur became less and less involved, often only touching the ball on the last tackle to kick. A halfback in first grade must do much more than that.

I think Jakob is an excellent prospect but last night proved that there is a huge difference between being able to be a consistent week to week first grader and one that can come in for a game here and there and fill in. If Mitch Moses is not able to play next week I would hope that someone like Will Smith who can handle the physicality as well as the mental strain of top flight first grade is given a chance to start as I fear what the Roosters could do to Jakob and think it could possibly hinder his development.

Fergo

That said, as always, I will back our coaches as my views are purely that of a supporter looking from the outside in. As many of you could probably guess I was not overly enthused when BA named Fergo this past week but I thought he played with much more desire and even though it was only one tackle he did make a beautiful read to jam in and importantly lock up the ball player with a wonderful defensive read early.

I am always very happy to be proven wrong when it results in an improved team performance. You only have to look at how Sam Walker is being exposed defensively and how this is impacting him to see what could happen if we persist with Jakob at the pointy end of the season.

On the subject of the pointy end of the season, a decision made by the NRL to extend the signing deadline is about to have a significant and easily foreseen impact on the competition.

Let me explain.

The Parramatta club has solid depth across most of its squad, but with its development ethos and the impact of the salary cap, there are fewer NRL ready players in some positions. This has been evident in the necessitated debuts of 18 year old rookies at halfback and centre.

The Eels are not alone in this. Any club working within a salary cap and fielding origin calibre, highly-paid players will inevitably have some positions with less depth.

It has always been known that most teams without “Storm” in their name have a limited premiership window because the salary cap does not allow you to keep a strong squad together. Furthermore, there is always a degree of luck with injuries needed during your premiership window for you to have a genuine attempt at the title.

At least, that used to be the case.

I would now argue that the NRL have corrupted the competition by moving the signing deadline back to just 6 weeks before the end of the regular season. In doing so they’ve also made it more difficult for the struggling clubs to attract state of origin type players. 

Journalists often rave about the interest created in overseas competitions with trade periods. While this might be true, there is something that all of such overseas leagues have in common that we don’t. They set a trade deadline of a minimum of 10 weeks, most 12 weeks, before the end of the regular season.

The leaders of those sports do not want to see a franchise rewarded for having poor roster management, or a competition corrupted by those that could manipulate the system.

I highly doubt that Penrith or any of the top six clubs could afford a player like Tevita Pangai Junior on his wage if they had to cover 3-4 months of his contract. It would take more to get him than the rookie type wage he will get with the Panthers for the maximum 9 to 10 games he will play for them.

Tevita Pangai Junior

Penrith have put together an extremely talented roster but one that lacks elite front row depth. They kept many elite players in other positions and decided to forgo the depth they had last year in the front row by releasing two regular first grade middle forwards at the end of 2020. The money they saved they then used to retain players such as Jarome Luai, James Fisher Harris and Stephen Crichton to long term deals.

Such roster decisions must come with repercussions. Signing a high calibre player to a short term deal at the end of the season, on a fraction of his contract cost, should not be an option that teams can plan for.

By again rushing in a new rule without proper consideration, the NRL has made it possible for teams to stockpile elite players, without fear of having gaps in the depth of their squad. If they need to, they can buy a top-class international player 6 weeks out from the finals for the price of a lower top 30 squad position. Their only cost is forgoing a spot in their roster for a rookie.

The high performing teams often have to make rosters decisions when their elite come off contract. A struggling club will frequently offer overs and the player may leave if the gap between his current club and the struggling club is too big.

With this new rule one of two things will happen. The struggling club might have to pay even more to get the elite player and thus their salary cap will be bent even more. Conversely, the top performing club might decide to pay a fraction more to keep elite players ahead of mid squad players, knowing that if injuries hit a particular position they can snap someone up at bargain basement price 6 weeks out from the finals.

This might mean that balance of power will be much harder to change. Struggling clubs will remain restricted in their capacity to attract anything other than average first grade players, whilst the top clubs will keep the elite.

The whole scenario is complicated by a system which allows for agents to manage players as well as coaches and potentially hold power and influence at clubs. In the past, it’s seen lower performing clubs load up with players from particular agents on the “nod and wink” that it will improve their chances of recruiting a high profile star or two. Reality and inference rarely came together, and the gap between the best and worst often became more pronounced.

Ultimately, this change to the signing deadline only helps the stronger clubs to remain strong by providing them with a backup plan to their elite spending.

Though talk about late season trades fills the airwaves, websites and papers, I genuinely believe that is far more important for our current NRL and ARLC leaders to make decisions which create the fairest competition possible – both for now and for the future.

Shelley

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