League: Get ready for transfer frenzy

Preston Campbell is on the Gold Coast hitlist. Picture / Fotopress

Rugby League is about to descend into the annual transfer frenzy, with the NRL decision to admit the Gold Coast to the competition from 2007 throwing a wildcat into the mix.

The big spenders this season will include the Souths, Penrith, the Sharks, Manly and the Raiders.

The Souths have signalled major changes and suggest they have A$2 million to spend after realigning themselves with a new venue, Stadium Australia at Homebush.

Penrith have dropped big salaries recently without replacing them and benefit from a strong and loyal local juniors input.

The under-the-cap Sharks will see expensive prop Jason Stevens retire while Manly have lost Terry Hill and are minus John Hopoate.

Likewise the Raiders, who have lost Jason Smith and Matt Adamson to retirement.

Some clubs will have little or no room to move after upgrading the salaries of players they want to keep. These include the Dragons, the Cowboys, Eels and Storm.

The Roosters have eight off-contract but want to keep them all, and the Bulldogs face a huge demand to lift Sonny Bill Williams' A$80,000 ($86,035) a season.

Movement at the Knights and Wests Tigers will depend on the number of players, if any, the respective coaches decide to cut and the money freed up thereby.

The Warriors have a settled squad and all key players are signed for 2007. They should sail through the transfer period with little disruption, unless of their own making.

The Gold Coast's entry will queer this year's deals in that many players wanting to go there will not want to commit themselves elsewhere, yet clubs may well want to offer longer-term deals to get past the period of market activity the new club's generation will bring.

Penrith's Preston Campbell, who was with the old Gold Coast Chargers before they folded in 1998 as part of the deal to end the Super League war, is strongly favoured to be the new club's first signing.

Campbell is off-contract at the Panthers and will be seeking a one-year deal that then allows him to move north in 2007.

The new Gold Coast consortium is well down the track in settling its management and coaching staff and has other players in sight.

Coach is former Penrith forward John Cartwright, who was assistant at Penrith for two years and has been assistant to Ricky Stuart at the Roosters for three seasons.

Talent-scouting on the Coast is former Penrith and Wests forward Scott Sattler, who will be football manager.

They are said to be chasing local players who left to pursue their careers elsewhere. Rumoured to be on their list are the Bulldogs' Kiwi centre Jamaal Lolesi, from Southport, Wests Tigers' Kiwi halfback Benji Marshall, who was educated on the Coast, New Zealand-linked Sharks' wing Luke Covell, who was raised in northern NSW, and other former locals in Tigers' prop Anthony Laffranchi and wing Daniel Fitzhenry, Penrith's hooker Luke Priddis and Dragons fullback Clint Greenshields.

The Gold Coast bid was approved the week after the NRL bosses held meetings with rival television companies at which significantly increased broadcast earnings were forecast for 2007 and beyond.

Both the pay-TV and free-to-air deals expire after next season. Word is that the current deal with Channel Nine will be more than doubled to A$40 million. Channel Seven entered the bidding and is alleged to have suggested to the NRL that it sign with Nine only for 2007, when it will be prepared to offer more.

New pay-TV rights, with New Zealand's Sky TV contributing A$9 million at present, will bring in another A$60 million from 2007.

The NRL gives each club A$2.5 million from that income. It is the aim of NRL chief executive David Gallop to push that closer to the A$3.25 million salary cap each club has to operate under.

Expanding the competition beyond 16 teams, to include the Wellington and Central Coast proposals, is not likely to be considered until the game generates another income jump that would alleviate any financial concerns.

The other major driving factor for Gold Coast was the Queensland State Government's commitment of up to A$125 million to revamp the small Carrarra Stadium where the old Chargers played. The club is yet to settle on a name after the local Redcliffe side objected to the usurping of its moniker "the Dolphins". The favourite is "the Pirates."

Central Coast backer, owner of a long-term rights deal at Gosford Stadium and media mogul John Singleton has offered to forego the NRL's TV money if "the Bears" are allowed in. The NRL won't do that sort of deal. But the league continues its push to reduce the number of Sydney city clubs from nine.

It is offering A$6 million for mergers and A$8 million for a club to relocate.

In the meantime several clubs including Penrith, the Bulldogs, Manly, the Sharks, Souths, Tigers and Roosters are considering running "home" games out of Gosford next season. Singleton and the NRL will pay costs of around A$40,000.

The advent of 16 clubs will also apparently mean the reintroduction of Monday night football, and two games will be played each Friday.

The Gold Coast's managing director Michael Searle flies to England on Tuesday to try to attract former NRL players back to Australia. These include Kiwi David Solomona, the Eels' wayward centre Jamie Lyon and former Newcastle wing Darren Albert.

Gold Coast hitlist

Rumoured to be chasing:

Preston Campbell (Penrith)
Jamaal Lolesi (Bulldogs)
Benji Marshall, Anthony Laffranchi, Daniel Fitzhenry (Wests Tigers)
Luke Covell (Sharks)
Clint Greenshields (Dragons)
Luke Priddis (Penrith)

Significant players off-contract include:

Bulldogs: Braith Anasta, Willie Mason
Roosters: Brett Finch, Jason Cayless, Chris Walker
Dragons: Luke Bailey, Clint Greenshields, Albert Torrens
Canberra: Clinton Schifcofske, Ryan O'Hara, Simon Woolford
Melbourne: Matt Orford, Matt King
Broncos: Shaun Berrigan