League: National body chases clubs for talent deals

A deal to send promising young Wellington players who are signed to the New Zealand Rugby League to Sydney's Canterbury Bulldogs will not be the last link the national body forges with the Warriors' opposition.

The NZRL's goal is to widen the pool of players in the NRL and thus the pool available for national selection, while ensuring all its development players have the best opportunity to further themselves.

At first glance it is one that appears to fly in the face of their own, limited though it is, shareholding in the Warriors.

But the rationale is that the Warriors have a development base in the whole of Auckland and will always struggle to properly work the regions. The NZRL is actively seeking other NRL clubs interested in forming a partnership that will see the clubs invest in player talent. Players will stay in New Zealand until their late teens rather than being hoisted out to second and third-tier Australian competitions, and contractual assurances will be given they will be available for the Junior Kiwis and Kiwis.

There was a test of the relationship this week when former Wellington player Isaac Luke, who signed with the Bulldogs at the end of last year, was named in the Junior Kiwis squad to play Australia in Melbourne this weekend.

The Dogs refused to release Luke for the Juniors' elite player camp in New Zealand, claiming the fortnight he would be away from their Jersey Flegg squad was crucial to its chances in a tight competition.

The NZRL wanted Luke with the team. In the end a compromise was reached and Luke joined the team when it landed in Sydney.

He was part of the side that beat a Roosters development squad 32-10 as coach Tony Benson adjusted to give everyone a run and a chance ahead of the "test" against Australian Schoolboys which is the curtainraiser to the Storm-Roosters game at Olympic Park in Melbourne tomorrow.

On the sidelines were several Australian talent scouts, some working for clubs, some there to spot and sign anyone they believe might be the next Sonny Bill Williams.

It is because of the haphazard nature of player exchanges from New Zealand to Australia that the NZRL is now trying to "wrest control of the player resource" from the clubs, as well as less creditable agents.

The NZRL spends around $2 million a year on establishing and running national competitions including the National Junior Competition under-16s and under-18s and the Bartercard Cup. When Australian clubs come along and lift players from those competitions, it wants recompense.

The Warriors are the only club that do not pay development fees to the NRL for players who have been in the New Zealand elite development programme; a schedule is agreed according to the status the player has reached, whether provincial, national junior, Junior Kiwis or Kiwis.

The NZRL agrees that the money paid by the NRL to the Warriors as a development levy assists its aims of developing young players in Auckland so it's quid pro quo.

The one big gain for the NZRL out of relationships directly with other NRL clubs is the extra control it may have over player availability for internationals.

There is also the angle of coaching and team management: Clubs asked to invest here and leave players in a "holding pen" here will want to know they are being guided and coached well, their injuries well-managed and so on. To that end, the NZRL hopes the clubs will provide coaching for its coaches and managers.

An NZRL insider said they were pursuing other agreements with other clubs, including Manly and Cronulla.

"We want them to help invest in the regional structure and to help maintain that structure, instead of ripping our best players out too early and doing little else.

"When the best players keep disappearing to second and third tier competitions in Australia it makes it impossible for the likes of Bay of Plenty, Wellington, Nelson and other provinces," he said.

In part, the strategy is to head off one from the NRL, where it has started looking at a division of territory for Australian clubs.

"We don't want them saying to Manly that they can have Northland, the Eels can have Hamilton, the Sharks can have Central and the Broncos can have the South Island. There is a risk for us in that the NRL could roll on and determine which clubs can plunder which regions."

A big issue could be settling old deals, as in arrangements already in place between individuals, scouts, clubs and teams.

The Knights and Broncos have worked in Wellington in the past with a recruitment view, Manly set up an academy in Auckland briefly, the Sharks have previously held an arrangement with Aranui High School in Christchurch. Those clubs decided they were getting "the best of the rest" after the first-choice prospects had been talent-spotted by the Warriors or the NZRL.

The deal with the Bulldogs will fall quickly into place, not least because Wellington is NZRL-controlled and the 60 best players are signed to it through the academy programme run by coach Paul Bergman, who has lifted the city from the doldrums, healed old wounds that existed between power clubs Randwick and Wainuiomata and put the capital's teams back on a winning path. Nine of the 60 signed under-16s, under-18s and Bartercard players secured NRL contracts at the end of 2004.

The Dogs have a track record of running games in Wellington. They have signed to play at Gosford in 2006 but will be back at the Cake Tin for their "home" game against the Warriors in 2007. The future arrangement involves a lot more than an annual game in the capital and a planeload of players sent to Sydney, though.

It should be cheaper for clubs than taking players at age 15 then providing them with a dormitory home and "parents", as they did with Williams, as they play through the grades. That approach loses many who go wayward, can't commit to the training, get homesick or whatever.

The Warriors are silent on the issue. But the response "they can do what they want to do" suggests all is not well on the home front. The club would not be raising the NZRL's new partnerships with its shareholding partner.

It seems increasing likely the club and the national body will head towards some form of divorce. Already they are not talking about the division of matrimonial property. The fight promises to get dirtier.

* The NZRL supported the entry of a Wellington team into the NRL but did not want to invest in it or take a shareholding.

The NRL, after signing a new TV deal that takes it through to 2012, has indicated it would not consider expanding beyond 16 teams until then.