NRL contract negotiations scaling farcical new heights

Seriously, some of the NRL player negotiations being tossed around in the media at the moment are laughable.

I’m not talking so much about the telephone numbers being asked by a handful of players whose managers think they are megastars, but the clubs being used to pump up their contracts.

A few years ago a million-dollar-a-year contract was rare and reserved for an elite player — a complete package.

Manly halfback Daly Cherry-Evans started the ball rolling in 2015, selling the Gold Coast Titans a dummy to take a mind-boggling lifetime deal with the Sea Eagles worth more than $1 million a season.

Cherry-Evans and Penrith’s Nathan Cleary are reportedly the game’s highest-paid players on $1.3 million, followed by Dragons No.7 and Queensland Origin utility Ben Hunt ($1.2m).

READ: Where does Queensland’s 2022 State of Origin win rank?

A number of players have since signed million-dollar deals — some of them deserving, while others were paid on potential not delivered.

I’ll let you decide from this list of millionaires — Sam Burgess, Anthony Milford, Kieran Foran, Michael Morgan, Jack Bird, Cooper Cronk, Shaun Johnson, Angus Crichton, and David Fifita — which players were overpaid.

Now we have several clubs reportedly fighting for the signatures of the latest batch of NRL superstars about to come on the open market.

If you believe everything you read, then the likes of Cameron Munster, Payne Haas, Latrell Mitchell, and Kalyn Ponga top the player bidding war.

The NRL’s newest franchise — the Dolphins, coached by Wayne Bennett — has already spoken to Munster, Ponga, and Mitchell about heading to Redcliffe.

It’s become a little comical with reports changing every week about the money these players are being offered, and quite clearly clubs like the Broncos, Roosters, Dolphins, and others are being used as bargaining chips to pump up prices.

The Dolphins have done a reasonable job so far signing some experienced forwards, a few of them with premiership and State of Origin credentials.

But to be competitive in their first season, they desperately need a marquee match-winning signing like Munster, Ponga, or Mitchell.

Bennett has always had one or more of those players from day one of his highly successful coaching career, from Wally Lewis to Allan Langer and Darren Lockyer — players who were the complete package.

READ: Queensland’s most inspirational State of Origin players

If Brisbane want to keep Haas, they are going to have to fork out close to $1 million a season for the gun young prop.

Is he worth that, compared to a Munster or Mitchell?

I don’t think so.

A few years ago the Gold Coast Titans shelled out a million bucks a season for tearaway forward David Fifita, who displayed incredible potential.

Fifita has become the game’s most expensive benchwarmer and has been a source of frustration to Titans coach Justin Holbrook.

If the club had its time over again, it might baulk at paying that much money for an untried young forward who, on a face-value, has not lived up to the hype or delivered on his huge price tag.

Hunt, who may yet be forced to take a pay cut if he wants to stay with his long-time coach Anthony Griffin at the Dragons, could appeal to one of the lower-placed NRL clubs looking for an organiser and match-winner.

One of the favourites to take out this year’s Dally M Medal, Hunt has carried the Dragons this season and starred for Queensland in their Origin series win.

Unlike Fifita on the Gold Coast, he has justified his big money at the Dragons.

We will watch with interest as the negotiating circus rolls on in the coming months.

No doubt we will see managers continuing to play one club against another, players remaining tight-lipped, and NRL clubs and coaches denying they’ve held talks with anyone.

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