Another One Bites the Dust
It is round 15, just over half way through the 2017 NRL season, and yet another player has transferred clubs.
This weeks culprit, Manly front rower Nate Myles. The Queensland and Australian test veteran decided on Tuesday to part ways with the Sea Eagles, the club he has called home for the past year and a half. In one swift day, Myles was released immediately from the sixth placed Manly and signed with the games front runner the Melbourne Storm.
The switch comes as a shock to many within the game, with Myles having an another year remaining on his contract at Manly. Despite Myles only averaging 30 minutes a game, he provided invaluable experience and composure to the side in its re-branding phase.
Myles, however, is not the first player this season to perform the 'mid year switch.' Just three weeks earlier, Mitchell Moses left his beloved West Tigers in a time of crisis to play for the Paramatta Eels. The change comes as an opportunity to elevate his status within the game, and combine with other young talented players in Corey Norman, Clint Gutherson and Bevan French.
Countless other players have succumb to transferring clubs before the June 30 deadline. Players such as Dale Copley, Jordan Rankin, even the great Jared Hayne made the switch during the 2016 season.
These mid-year switches, along with signings for the following season, effect the relationship that fans have with their clubs and its players. Now, I'm not one to scrutinise what players do in order to make their lives more comfortable but as a spectator and a fan of the game, I find it difficult to be motivated to support my team week in - week out when players are ready to jump ship when the going gets tough.
If we were to take James Tedesco for example, a Leichhardt born and bred player who has decided that at the end of the 2017 season he would leave his West Tigers family for the Sydney Roosters. One of the shocks of the 2017 season, why would he leave the club that gave him the greatest opportunity of all? Was it for the money, or the opportunity to play in an environment of winners? Either way, Tedesco leaving the Tigers must have been the hardest decision to make in his career to date, and only time will tell if his decision made in the middle of the 2017 season will be the right one.
The NRL should look at adopting a similar trade period like the AFL has in place. A period where off-contract players, free agents and players just wanting to make a switch can find a club willing to offer them what they are in need of. It also allows for an AFL draft, that sees the best emerging players be 'auctioned off' to the club with first bidding rights.
In adopting this model, the shock switches are limited to/or confirmed during the off-season, when fans of struggling teams can re-assess their losses and welcome their gains. Not only does this reassure fans that their team isn't in a downward spiral, but it keeps the camaraderie between team mates who have the constant knowledge that their teammate is leaving come season end.
So, as we sit with eleven games left in the season, its a wonder how many switches we'll see before the grand final in October, and if there will ever be any changes to the drafting system in the NRL.