Ok, this isn’t really a rant, it’s not even offensive or inappropriate, in fact I’m not sure why I chose to post it specifically on this blog, but anyway I have. And unless you’re both from Australia and follow at least one code of football it’s probably of absolutely no interest to you at all. Don’t worry, I’m not going to hold that against you. You can just come back next time.
So, late last year Karmichael Hunt announced that he was going to be switch from the NRL across to the AFL, now I’m pretty sure he wasn’t the first guy to make the switch, but at the time he was probably the biggest name to do so. And as we now know, he wouldn’t be the last.
The NRL in particular has suffered from numerous ‘defections’ to rival codes in the last decade, with half a dozen or so top level players leaving their clubs to go and play rugby union in the hope of representing their country as a member of the Wallabies (or in the case of a couple of New Zealand born players, the All Blacks) - an honor which most of them successfully achieved, with varying levels of success.
Personally I didn’t hate the players for making this choice, despite several of them specifically leaving the Brisbane Broncos (team that I support). But as it was to be expected many people didn’t like the decision at all, which I can understand when you see numerous stars from your game pick and leave to join the ‘enemy’.
With these players that switched from League to Union a funny thing happened. After a couple of years at the elite level, playing for their country, with reasonable success, they all made a decision… they all (well, all the ‘big’ names anyway) returned to the code that they had left behind, the NRL.
In more recent years there hasn’t been as many defection to Union, or if there has been they haven’t been big name players as in previous examples. With a couple of exceptions, which I’ll get to later. More recently the ‘threat’ has been coming from the AFL.
For the benefit of any non-Australian that might still be reading, Rugby League and Rugby Union are reasonably similar, while still being a unique sport in their own right. Its common for many junior footballers to play both at a junior/school, before deciding to focus on one for the professional stage of their career. AFL on the other hand is extremely different to both League and Union, which is why the switch made by Karmichael Hunt was (and by many, still is) seen as so odd.
There is little doubt that the AFL is growing. Admittedly its not loved nor understood by tradition League or Union diehards, but the same token, diehard AFL followers could probably care less about the other two codes as well. The growth in the AFL is clearly reflected by their decisions to establish new teams on the Gold Coast and in Western Sydney. The Gold Coast team has been playing in the lower leagues for the last couple of seasons, and will join the AFL next season. Western Sydney has started in the lower leagues this year and will enter the AFL in two seasons time.
Hunt has joined the Gold Coast side, and after returning from a short stint playing Union in France (he’s now covered all three codes in less than two years) he played his first ‘proper’ game of AFL over the weekend to mixed reviews. He’s under so much pressure, primarily from the media, that whatever he does will be analyzed to the n-th degree.
Personally, from what I’ve seen and considering it was his first game, I don’t think he did too badly. You have to remember that he’s switch from a game that was more about short runs, strength and lots of body contact, to a sport which requires player to be significantly more athletic, longer runs and a lot of kicking - which is a particular skill that League converts are going to need to develop/improve if they are to be a success.
As I mentioned Hunt wouldn’t be the last league player to switch, and just a couple of weeks ago (after hearing rumors for weeks) it was announced that Israel Folau had signed on with the new Western Sydney AFL side - this was after he’d already turned down a massive offer from new Super 15 Union team, the Melbourne Rebels.
Folau’s signed on for four years, and I’m guessing Hunt’s contract is of a similar length (can’t remember off the top of my head), and while they are/were huge stars that many hoped would have big future in League, they have been lured away by the dangling financial carrot that was held in front of them. And honestly can you really blame them? They’re going to get paid top dollar (possibly more than the current elite AFL players) and they’ve never played the game before at a professional level.
But here’s the thing, and I don’t know that many people have thought about this. Remember what I said about all those players that left to play Union? Yes, that’s right, they all came back eventually. And whey consider that Hunt and Folau are only in their early 20’s, they could quite easily play out their three/four years and then return to League and they’d only be in their mid 20’s - which could leave them with another 6/7/8 years to put back into their original code of choice.
Will Folau be the last to switch to AFL? Unlikely if they keeping flashing the checkbook around. Only time will tell I guess, but the NRL should seriously look at what they can do to encourage players to stay. Raising the salary cap so that the ‘stars’ of the game can be retained might be a good place to start.
Now in most of these cases, while the deals may have occurred during the season, the players in question didn’t actually change codes until the end of the season. To me, although they’re leaving to join a different game, this isn’t really that much different to a player signing with a rival club mid-year for the following season. But as always there is an exception to the rule.
One of the most recent players to switch from League to Union was Sonny-Bill Williams. Yes, he signed mid-year, in his case for a big whack of money to join a French club, the difference was that it was all incredibly sudden, and he virtually left for France the moment the deal was sealed.
From the outside it appeared to be a bit of a dick move, and most Bulldogs fans probably felt like they’d been abandoned by one of the biggest talents at their club. You can’t really blame Williams for chasing the opportunity, but there is little doubt that the whole scenario could have been managed much, much better by all involved.
A couple of years later, and Sonny-Bill is one plater who doesn’t appear to be ready to switch back to League. Instead he’s recently announced that he’ll be heading back to New Zealand to play in the Super 15 competition next year, after turning down an offer to ram in in France. It looks like he’s been signed directly by New Zealand Rugby Union, and as such no one really knows which one of the five NZ-based clubs will be his new home.
What he did make clear though is that his choice to return ‘home’ to New Zealand was made with the goal to make it into the All-Blacks side, which is the pinnacle if you originate from that side of the Tasman.
Another of the recent switchers, Mark Gasnier, hasn’t even lasted a full season before wanting back into the game he left behind in the chase of money. The intake rumors suggested that he could have been back in the NRL before the end of this season, but things seem to have gone quiet on that front in the last couple of weeks, but its an almost certainty that he’ll be back next year.
One thing I’ve noticed while writing this up, is that an awful lot of the players that have left to join other codes have come from the Broncos. Wendell Sailor, Lote Tiqiri and Brad Thorne all left to play Union, while both of the AFLs new recruits, Hunt and Folau, are/were all Broncos. And I’m sure there are probably other lower profile players that the Broncos have lost to Union in the past few years as well. I wonder why that is? Maybe its just a coincidence.
To wrap up, because I’ve already banged-on a little more that originally planned, those League purists that are still upset that the AFL has poached two of the risings stars from the NRL ranks should take a closer look at the recent past. Specifically, what happened in the years after they left. For starters, the NRL didn’t fall in a hole - the game is bugger that just it’s star players. But most importantly, the majority of the big names that left all came back - it took some longer than others, but the end result was the same.
If Hunt and Folau are still playing AFL in five years time I wouldn’t be overly surprised, especially if they’ve built up their skills and become relatively successful. But if in five years time they find themselves back in the NRL I’m certainly not going to be shocked - and to be fair, no one else should be either if that’s what occurs.