Wayne Bennett was vocal during the week about why the NRL should bring in a transfer window.
The veteran Rabbitohs coach is right as it would be a great addition to the current transfer system/dog’s breakfast but unfortunately it will never happen.
Daly Cherry-Evans’ highly surprising decision to announce he will be leaving the Sea Eagles’ nest has triggered yet another round of debate about the NRL’s ways and means for players switching clubs.
The current set-up basically gives players most of the year to switch teams at the drop of a hat, and for clubs to usher them out the door if they’re surplus to requirements or not performing to their contract value when another team will take over the deal.
Mikaele Ravalawa left the Dragons last week to become a Rabbitoh, David Klemmer and Emre Guler have lobbed at St George Illawarra and Dylan Walker ditched the Warriors for the Eels in the most recent of immediate switches and the competition is only three and a bit rounds old.
“This does nothing for the game. It does nothing for the club. It’s wrong and I wish we’d fix it,” Bennett said.
“You don’t see this in Aussie rules, they are our major competitor.
“We’ve hit the self-destruct button four weeks into a football season that’s already provided some great football.
“The whole focus is on what a couple of players or clubs have done. So, clubs have done whatever the case. It just shouldn’t happen. It shouldn’t be allowed to happen.”
As much as the ARL Commission would love to institute a specific trade window mid-season, they are not going to do it because the clubs prefer it this way and most importantly, the players would kick up a massive stink if it was ever genuinely put on the bargaining table during the next CBA negotiating period.
Bennett is right that the AFL can quarantine itself from such dramas and that is mainly because its players can’t threaten to leave the competition to take up a lucrative deal elsewhere like NRL stars can do with the English Super League and countless rugby franchises, mainly in a few of the more lucrative pockets of the union globe.
Thought exercise time – Eels legend Nathan Hindmarsh reckons five-eighth Dylan Brown should bugger off to Newcastle toot sweet, so let’s start there with a 17-team trade which suits each club.
Of course this or anything like it won’t ever happen but that’s the case for a transfer window too.
Dylan Brown. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
1. Dylan Brown from Eels to Knights.
Brown is heading to Newcastle anyway so if he leaves early, Adam O’Brien can get a trial run on how their vision of a three-pronged playmaker combo of Brown, Fletcher Sharpe and Kalyn Ponga can bamboozle opposition defensive lines.
2. Jayden Brailey to Raiders
The Knights can free up some 2025 salary cap space by letting former skipper Jayden Brailey see how chilly it gets in Canberra this winter after he has already signed there for the next couple of seasons.
3. Tom Starling to the Cowboys
The hooker will be surplus to Canberra’s needs if Brailey arrives early and off contract at season’s end, he is clearly on the outer given the Raiders have recently re-signed young rake Owen Pattie long term.
North Queensland are losing Reece Robson to the Roosters next year so they could do with Starling as a bench option this year to see if he is worth investing in for next season and beyond.
4. Coen Hess from Cowboys to Dolphins
Hess looks like a player in need of a change of scenery. He’s been stuck on the bench behind Jordan McLean and Jason Taumalolo and at 28, the former Maroons prop has a few good years left in him so he would fit in nicely at the Dolphins to boost their pack.
5. Herbie Farnworth from Dolphins to the Roosters
Now before Dolphins fans start screaming about getting Hess and losing one of their highest-profile players in Farnworth, there is method to this madness. If they are going to be able to attract a certain 36-year-old Sea Eagle whose dad played for the club, they will need to clear significant cap space.
Farnworth is not providing a return on the significant investment they made in him at centre so the reduction in strikepower out wide would more than be offset by the extra creativity and skill in the playmaker spot if they can land Daly Cherry-Evans.
Herbie Farnworth. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)
6. Brandon Smith from Roosters to Souths
An easy one, he’s going there anyway and may not play much this year at all so let him walk in the trade window but there would need to be some sort of financial compensation paid to the Rabbitohs for taking on damaged goods for the first few months of his time at the club.
There’s no animosity between these teams right? They can strike a deal.
7. Lewis Dodd from Souths to Dragons
Jamie Humphreys has usurped the young Englishman as the preferred halfback so the Bunnies can cut their losses by letting him go to a club in desperate need of a halfback.
St George Illawarra have been lukewarm on Lachlan Ilias after getting him from the Rabbitohs so they may be reluctant to take on another Redfern reject.
8. Raymond Faitala-Mariner from Dragons to Panthers
The veteran second-rower is still a formidable threat but with Shane Flanagan elevating younger options in Hamish Stewart and Dylan Egan ahead of him, St George Illawarra are looking to the future.
He’s just the kind of player who would lob at Penrith and become a crucial cog in their machine a la Scott Sorensen, Luke Garner and Paul Alamoti.
9. Jack Cole from Panthers to Sea Eagles
With DCE departing it’s time for Manly to send out a search party for young playmaker talent. They’ve got former junior rugby union star Joey Walsh on the books but with Luke Brooks more comfortable in a secondary role, they need another option as chief playmaker next year if Walsh doesn’t pan out.
Cole is a star on the rise and although he has been given the first few rounds of the season in the run-on team, he is set to be frozen out once Blaize Talagi has settled in at his new club. The Panthers didn’t invest in the Eels prodigy big time just to play NSW Cup or be a bench utility.
10. Tommy Talau from Sea Eagles to Tigers
Yep, send him back. Talau is not getting a look-in at Manly and with Justin Olam bound for a medical retirement due to a chronic knee injury, he would add much-needed depth to their stocks out wide.
11. Latu Fainu from Tigers to Bulldogs
Another player who is not getting much game time at the moment and that is unlikely to change with Jarome Luai and Lachie Galvin locked in as the starting halves and Tallyn Da Silva shining as Api Koroisau’s dummy-half back-up.
The Dogs still don’t appear to be totally sold on Toby Sexton as their long-term halfback so there could be a chance for a young talent like Fainu to find a permanent home at NRL level.
12. Blake Wilson from Bulldogs to the Titans
Wilson is a free agent at the end of this year after only getting a one-year extension and despite several impressive efforts when given a whirl out wide, he is third choice on the wing behind Jacob Kiraz and Marcelo Montoya.
He would be a more than useful pick-up for Gold Coast on the wing or at centre where they lack depth and scoring punch.
(Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)
13. David Fifita from Titans to Storm
Now this one is far-fetched and the odds of it happening are the same as Fifita’s contract – ones that are displayed in seven figures. But it would be the best thing for his career to put himself in the Craig Bellamy pre-season training torture chamber where players with a chequered history become the best version of themselves.
If Fifita ever truly lived up to his potential he would be the best forward in the NRL but the more likely scenario is that he will continue to Coast while raking in the Gold.
14. Tyran Wishart from Storm to Warriors
Wishart has probably the player in the best form over the past 12 months who doesn’t have a chance of getting a starting spot when his team is all available.
Adept at covering multiple positions, five-eighth is his preferred spot and the Warriors have found it hard to decide on their best option for the No.6 jersey with Te Maire Martin and Chanel Harris-Tavita failing to gain a firm stranglehold.
Wishart would be an ideal option outside halfback Luke Metcalf cashing in on the go-forward provided by their fearsome pack.
15. Jackson Ford from Warriors to Sharks
The former Dragons second-rower has been relegated to a bench role with Kurt Capewell and Marata Niukore ahead of him in Andrew Webster’s starting side and he would be a handy pick-up for a team like Cronulla, although he would probably also be an interchange specialist given they have Briton Nikora and Teig Wilton.
16. Siosifa Talakai from Sharks to Broncos
Brisbane need impact on their bench – after Payne Haas and Pat Carrigan set the platform, there is no one in their pack who is consistently capable of bending defensive lines backwards.
Talakai is the kind of X-factor they lack who could turn games in short, sharp bursts.
17. Selwyn Cobbo from Broncos to Eels
Cobbo has been hot and cold for Brisbane and with the experiment of trying him at centre seemingly over, it looks like he will be a specialist winger.
Parramatta have salary cap space that the Broncos don’t possess and with the Maroons speedster likely to be squeezed out of Red Hill, he could earn a higher pay packet with greater long-term security with the Eels.
