The Sydney Roosters’ reported signing of Penrith Panthers younger gun Spencer Leniu from the 2024 NRL season has once more shone a highlight on the heavy value the Panthers are paying for his or her current success.
A few weeks earlier than the Leniu stories, one other Penrith junior in Stephen Crichton signed a deal to affix a rival membership (Bulldogs) from 2024.
Crichton will be part of former membership teammate and fellow New South Wales consultant Matt Burton at Belmore from subsequent season, with Burton himself one other Penrith home-grown expertise the Panthers have needed to let stroll lately attributable to wage cap constraints.
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A number of different Penrith juniors that moved on throughout this previous low season embody J’Maine Hopgood (Eels), who was close to greatest on floor for his new aspect on Thursday night time, Charlie Staines (Wests Tigers) and Sean O’Sullivan (Dolphins).
Phil Gould, who held the function of General Manager of the Panthers from 2011 to 2019 and had lots to do with the much-improved growth of the Panthers junior academy, spoke on the Panthers problem to retain gamers this week within the wake of the Leniu signing.
Speaking on his podcast, Six Tackles with Gus, Gould says it’s an unlucky scenario however one which has been an issue for numerous golf equipment within the NRL for years.
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“The salary cap punishes success and doesn’t reward development. It just gives no incentive for development, and that’s something I’ve been saying for 25 years,” Gould stated.
“It’s sad that the Panthers must lose a lot of their home-grown players that have developed from a young age all the way to their debut, only to see them sign for more money and opportunity at other clubs.
“They’re not the first team to go through this, but they’re going through an extraordinary period at the moment.”
Gould went on to say that the NRL should become involved to make sure different golf equipment enhance their junior growth.
“A lot of the salary cap pressure the Panthers are feeling is because of the lack of development from the majority of the other clubs, and the game doesn’t really have a strategy to change this,” Gould stated.
“So, because some of these clubs don’t have a good development system, what do they do when they are short of a player, well they go and buy a player and where do you buy, well you buy on the team performing the best and can’t afford their players.
“The problem is there’s no punishment for the other clubs or no obligation they must spend the money on junior development.
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“When you sign your NRL licence to play in this competition and you put your hand out for all these broadcast dollars the clubs are now getting, it should come with obligations on you investing in the future of the game and your club and not leaving it up to a handful of clubs to do it.”
Former nice Andrew Johns didn’t cover what aspect of the difficulty he was on, firmly believing the Panthers must be compensated when shedding a growth participant.
“It’s not fair what they’re going through, it’s totally not fair,” Johns stated on the Freddy and the Eighth podcast.
“Where are their rewards for developing some of these players from as young as 14 until they debut in their late teens/early twenties and then other teams pick them up a couple of years later.
“There should be some sort of reward, whether that will be a transfer fee or something like that, I don’t know.”
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Penrith membership legend Greg Alexander was just a little extra diplomatic when he weighed in on the difficulty on SEN 1170’s Breakfast with Vossy.
“Do they get rewarded for it? Maybe, but then what do the clubs do that have very little juniors?
“It’s alright getting the reward but what has happened to Penrith over the last three years, that is the cap working because they’re going to other clubs.
“It’s a tough one to fix.
This isn’t the only time this issue has come to the fore.
12 months ago, Panthers CEO Brian Fletcher called on the NRL to provide compensation for clubs who lose development players, on the back of junior Isaiya Katoa inking a three-year deal the Dolphins.
“There has to be protection or compensation,” Fletcher stated on the time to The Daily Telegraph.
“It’s a waste of time developing them. For us and other developing clubs that can just sit there and pluck them out,” Fletcher stated on the time.
“It’s frustrating but that’s the rules at the moment.”
Source web site: www.foxsports.com.au
