The National Rugby League's plan to "prevent clubs signing players under the age of 18" could save the game more than A$5M ($3.68M), according to Brent Read of THE AUSTRALIAN. The NRL's 16 clubs reportedly spend millions on "unproven teenagers in the hope of one day hitting the jackpot by signing the next Greg Inglis or Johnathan Thurston." Under the proposal formulated by NRL Head of Strategy Shane Richardson, clubs "would be prevented from signing players until they turn 18." Player agents would "also be banned from securing clients until they turned 17, and they would only be able to sign them to deals for a maximum of three years." The proposal is designed to "stop agents and clubs stockpiling kids, allowing them to stay at home." It would also relieve pressure in a sport that has suffered an "alarming increase in cases of depression and suicide in recent seasons." Under the proposal, which remains "shrouded in secrecy, clubs would be cleared to sign players when they turn 18," either adding them to their first-grade squad of 30 players or "picking them up as first or second-year rookies." Neil Cadigan, the former head of the NRL's agent accreditation scheme -- who is currently head of the Gold Coast Titans' media department -- revealed he had been "pushing for similar changes when he was in the role." Cadigan: "So many of these kids are signed so young and when they don't make it there can be that feeling of rejection, feeling of failure" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 8/14).
