National Rugby League side South Sydney CEO Shane Richardson and Newcastle Recruitment Manager Peter Mulholland believe that an external draft "would help reduce the massive development costs incurred by some clubs," according to Brad Walter of the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD. A special report revealed that the cost of developing a player from 15 years of age to under-20s is about A$49,000 ($46,000). The Dragons and Cowboys "want the NRL to use a discretionary component of the new funding model for clubs to support development programs" they operate at a cost of up to A$1M a year each. Tigers CEO Grant Mayer "has proposed a development fee system" while Canberra officials "are pushing for salary cap relief to help them to keep their young talent." Some other clubs "are estimated to spend about" A$100,000 a season on development and sign players "without any benefit to the club which produced them." Comparatively, the Australian Football League oversees development in 92 regions across Australia and players "are then selected by clubs from an external draft." Richardson: ‘‘A centrally-funded and centrally-operated development system across the board is the way to go and from there having an external draft is a no-brainer.’’ Mulholland "supports a system such as that operated by the AFL, in which clubs get to nominate five players from their local areas that they want to keep on a ‘rookie contract’ and the remainder are chosen from an external draft" (SMH, 6/8). In Canberra, Lee Gaskin reported former Raiders captain and now player manager Clinton Schifcofske said that the NRL "may need to look at salary cap concessions for Canberra to attract key players to the city." However, Tigers player Ben Elias believes that giving the Raiders extra help financially "would open up a Pandora's box and create an unfair playing field for the rest of the competition." The Raiders "have missed out on four big recruiting targets in the past fortnight," rejections from Kevin Proctor, Josh Mansour and Michael Ennis culminating with Wests Tigers fullback James Tedesco "reneging on a three-year deal with Canberra" (CANBERRA TIMES, 6/8).
