Don't be surprised if you don't know what the answer is because it's pretty hard to spot.
Some people would even tell you it doesn't even exist.
But I'm sure it's around somewhere, I've just got to find out where it went. I think it decided to run away from the NRL for a bit of a break.
Well because I can't locate it at this moment I may as well let you know: Loyalty.
The NRL needs to give greater incentives to players to encourage them to not only stay within a club, but even within the country.
That's right, a loyalty discount, but much better than those crappy ones you receive at your local coffee club or dodgy airline.
Once a player reaches a particular year in a row playing for a club - lets say anywhere from 6 to 8 years at the top level - he should be entitled to a 5-8% exemption for the following year on his payments.
So if you're being paid a salary of $300,000 and you get, for example, a 5% exemption - that's a bonus $15,000 in a players pocket that goes untouched by the salary cap auditor.
Next year, $330,750. And so on.
This process would keep the fans and players happy.
Furthermore it would encourage clubs to start playing their juniors into a starting side earlier, as an opportunity to target this exemption sooner in their professional careers.
To hell with buying 6 cups of coffee to get a 7th one free, just hang around with your football club, doing what you love, and everyone wins.
Wouldn't it be great to be playing with the tag of a "loyal" player? We do now use this tag now, of course, but in this system it would actually mean something.
This would have kept Mark Gasnier playing at the Dragons, since he had spent an impressive 8 straight years playing with St. George Illawarra.
He defected to rugby union. Actually, French rugby union. What a laugh.
The poor bloke thought he would waltz into a new game and carve up everyone, which was probably an easy task playing people from the land of the crossaint and beret.
Where's the fun in that?
Not to mention he had to wear pink almost every week playing for Stade Francais.
No Mark, that looks more like pink than orange to me. No mistakes like that in Australia. SOURCE: http://rugbydump.blogspot.com
These players could easily be kept in the code they loved as a child, played for as a child and respected as they grew up if a loyalty system comes together.
Money has now overruled the passion the players once had for the game itself - any idiot could tell you this. But I'm not seeing solutions.
Don't mention the marquee player system, because that won't cut it.
If Parramatta, for example, decide that they will give Jarryd Hayne $700,000 a year (please, it's only an example) because he is exempt from the cap - how on earth does that help the morale of the team itself?
How would every other eels player feel going into a match playing alongside a guy they know they can never be paid as well as if they stay at the club?
Fair treatment of long-term experience and loyalty is a healthier alternative.
I remember on the weekend after the Storm scandal (yes, you were hanging out for that one) when Phil Gould talked about this loyalty issue, saying that players who had bonded at junior levels had to be split up for monetary reasons, which he said was a disgrace.
I agree that this was wrong, but it doesn't make me feel any more sorry for them. Every club has to function the same way Gus.
But in essence, he's right. Let's make things happen immediately as changes made now will bring benefits for clubs in the near future.
Don't make ridiculous exemptions, but instead make minor ones that reward respect to the game and it's fans - simple as that.
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