PigBenis
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Ban teenage stars from playing NRL By Ricky Stuart
THE time has come for our young stars to become people before footballers. And it is my belief we should ban players from the NRL until they are ineligible for Toyota Cup.
I know, it sounds radical, but it might be the most honest assessment of why external problems keep afflicting our game. The ban would mean keeping the 18, 19 and 20-year-olds out of the spotlight until they are emotionally mature enough to handle it.
It would mean a bloke like Jarryd Hayne would only now be emerging from his rookie season. Yes, it would have robbed us of a couple of seasons of watching his wonderful skills. But it might also mean that Hayne would not have been shot at in Kings Cross.
It would also mean we would not have heard of Jake Friend yet. But after being sacked by the Sydney Roosters on Friday, it might also mean the 19-year-old still had a strong career ahead of him without the baggage he now carries.
At every club you will find superstars who have made the step up. But there are even more who have been unable to handle it. And we as coaches and clubs have an even greater responsibility to those who are unable to handle the step up.
Every club would be affected if we held back players until they had done their time in the youth league. Blokes like Mitchell Pearce, Jamal Idris, my own player Blake Ferguson - even Israel Folau - would not have played first grade yet and would not be in the spotlight.
There is another benefit, too.
Because these players would be exposed to the punishment of NRL a little later in life, with more mature bodies, it would most likely prolong their careers. Those players leaving for England at 29 might instead be leaving at 32.
As the game has raced towards professionalism, with players getting better and younger, we have overlooked one of the most fundamental parts that maintained order. The ratio of young players has grown substantially within every 25-man NRL roster. As a coach, our priority right now is to win games and you need to keep pace with this to maintain your place in the game.
It is unfortunate, but it's true. Some might say if I believe what I am saying then I should take a moral stance - but I'm also smart enough to know that if I do that and other clubs don't, then pretty soon somebody else will be coaching the Sharks.
One of the offshoots of so many young players together is that many have egos out of control. But who's around to tell them?
In the days of an under-23s competition, which ran into reserve grade and first grade, young kids were exposed to a lot of mature heads around them. Those people, their team-mates, have greatest control over them and provide the boundaries on their behaviour.
There is another thing those team-mates often had which is missing from today's game. They worked. They understood the value of a dollar, and the sacrifice of having to work to survive.
By stopping players from graduating to full-time NRL too early, and putting a ceiling on their payments, our young players would be forced to find jobs. It would help them beyond what we can imagine. They must work. No job equals no play. Fullstop. And if clubs break the rules, premiership points would be deducted.
Then NRL coaches would see the club welfare officer as just about the most important man in the organisation. Young players would have life skills by the time they graduate to NRL, and would cherish the opportunity they have now been given.
I don't want to sound holier than thou, but we need to consider change because the problems we face today are so much different - and will only get more different - from any other era of the game. I understand the magnitude of this change. It changes the core of the game - "if you're good enough you're old enough".
But the world outside the game has changed. We need to accept that, and today's rules don't accommodate those changes. The combination of media scrutiny and higher public expectation have our players under more pressure than ever before.
Many are not mature enough to handle it, have egos spinning out of control, which is why we have these problems seemingly week after week.
It is time we helped those players cope with that pressure. It will mean some pain. As a coach, I love having my elite junior players train alongside my NRL squad.
It fast-tracks them to the NRL. It allows me, and them, to focus totally on their game. But I can see it is also coming at a cost - and I believe in respect to the game, the cost is now outweighing the benefit.
We don't have the citizens rugby union has, many of whom have private school educations, or university educations, and so are less susceptible to finding trouble. Our kids have generally done it a little tougher, come from a lower social demographic, making them more prone to mistakes.
Where we benefit is on the field, where that toughness and hunger excels.
I know it sounds extreme. If we prolong their exposure to the elite level, though, while teaching these kids some blue-collar values, we might save them.
Now, and in the future.
THE time has come for our young stars to become people before footballers. And it is my belief we should ban players from the NRL until they are ineligible for Toyota Cup.
I know, it sounds radical, but it might be the most honest assessment of why external problems keep afflicting our game. The ban would mean keeping the 18, 19 and 20-year-olds out of the spotlight until they are emotionally mature enough to handle it.
It would mean a bloke like Jarryd Hayne would only now be emerging from his rookie season. Yes, it would have robbed us of a couple of seasons of watching his wonderful skills. But it might also mean that Hayne would not have been shot at in Kings Cross.
It would also mean we would not have heard of Jake Friend yet. But after being sacked by the Sydney Roosters on Friday, it might also mean the 19-year-old still had a strong career ahead of him without the baggage he now carries.
At every club you will find superstars who have made the step up. But there are even more who have been unable to handle it. And we as coaches and clubs have an even greater responsibility to those who are unable to handle the step up.
Every club would be affected if we held back players until they had done their time in the youth league. Blokes like Mitchell Pearce, Jamal Idris, my own player Blake Ferguson - even Israel Folau - would not have played first grade yet and would not be in the spotlight.
There is another benefit, too.
Because these players would be exposed to the punishment of NRL a little later in life, with more mature bodies, it would most likely prolong their careers. Those players leaving for England at 29 might instead be leaving at 32.
As the game has raced towards professionalism, with players getting better and younger, we have overlooked one of the most fundamental parts that maintained order. The ratio of young players has grown substantially within every 25-man NRL roster. As a coach, our priority right now is to win games and you need to keep pace with this to maintain your place in the game.
It is unfortunate, but it's true. Some might say if I believe what I am saying then I should take a moral stance - but I'm also smart enough to know that if I do that and other clubs don't, then pretty soon somebody else will be coaching the Sharks.
One of the offshoots of so many young players together is that many have egos out of control. But who's around to tell them?
In the days of an under-23s competition, which ran into reserve grade and first grade, young kids were exposed to a lot of mature heads around them. Those people, their team-mates, have greatest control over them and provide the boundaries on their behaviour.
There is another thing those team-mates often had which is missing from today's game. They worked. They understood the value of a dollar, and the sacrifice of having to work to survive.
By stopping players from graduating to full-time NRL too early, and putting a ceiling on their payments, our young players would be forced to find jobs. It would help them beyond what we can imagine. They must work. No job equals no play. Fullstop. And if clubs break the rules, premiership points would be deducted.
Then NRL coaches would see the club welfare officer as just about the most important man in the organisation. Young players would have life skills by the time they graduate to NRL, and would cherish the opportunity they have now been given.
I don't want to sound holier than thou, but we need to consider change because the problems we face today are so much different - and will only get more different - from any other era of the game. I understand the magnitude of this change. It changes the core of the game - "if you're good enough you're old enough".
But the world outside the game has changed. We need to accept that, and today's rules don't accommodate those changes. The combination of media scrutiny and higher public expectation have our players under more pressure than ever before.
Many are not mature enough to handle it, have egos spinning out of control, which is why we have these problems seemingly week after week.
It is time we helped those players cope with that pressure. It will mean some pain. As a coach, I love having my elite junior players train alongside my NRL squad.
It fast-tracks them to the NRL. It allows me, and them, to focus totally on their game. But I can see it is also coming at a cost - and I believe in respect to the game, the cost is now outweighing the benefit.
We don't have the citizens rugby union has, many of whom have private school educations, or university educations, and so are less susceptible to finding trouble. Our kids have generally done it a little tougher, come from a lower social demographic, making them more prone to mistakes.
Where we benefit is on the field, where that toughness and hunger excels.
I know it sounds extreme. If we prolong their exposure to the elite level, though, while teaching these kids some blue-collar values, we might save them.
Now, and in the future.
