Dear Ted,
I look forward to hearing if you receive a response from Vidic.
Your journalistic prowess is up there with the likes of Today Tonight.
Please weigh into the debate of the Melbourne Storm salary cap as the Australian media has given this issue little to no air time over the last week.
A. Goodes from Bondi
The pre-season Cup for us has been a bit like Ben McGlynn and growing… having minimal success over the last 7 years. In recent times we’ve travelled to Narrandera to play some pre-season challenge games (a big hello to the good people at the Narrandera bakery). In the club rooms of the Narrandera football club they have a sign, 'No train on Thursday, No Pay'.
I couldn’t help but think of Michael O’Loughlin and the situation he would have found himself in if we had the 'No train Thursday, no pay' rule. Micky O’s training routine most Thursdays consisted of bicep curls with an ice bath to follow. I have no doubt that Micky would have managed to get himself up for more Thursday sessions if Roosy mandated such a rule. Ditto Tadhg Kennelly.
The recent Melbourne Storm salary cap debacle made me think of that sign at Narrandera and the issue of pursuing team success versus the financial costs of doing so.
One way to go about this is with the amateur system, where players can’t be paid. Players play for the love of the game, which sounds great in theory, (as long as you’re not a footballer!) but codes around the world struggle managing it… unless you’re the Old Xaverians football club.
Another option could be implementing a communist-style pay structure where everyone was evenly paid. Imagine if Karl Marx was appointed football manager of Carlton or Collingwood and he tried to introduce a socialist system to player wages. As long as you’re not one of their superstars it would be very interesting to watch. No doubt they would become the club of choice for fringe players.
Some codes have no salary cap and allow teams the right to chase and buy the best talent. This brings about a bidding war where the rich teams prevail. In the end the competition becomes a three or four team race, whilst other teams are stuck down the bottom of the ladder end up selling their developing talent off to the rich teams.
The salary cap attempts to draw a balance for the league between capitalist and socialist ideals (note, I’ve done no actual study into this to support this statement). The cap is set at a level to allow the poorer clubs to compete at a level with the rich clubs with player payments, but allows unlimited spending on other areas of the football department for the richer clubs to pursue for an advantage.
Despite the Melbourne Storm payments debacle I still think that the salary cap system is the best way to go… but if this ends up failing maybe we should just revert to the old reliable 'No train Thursday - No Pay' rule.
Ted ‘Vidic’ Richards
