The NRL aims to introduce a trade window by 2023 to stop player agents from using phantom offers to drive up their clients value.
The League plans to introduce two trade windows, one right after the Grand Final and another in January, in an effort to stop players and clubs from breaking contracts before they expire.
โOur system needs to be updated and there are frustrations for everyone," NRL CEO Andrew Abdo said and reported by David Riccio from The Daily Telegraph.ย
โWe think this is a genuine opportunity to make our game even more appealing to fans and if weโre running a sports entertainment business here, then positive change is good for all of us.โโ
Under the current system, weaker clubs have been used as 'contract bait' to increase interest in off-contract players.
Two trade periods will increase transparency in allowing clubs to negotiate deals that will benefit them as well as the players and aim to stop players from signing contracts with other teams well before their current contract expires.
Good idea.
Needs to be more than that though.
Transfer fees paid to those clubs who develop their own players from juniors , from the clubs who buy them. The club who receives the transfer fee, being allowed to spend the fees outside of the cap.
An allowance in the clubs caps for each player. to assist those to keep players that theyโve developed. From their junior ranks.