Quote ="vastman"Yes but who decides that worth, this is the crux and the point I've been making. I suspect they have been given duff advise and over-valued themselves, This I would say is backed up by the lack of apparent offers as let's be honest the comp amounts are not huge.
What this whole story stinks of to me is an Agent who's cocked up and is now feeding the story into the media to gain a sympathy angle, and it's working and thats pure cynical manipulation imo.
On your last point I utterly disagree, that's wanting your cake and eating it. SL is a business not a charitable foundation. When clubs sign youngster they are offering them a chance to pursue their dream, not a promise. No club, certainly in the last 30 years has ever sat a kid down and said we guarantee you a future in the game on a wage that will suit you from the start. Thirty years ago we went full time and with that came huge benefits for some, but for others massive disappointments, that is the very nature of professional sport, every sport not just RL, so there is nothing to re-evaluate IMHO. It's nothing to do with how it looks, it's how it is and pretending otherwise only gives false hope.
Also I'm not sure you can just pick and chose a sport, being good at RL doesn't mean you'd be just as good at football, certainly wasn't the case for me.'"
The market decides the worth, or it should at least. In this unusual case though that’s not being allowed to happen. You can dress it up, over as many paragraphs as you like but it boils down to the simple truth. Wakefield can offer them whatever they want & they either sign or leave professional RL for a while.
It’s really easy to paint the agent as the bad guy in any situation in professional sport, but there’s only one reason they exist; because clubs have & would continue to completely shaft the player as/when it suits them. Ask yourself why this doesn’t happen every year at every club if it’s as simple as the mean old agent trying to wring a penny for himself. I completely understand why you back the club at every turn. Personally I tend to back the worker rather than the company; not saying I’m right; it’s just how I’m built.
I agree with Avenger; that a minimum contract for SL level is needed urgently if we want the game to grow. The game will continue to wither if we don’t give as many lads as possible a real chance of making it.
