Has rugby paid too much for Joseph Suaalii?

26 Mar 2023

The Sydney Morning Herald

Opinion

Sometimes rugby should get out of its own way.

Reaction to Joseph Suaalii’s big bucks defection to rugby has been largely positive but the hold-outs cast it as a zero-sum game between a code-hopping leaguie and the game’s grassroots. It isn’t that simple.

Rugby Australia – more accurately, its chairman and chief deal maker, Hamish McLennan – was right to go hard and go big for the signature of the Roosters wing.

The questions are whether he went too big; where the money will come from; and whether a generation of Super Rugby rookies, whose contracts start at about $85,000, will be lost for each year of Suaalii’s multimillion-dollar deal.

For this writer, the response is ‘no’, ‘keep reading’ and ‘no’.

First, there’s no transparency on the contract so no one knows what RA and Suaalii have agreed. We’ll work on the basis it’s $1.5 million or $1.6 million per year, based on conversations with agents and Super Rugby officials.

That’s a decent, precedent-setting whack. Based on the current landscape, when Suaalii goes on his first Wallabies tour at the age of 21, carting Wally the stuffed marsupial around as per team traditions, he will be out-earning all of his teammates by some way.

Rising stars: Joseph Suaalii and Max Jorgensen are set to combine for the NSW Waratahs.Credit:Getty

To put it in perspective, Taniela Tupou, the face of last year’s England series, has moved to the Rebels for $1.2 million and Michael Hooper is on that in the final year of his current deal. Hooper is the player who kept the lights on at RA for good chunks of his career. Suaalii can thank him for keeping alive the game that will make him a very wealthy young man.

It’s also a deal that won’t kick in for 18 months, by which time the market will have moved and other players of a similar age and box office appeal - Max Jorgensen, Tom Lynagh and Mark Nawaqanitawase - will have negotiated new contracts. You can believe their agents have already upped their asking prices.

But Suaalii is box office, on and off the field. You can love rugby and admit it’s a game in need of some of that. Israel Folau was the last Wallaby who was a household name and the last contract he signed with RA, for $1.2 million a year in 2018, was recognition of that more than his on-field value.

Hamish McLennan drove the deal with Joseph Suaalii, and Wallabies coach Eddie Jones weighed in too.Credit:Peter Rae, AP

There is one element of the discussion that has so far gone unremarked upon and it goes to the heart of McLennan’s judgement call on price.

This week or next, Rugby Australia and its member unions will sign off on a model of private equity investment the game will pursue over the next six to eight months.

Leaving aside the merits or otherwise of the private equity model - the game’s custodians have decided to pursue outside investment - this development should lead to an injection of cash across all aspects of the game.

To put it crudely, McLennan will move from cutting deals to cutting cheques. He has stated more than once that major investment in the women’s and community games will be the priority, but it will also flow through to the Super Rugby franchises and RA’s new national contracting framework.

Essentially, the RA chairman will silence the Suaalii dissenters with money. A rising tide lifts all boats, and funds more Super Rugby contracts. No one needs to miss out. That’s the pitch, anyway.

Suaalii’s commitment will also help McLennan get a better price from potential investors. Australia has the 2025 British and Irish Lions tour on the near horizon, the 2027 World Cup and now, just in time, a three-year commitment from one of rugby league’s biggest names.

None of that is an excuse to be reckless with costs. RA should not try to repatriate Will Skelton, Samu Kerevi, Tom Banks or Marika Koroibete, the only Wallabies who would be earning as much as Suaalii, but overseas. There will be plenty of people holding McLennan to account over grassroots investment.

But nor is Suaalii some vanity acquisition in the RA chairman’s sporadic verbal tussles with Peter V’Landys.

The consensus among top coaches and former players is he has the potential to be at least as successful as 73-Test dual code international Folau. If managed well throughout his career, he could set a new benchmark for cross-code success.

Eddie Jones, who spoke with the 19-year-old in the lead-up to the deal, will have the option of using Suaalii at fullback, wing and outside centre. Folau tried to master rugby’s midfield but couldn’t quite do it. Suaalii, starting at a younger age, will have more time to make the transition.

Brandon Smith is wrong. This $1.6 million winger can help the Wallabies beat the All Blacks, if he’s part of a strong team. In the event that happens, Suaalii, Jorgensen, Lynagh and others will also inspire a new generation to watch and play rugby. It will be far from zero-sum. Suaalii’s arrival can be win-win.