Rugby: Proposed NRL age restrictions will add touch of reality to player market

Warriors centre Solomone Kata in action for the club's under 20s side during the 2013 Holden Cup grand final against Penrith. Photo/Getty.

Former All Black Ant Strachan believes moves by the National Rugby League to restrict agents and clubs from signing talented teenagers too young will add a dose of reality to the player market and make it easier for both codes to attract and better develop young players.

Improving player welfare and reducing pressure on young players is a key part of the NRL's blueprint to take the game forward over the next decade, with the proposed introduction of rules that will prevent clubs from paying or contracting players under the age of 19, and agents from signing clients until they are 17.

Strachan, Auckland rugby's high performance manager, believes the changes will have positive spin-offs for the athlete and assist rugby in their attempts to keep and attract rising stars in both codes.

"It's a good move by the NRL," said Strachan. "One of the biggest concerns we've got is agents heading into schools and contracting 12, 13, 14 and 15-year-old's and really setting expectations far too young, and obviously the families are affected by that.

"So the move to contract players later to restrict the pressure in that youth area is a good move. I applaud what they've done.

"This will set a little bit of a precedent in terms of what league is doing. As a competitor we're going to have to have a good look at it and take the good things out of it and potentially adapt some of the things they're doing, so it's got to be a win-win for the athlete."

The intense competition to sign young players had seen both codes go to extreme lengths to try and outdo the other in contract negotiations.

As a result, young players and their families had developed inflated expectations around their worth, and teenage athletes were often ill-equipped to handle the pressure once they were thrust into the professional environment.

"These young athletes are coming out of school (and into an) open market, and it's just become a much more competitive environment where you've got offer them more things," he said. "It's stacked in favour of the athlete and unfortunately it's become very inflated and not realistic."

By capping the age players can debut in the NRL, Strachan says athletes and their families will have a better appreciation of the value and importance of their personal development - both on and off the field - rather than expecting overnight success at the elite level.

"I applaud it because they've brought some reality back into the market place.

"The expectation that they can get into the fourth and fifth form at school and head into that professional area, and they're miles away from, one, being able to make it, and two, sustain a career in that professional environment.

"At the end of the day, it's about the athlete, and we don't want guys coming out of school, going into a high performance program, getting chucked into the deep end and failing at the age of 18.

"It's just a much clearer message that, 'boys, you need to do an apprenticeship no matter where you're heading and what code you're getting into' and when you hit the big time in semi-professional league or rugby you're far better equipped to sustain a longer career."

Strachan stressed that both codes have a responsibility to put the person before the athlete, and believes the 'better people make better All Blacks' philosophy can be applied at all levels of either code.

"We want them to be either doing apprenticeships, working or studying part-time or fulltime, creating something they can fall back on.

"We also look at the broader skills they need in terms of managing finance, self-management, time-management, being better people, all those things that flow through from an All Black group which set a very great role model status for us all.

"If we can provide those into contracts and sell that to the parents and they buy into it, then it's got to be a win-win."