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Wayne Smith | May 26, 2009
Article from: The Australian
THERE may be a silver lining for Queensland in the dark cloud of Rocky Elsom's apparent decision to join the Brumbies, with third-party sponsors now likely to redirect their money to the Reds' campaign to retain Digby Ioane.
Barely had the "Rocky, Rocky" chants subsided following Elsom's storming man-of-the-match performance for Leinster in the Heineken Cup final victory over Leicester on the weekend, than the Wallabies blindside flanker messaged QRU chairman Peter Lewis, the man who had spearheaded Queensland's attempt to bring him to Ballymore.
Lewis declined yesterday to reveal the contents of Elsom's message but he didn't need to. His disconsolate tone said all that needed to be said.
Yet again the Reds, having lost Hugh McMeniman on Friday to an as yet undetermined Japanese or European club, had been penalised for finishing in the bottom three of Super rugby, a position they have occupied for the past six seasons.
The franchise is caught in a Catch 22 bind -- it desperately needs to recruit outside players because it is so weak, but because it is so weak no one is prepared to jeopardise his rugby career by signing on with them.
Without abandoning hope of yet persuading former Nudgee College graduate Elsom to return to Brisbane, Lewis has declared the retention of Ioane -- who has indicated he is likely to accept a lucrative Japanese offer -- the Reds' number one priority.
"Digby was the most dangerous player in the Super 14 this season and we want to keep him," Lewis said.
Much now hinges on Ioane's meeting tomorrow with Wallabies coach Robbie Deans and Reds coach Phil Mooney but the clincher could be whether any third-party deals materialise for the 23-year-old four-Test winger.
Indications are that no third-party deals had been finalised for Elsom and that the QRU merely intended to advise him on his arrival in Brisbane of those third parties who had indicated a willingness to sponsor him.
It may have been that such a cumbersome, hands-off arrangement was the final straw that broke the back of the Elsom deal but, whatever, the Reds now could place the same option before Ioane.
It is understood third-party Queensland sponsors were prepared to throw in $100,000 to clinch the Elsom deal. With Ioane indicating on the weekend he would be prepared to stay with the Reds if a further $125,000 could be found on top of the Australian Rugby Union's base offer of $175,000, hopes are rising that a package acceptable to the dynamic winger might yet be cobbled together.
The X-factor in Ioane's decision could well be whether the apparent annual $700,000 differential between the ARU/QRU offer and what he has been offered to go to Japan, money he says is important to help him take care of his family, will be enough to entice him to move so far away from his family network.
This is, after all, the same player who was granted a release from the Western Force in 2007 to enable him to return to the east coast to be closer to his family.
But while the Ioane and Elsom deals play themselves out, tension is building among the four Australian Super 14 franchises, not only over third-party sponsorships and how the players and their agents tap into them, but over the broader issue of contracting.
The ARU provides each of the franchises with $4.3 million annually to meet the salary costs of their 30-33 players, with additional top-up money allocated by the national union to those players identified as valuable to the Wallabies.
While a standard Super rugby contract is $110,000, the franchises are able to push that up to $157,000 by various inventive means. If all 33 players in a franchise squad were to receive top dollar, that would result in a wages bill of $5.18m -- forcing the states to find almost another $900,000 to supplement their ARU allocation.
With most unions operating barely in the black, that clearly is not possible under the present arrangement.
But if the ARU wants to head off a repeat of those creative deals that landed the Force in so much hot water, it may need to revisit this vexed issue.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...015651,00.html