Minimum wage and RFL review required to enrich sport

Clint NEWTON has never been frightened to speak his mind.

Whether attacking the comments of opposition coaches, criticising the state of the Headingley pitch or yet another sub-standard refereeing performance, the forthright Hull KR star has strong views on plenty of subjects.

He is known as the Mean Machine and after four years in East Yorkshire, where the formidable Australian second-row has been a shining light for Rovers, he is preparing to fly home and continue his career with Penrith Panthers.

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He does so, in part, with a heavy heart having learned to appreciate and love the English-style of football with its passionate and colourful support, becoming a hero of Craven Park.

However, it is for that reason Newton is eager to make sure the sport here does not stagnate and fall further behind the unrivalled competition he is re-joining.

In a frank assessment of how to improve Super League, the former Melbourne Storm Grand Final winner wants to see a worthy minimum wage set for “abused” young players, the curtailment of transfer fees stifling the spread of such talent, and, most importantly, an independent analysis of the Rugby Football League itself which he claims has left him frequently “embarrassed”.

The inability of clubs to spend the full salary cap is at the root of many of Super League’s problems, according to Newton, and he feels the governing body has to do more to raise standards.

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“The whole management at the RFL needs a review,” he told the Yorkshire Post.

“It needs an independent body to go in and ask ‘are you doing your job?’

“A commission needs to ask what each person’s wage is and what they are contributing, what money does he or she bring in, can they do more?

“If not, they need to be out of the door and the sooner they do that at the RFL the fewer problems they will have in the future like these massive scorelines we’ve seen this season.

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“You can’t have 72-10 results every couple of weeks. It just looks ridiculous.

“With the new players union now getting off the ground I think they will start to put the heat on the RFL.

“Are they really bringing in enough money to help the game reach the heights it should?

“At the moment, I would say no. Someone has to go in and ask some big questions right now.”

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Just as each club is forced to undergo assessment to pass licence criteria, the player believes the RFL needs its own review.

He refutes traditional arguments that the game will struggle to ever expand due to the dominance of football and rugby union.

“When there’s over 50 million living in this country compared to about 20 million in Australia, it’s not good enough to say you have football and union to compete with; you can’t keep using that as an excuse,” insisted Newton.

“I get a little frustrated by the excuses tossed up.

“They’ve got the whole M62 corridor so I’m sure there’s people out there and I just don’t think it’s as professional an outfit as it should be.

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“Sometimes I get embarrassed to play in the comp’, not because of the quality of the players but because of the way it is run.

“One of the issues here is the clubs are privately owned. If they don’t want to pay the full cap they don’t have to and as long as they stay afloat, realistically, who cares?

“In Australia, the ownership is almost taken away from the clubs – they only have to fund about $1.2m of the $4.3 and the NRL does the rest.

“You can’t expect owners at Wakefield, Harlequins, Salford, Crusaders and, in some respects, sides like ourselves at Hull KR, to keep putting in the full £1.7m a year if it’s running at a loss just because they love the club.

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“If attendances, commercial and merchandise sales are down, you can see why they won’t want to spend the cap so the main factor for me is money needs to be brought in to make sure they don’t have to spend as much on players.”

Ironically, though, Newton is keen on a minimum wage of £15,000 being established.

“It’s embarrassing some of the money some of the kids are on,” he added.

“Some are asked to come in on a full-time basis for £5,000. Turning up at the start of November, training through the winter, getting up early to get flogged around a field in rain and snow?

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“It’s not fair and another reason why kids are turned away from the game to try soccer or union.”

He also wants to see an abolishment of the rule which means clubs have to pay compensation for players from rival academies.

Newton cites the example of winger Josh Charnley who arrived at Hull KR on loan from Wigan last season. Aged just 18 and probably earning less than double figures, he made his Super League debut in what would be a stellar spell but returned to his parent club where he is now firmly established.

Newton, 30, revealed: “We were interested in keeping him at Hull KR. He’d only played four games for us but just from that I’d have thrown £50,000 (per year) at him he was that good.

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“But Wigan could ask for a 15 or 20 grand fee as well and suddenly it becomes a lot more expensive.

“If you scrapped the fee it’s a way of spreading the talent around.

“There have been some Australians playing here this year who aren’t good enough but you can’t expect clubs to spend a fee and salary on, for example, a young half-back from Warrington with no experience when they can get someone who’s played a bit of first grade and reserve grade in the NRL for not too much more.”

Newton believes the RFL must do more to dissuade their stars defecting to the NRL, with James Graham – “one of my favourite opponents; we’ve had some great battles” – joining Sam Burgess and Gareth Ellis there in 2012.

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“It’s a worry ,” he admitted. “It’s a blight on the game here to think they have to go there to get better.

“It sends out a poor message and it’s nothing to be proud of. I think if the RFL thinks that they’ve got their head in the sand.

“James Graham, Sam Burgess and Gareth Ellis don’t need to be out there and you’ll find some young blokes aged 18, 19 or 20 going out now knowing they can earn the minimum $55,000 wage.

“As much as he can be a bit of a pain in the backside, Sam Tomkins is a brilliant player and England really can’t afford to lose him to Australia.

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“There’s some great talent in England. It just needs to be treated right.”

Newton concluded: “The gripes I’ve had are only because I’m passionate about the game.

“I’ve really enjoyed Super League and life in Hull and I get extremely annoyed when people slag it off back in Australia.

“The players, coaching staff and development people over here work extremely hard for, in some cases, not a lot of money and they deserve better, the fans too.”