Read this before signing part 1: The players (article from the Roar)

Read this before signing part 1: The players

Ben Darwin Columnist

By Ben Darwin, 21 Mar 2014 Ben Darwin is a Roar Expert

Through research, interviews with players and coaches and statistical analysis of more than 10,000 players spanning the last 20 years, I have examined how clubs recruit and create sustainable success.

When it comes to players changing clubs – whether it is AFL, rugby, league or cricket – the information that’s come to light has had some striking similarities from both player and club perspectives. And it’s data that should not be ignored by either party.

Before anyone begins citing players that fly in the face of this information, please keep in mind there are always going to be exceptions to the rule.

I have split the article in two – one part for players and one for clubs.

Here is the information for players to be wary of. Many of these are mind-numbingly obvious but very rarely thought of when money is being flashed around.

For players
1. Moving more than three times rings alarm bells. The more times a player changes clubs, the harder it becomes to settle in to the new club.

2. Regret related to changing clubs is almost always going to set in some time and usually when it’s too late to do anything about it.

3a. On average, it takes two years for a player to hit their peak after moving clubs and that is if they manage to hit their peak. Some players are never the same after moving clubs, although through no fault of their own (see point 4).

3b. If a player moves to an overseas club, the time it takes to hit their peak is even longer, with the chances of it even happening being severely reduced.

3c. On top of the last scenario, throw a foreign language into the mix, and the time it takes to hit peak performance is lengthened again, and almost out of reach.

4. A player’s output on the field at their previous club is not just solely because of them. Their output is a product of the knowledge and understanding that player has with the other players around them.

This is something unique for each player at each club, and is not transferrable. So it should be expected that a player who has recently changed clubs would under-perform at the new club.

5. A player’s new club is expecting them to perform at the same standard as they did during the last game at their previous old club. Players who have changed teams will struggle to deliver on this. The number of times we have heard players being described as “not the player he was at his old club” is remarkable.

6. A player’s status in the pecking order of their current club is always temporary. Have patience – coaches change their minds and clubs change coaches.

7. Staying for less at a current club is worth it most of the time, even financially. Just because the money is more to go now does not mean more money in the long term. There are many reasons why this is so, including:

a) There is a strong chance a new club will be disappointed with a newly-moved player and downgrade their next contract.

b) A player’s old club may not want them back.

c) A player is no longer seen in the same light by the market.

d) A player may earn more each time they sign a contract with a new club, but in the end, the player will run out of clubs.

e) Legacies help a player to get looked after in retirement. Clubs have a habit of looking after one-club players in terms of work and connections.

8. When a player changes clubs, they are initially an outsider at the new club, and, as a result, they won’t be shown the same loyalty the one-club players are shown. The more times a player changes club, the less likely they will be viewed as someone who is loyal, no matter what the circumstances are.

9. If someone new comes in above a player at their current club, the player needs to remember this new player may only be there a short time. The player should stay and fight it out for the spot. Changing clubs may only end in the player being on the bench.

10. Players should not focus on one per cent or even 10 per cent more they can earn. Get one per cent better at playing, and the rest will take care of itself. Dan Carter of the All Blacks and Crusaders is a great example of someone who simply focuses on getting better.

11. Working through the hard times and then winning a title at the same club is far greater than being transported into a team and winning. AFL player and St Kilda captain Nick Riewoldt said, “For me, if I were to go somewhere else and win a premiership would it be the same?”

12. You can make the national team from your current club. Paul Harragon, former captain of the Newcastle Knights, said, “I wanted to make the Australian team from my own bed. I thought if I could do that, it would be 10 times better and it was.”

13. Average players can look pretty good when they know everyone around them well. They will support other team members more, and are able to clean up their mistakes.

14. A player should find the best program they can, as young as they can. Being on the bench or in an academy of a club with a good program tends to ultimately be better than being in the starting team of a club with a poor program.

15. A player should never leave a club “to play finals”. It says something about them, and it says something not very nice to your old teammates. And, for example, look how quickly the Reds turned it around to win a Super Rugby title in 2011.

16. We find it very hard to find players who regret staying at their clubs but there are a lot of players who seem to regret leaving.

17. If a player does change clubs, they need to do it for the right reasons and do it only once. Then it is far easier to overcome any hurdles that may arise.

The key point I would point out to players is this – be very, very careful of over-estimating the role you play in your own success.

http://www.theroar.com.au/2014/03/21/read-this-before-signing-part-1-the-players/

This is Australian, right? So they clearly have an issue with players leaving for more money. But even with that bias this matches up pretty well with what everyone's seen right? A couple of years to settle in seems to fit. Some players never reaching their previous performances. Etc

Agree with this massively.

Two examples i'd use from a Quins perspective are James Johnston and Paul Doran-Jones.

JJ came through our A team and spent years with John Kingston getting numerous flaws worked out, we adapted our pack and scrummaging style to work with him and in his final season with us he was the best in the Prem. He then got greedy on this success and chased the money to go to Sarries. He's spent a lot of time bench warming and looked average when he has played for them, thento cap it off when he played against us on Sat he was fairly well beaten by Marler and looked worse then our replacement for him 20 year old Synckler. That's just one move and it's really effected him, but he's in his first year and I expect in the next 18 months or so he'll come good.

PDJ has now moved from Glos where he was looking like a top class prop and in the EPS to Saints, where his form dipped as this article mentions, he failed to nail down a starting spot behind the fan favourites and lost way to the academy players over time, he then moved to Quins and the same thing is happening, he's now third choice and a 20 year old academy boy who knows our systems far better then him is being chosen to play the big games over him. I'm sure he left Glos for better money at Saints but I bet it's now gone the other way and Quins are probably paying him the same or less then he got at Glos, he's totally off the England radar as well and generally disliked by the fans.

A lot of this doesn't really apply to France or England. Darwin downplays any counterexamples by claiming there will always be exceptions, but he might have done better to look at them before drawing his conclusions.

These days, you probably can't make an impact on the international scene for those two countries if you aren't in a Top14 or Aviva Premiership side. If a player is good enough, that means moving to one, and perhaps even leaving one if the team is likely to be relegated. It's also tougher to catch the eye if you aren't playing in top European competition.

Darwin is talking about a world without relegation, and where the same handful of clubs play in the top competitions every year.

Darwin also doesn't seem to recognize the possibility of a good club professional. This type of player is very common in football, and we're beginning to see them develop in rugby. Not many people have a bad word to say about Andy Goode (6 clubs) or Peter Stringer (4 clubs).

Agreed RF but at the same time those guys aren't who I get the feeling he's talking about.

Yes a 30something player who's been around the block will switch in and out of teams fairly easily, especially when they're going in with a specific job and the gameplan is designed around their skills, both those players are limited but the clubs they sign for want them for their experience as much as any other rugby skills.

A youngster who has maybe played 2 or 3 seasons would never cope the same and would never get the same beneficial treatment from any club signing them.

And for every Goode there's a Henson or a Rory Clegg   

Rugby Fan wrote:A lot of this doesn't really apply to France or England. Darwin downplays any counterexamples by claiming there will always be exceptions, but he might have done better to look at them before drawing his conclusions.

These days, you probably can't make an impact on the international scene for those two countries if you aren't in a Top14 or Aviva Premiership side. If a player is good enough, that means moving to one, and perhaps even leaving one if the team is likely to be relegated. It's also tougher to catch the eye if you aren't playing in top European competition.

Darwin is talking about a world without relegation, and where the same handful of clubs play in the top competitions every year.

Darwin also doesn't seem to recognize the possibility of a good club professional. This type of player is very common in football, and we're beginning to see them develop in rugby. Not many people have a bad word to say about Andy Goode (6 clubs) or Peter Stringer (4 clubs).

The research is over a range of sports. I know at Munster we've had a rake of players who were brilliant in their former SH team, and were pretty poor when they came to Munster. In fact, the best players we have had are the ones who had a bit of a chip on their shoulder about how they were treated back in their home country. Jim Williams & Rua Tipoki personify that. Paul Warwick is an example of a player who was brilliant for Munster, but his career has gone downhill since then. He didn't settle in Stade Francais and its not going too well with Worchester. I bet he wished he stayed with Munster.

As for Peter Stringer - he really has had only 2 clubs as he was contracted to Munster when he was with Sarries & Newcastle and he himself would always have been regarded as an ultra pro.

Only really high profile player I can think of who settled in very quickly and was outstanding was Rocky Elsom in his year with Leinster. A few others like Brad Thorn & Nathan Hines seem to always perform very well and settle well, but I think they are the exception.

There aren't many places at the top table. By definition, then, there are always going to be plenty of players who don't make it. Some of those will be people who have switched clubs, but there will plenty who didn't. It might make a nice narrative to think of those who moved as agents of their own failure but inertia is not a virtue either.

Quite a few of England's 2003 World Cup squad played, or ended up playing, for more than one club: Vickery, Thompson, Woodman, Leonard, Kay, Grewcock, Dawson, Catt, Greenwood, Tindall, Cohen, Robinson, Balshaw, Luger (9 clubs!) and Bracken. Wilkinson, of course, and there are plenty who feel he ought to have moved much earlier.

He's not saying that moving clubs is bad. He's just saying that you need to make that move with both eyes open to how tough it'll be to start again and how long that'll realistically take.

No one carries their form from one club to the next like that

It's funny how intensely self involved such a huge amount of players are in today's game. I hear regular whinges of 'I could get this, or that elsewhere' and they tend not to consider the teams of people around them who have put them in a succesfull position.

Head coaches who recognise potential or weaknesses, assistant coaches who turn the vision into something, SnC guys who create the physical attributes, psychologists who get them ready, physio's who keep them relatively injury free for good form, they tend to beleive it's all them who does this work, and when they switch it'll be the same.

Players are like racecars, they can only perform under the right circumstances, with the right people guiding them, and in the right direction.

Things change and decisions people make when young (or at any stage) are not always the right ones.

Having said that just look at Billy Vunipola for an example of a move that seems to be working very very well

I think this is a very enlightening read, and ben darwin has done well.

I would imagine though that a lot of it wouldnt apply to players and clubs in Europe, as it is very much reflective of the competitions down here in Australasia.

Most Australian and Kiwi rugby players (and coachs) in the NH have players managers who are very experienced with dealing with the Northern Hemishere clubs and in some instances (Scotland and Ireland) dealing with the National Unions at the same time.

yappysnap wrote:He's not saying that moving clubs is bad. He's just saying that you need to make that move with both eyes open to how tough it'll be to start again and how long that'll realistically take.

No one carries their form from one club to the next like that

I think Ben Darwin is a good catch for The Roar. He raises some interesting points in his articles but I don't always agree with him. His perspective on French rugby in his previous piece seemed skewed, and I suspect he really wasn't thinking about NH rugby with this one, except as a potential payday destination for SANZAR players.

He believes that picking a good club and sticking with it is almost always the optimal strategy. I don't think that reliably works any more in England and France.

He then says "If a player does change clubs, they need to do it for the right reasons and do it only once". If it's for the right reasons, why shouldn't a player change more than once? What exactly are these right reasons? Can you ever elect to stay at your current club for the wrong reasons?

In and around the current England squad, Burrell, Twelvetrees, Corbisiero, Hartley, Vunipola, Morgan, Ford, Yarde, Attwood, Wood, Foden, Ashton, Burns, Wilson and Johnson have all moved, or are about to move, at least once. That's quite a count for what we know is a young group of players. A lot will move again before their careers are done.