BY DAN

The public dance of bargaining between Canberra and Warrington continued today.

It’s important to focus on what we know. Evidently Danny Walker wants to leave the Wolves for the NRL. So far the Canberra Raiders have been the only team reportedly interested. This time last week that interest was tempered by the fact that Warrington weren’t going to let him go.

The Wolves tune changed this week when coach Sam Burgess basically said the Milk will need to give them all the cream if they want to get Danny Walker. Burgess said:

He’s been approached by clubs from Australia so that’s the situation we’ve got. He’s managing it really well. It’s a problem a lot of clubs get from the NRL if they don’t stand up for something. He’s got a contract and if they want him, they’ll have to make it worthwhile

Turns out the ‘something’ that clubs should stand up for is cash. It’s understandable. The NRL is the core, the Super League the periphery. It’s a function of the rugby league world system that highest skilled labour flows to the centre. It’s not just expected, but perhaps a good thing if compensation for those resources flows the other way occasionally. At the very least it might start to address the Wolves’ ‘seven figure‘ losses in 2022, or the reported £1,755,984 lost before tax by Warrington Sports Holdings Limited in 2023.

The Raiders have balked at the actual ask, called ‘ridiculous’ according to the Canberra Times. What’s ridiculous mean, you ask? I dunno. From memory the scuttlebutt was the number for Matty Nicholson was ‘substantial’ and for some reason I have $75k in my head (though can find nothing other than ‘substantial’ or significant in google). Reports had John Bateman’s at $358,000. So presumably it’s something close to John’s eye watering figure.

There was even the an suggestion that Burgess was trying to engineer Walker’s departure for Souths. This may be the case, though the reporting didn’t suggest any interest on their behalf, only Burgess’s. Lord knows that despite just extending current hooker Peter Mamouzelos through 2027, adding eight other players for 2025, already having a host of origin players on the roster and needing to extend Cody Walker, they’ve definitely got the cap space. No word if they’re actually interested though. One might think they’d be a bit wary of English talent after their reported $2 million investment Lewis Dodd was dropped from St Helens top side for performance reasons before he even made it to Australia.

Regardless, Canberra walking away seems a normal reaction to an ambit claim (and a normal characterisation of actually giving up, which is less fun). The main thing is that the clubs are talking, or at least were, talking. Anyone that has bartered before knows that you gotta draw some lines in the sand. We said this time last week it sounded like the start of negotiations. Burgess saying ‘pay up’ and the Raiders saying ‘not that much’ seem more like a mid point rather than the end. Of course that’s easy to say and impossible to prove. It’s just as likely this is done and dusted, a rumour to be remembered for fun in the years to come. Boo to that.

My guess is Walker wants to test himself in the best competition on Earth. So far only one NRL club is actively engaged in this discussion. That doesn’t mean the end will be the one we want. There’s a risk on both ends that the either the money isn’t enough for Warrington. Or the risk is too much for Canberra. For now both possibilities are true.

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