Hudson Young Update

Code Sports is reporting an update in the Hudson Young pursuit that is not really an update. The Canberra Raiders have upped their offer to the most anyone they have ever doled out. It still is not going to get close to what Papua New Guinea will offer. Canberra will ask for a decision soon. The game will roll on.

This update is not really an update. The situation hasn’t really changed dramatically. Canberra are still offering as much as they can, and the Chiefs can still blow it out of the water barely lifting a finger. Their tax settings mean that half as much will be the same deal. Their capacity for third party deals will make even that irrelevant.

There is some change in the value being offered to Hudson. The Raiders have reportedly jumped to a three-year extension at $1.1m a season. Before this all started there were reports of an offer of a three-year deal “in the vicinity” of a million per year. So Canberra have jumped up another $100k a year. Nice outcome for Huddo given he’s done nothing over the last week.

According to the reports it’s the biggest offer in Raiders’ history. These deals are never transparent, so it’s hard to verify how true that is. It would be the most they’re currently paying anyone – Joey Tapine and Kaeo Weekes’ deals seemed to be more in the $900k a season range. The only situation I can think of as close is the offer to Jack Wighton before he departed.

Safe to say it’s a huge amount of cash. But that doesn’t really matter. As Don Furner told the Canberra Times, they simply can’t compete on cash. Rather they are offering a position in Raiders’ history. An opportunity to continue to tradition of Stuart, Daley, Meninga and others.

He’s someone that hopefully would captain this club, he wants to keep playing representative footy but he’s probably a better chance of doing that here…

But if it’s just pure money, we can’t compete with that

The test remains not one of money, but whether Young is willing to choose the club and community that loves him over the cash of the Chiefs and their third-party supporters.

The timing of this update coincides with a meeting in the coming days between Furner and Hudson’s management. On occasion in the past they have made the details of offers public as a note to the NRL. A recognition that the player is lost, and they want to make sure there’s no sombrero situation. I do not think that is occurring this time. The NRL is aware of the sombrero. They are aware that $1.1m in Canberra dollars is effectively half as much in PNG money.

Rather I think the Raiders have let this be public so Hudson, and Hudson’s management is aware of the offer. Not the money aspect, but juxtaposed against the adulation for Josh Papalii, the ‘biggest offer’ in history becomes a statement of personal value, not just monetary. Canberra are offering Young a king’s ransom, not for the wealth but for the title.

Will it be enough? I suspect we’ll know by the end of the weekend. If Huddo rejects the Raiders offer and instead says he wants to talk to the Chiefs then there’s no reason to think he’ll stay. He knows roughly what he’ll get from the Chiefs – his manager just needs to message the family group chat to find out. If he wants to talk to them, it’s to sign a deal.

If he leaves it’s not so much the canary in the coal mine but the Beaconsfield of rugby league. Inserting a team that can cannibalise the NRL’s middle class will create a lopsided league, upending any pretense that teams like the Raiders, the Titans, the Knights etc can contend outside of ahistorical blips.

The NRL will have no solution that is helpful at that point. They may seek to curtail the Chiefs advantage, but they can never end it. That’s because the team only exists at the whim of politics. Political support requires this team is immediately successful. That requires an ability to drag talent north. Without it they’ll just be the Hunters, a team uncompetitive in the QLD Cup.

But the weighting required to keep them competitive is such a distortion that it will be a threat to any small market team. Shit, the Roosters might not be able to meet Sam Walker’s demand for $1.7m a year. That shows you the weight of the problem. It will upend the league, render most team’s pipe dreams of premiership dead, and build an unending resentment of the new franchise. Vlando for the win, yet again.

For the Raiders the problem is more immediate. Can they keep their favourite son? I hope so, but we’ll know more by Monday.

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