Hudson Young At Risk

Brace yourself Raiders fans, Hudson Young has likely signed his last contract for the Milk.

At least that’s our interpretation of the latest news, which is that Young has not accepted the Raiders record offer, and will seek a one-week window in September to meet with the Papua New Guinea Chiefs.

From our perspective that means he’s good as gone. Anyone that thinks Hudson already doesn’t have an idea of what cash would be available from them is a particularly optimistic person. The tax breaks and third-party deals are such that he knows he can get more money there, likely a heap more. If the Chiefs can get in the ‘market range’ required by the NRL, he’ll be getting a huge chunk more. Anyone playing along knows they can do that.

Any discussions with Young would more likely be of the details and signatures, than the broad strokes of a deal. We the same process play out with Brian To’o recently. Most contract negotiations take a long time; a week is only time to do a quick QA and sign on the dotted line.

According to the reporting Young is asking to wait until he’s off crutches to do this. I guess maybe the only thing keeping him from signing is actually visiting Port Moresby? Will the facilities make a difference when you’re being offered that much money? My guess is that they could have three chairs and a shanty. Football is a side-quest to the personal investment.

For the Raiders it’s a huge problem. Not many teams can lose an elite backrower and just be fine. The Raiders, despite the appearance of depth, are no exception. They are at their best when Zac Hosking is playing 13 and Simi Sasagi is playing centre. Noah Martin will be a rep player. Jordan Uta is more an idea than a first grader. Matty Nicholson could be good. Or he could never regain the agility to play first-grade quality backrow. A brief sojourn with backrow depth suddenly becomes a mess.

People may point to the silver lining of having a bunch of cash to spare, but unless Canberra suddenly gets the tax breaks that are available to the Chiefs, they are not going to sign a star player. PNG has already signed more free agent talent in their minus-one year of existence that the Raiders have signed in the last forty years. Liam Martin isn’t walking in that door. Neither is Jacob Preston.

This is a real test for how the league manages the cap. For years big clubs have been able to pick up the talent they wanted, and with some limited intra-core trading (like Haas going from big club Broncos to also big club Bunnies, or To’o to the Chiefs), the rich have eaten at the expense of the poor.

This phenomenon isn’t new. It’s not even the first time the Raiders have been picked on by a bigger club able to leverage non-traditional financial opportunities to lever established stars out of the capital. But it is more concentrated and arguably even more impactful. This is all happening at once, and they will continue to hunt through teams that can’t compete, either on money or status.

I’m not convinced that this means that the Chiefs will be a juggernaut. I guess it depends on who else they sign. Outside of Young and To’o I’ve not been impressed with the players they’ve brought onboard so far. That’s what happens when your team is run by a media guy. You sign names rather than fits. But Young is the kind of glue guy that will fill gaps created by the presence of craven cats like Luai, and Lomax.

We’ll wait to see how this finalises before we comment on what it might mean for Hudson, or what the Milk should do next. Right now, all we can say is get the money, I guess. It’s a short career, and getting paid two or three times your market value is more fun than waking up on cold Canberra mornings. It’s not his fault that the Chiefs have this financial advantage. We all know that loyalty is just a word in this game, and the double-speak comes from both sides.

But we won’t pretend we’re not disappointed. We’ve been team Hudson since day one, and seen the time and effort from both him and the club that made him the player he is today. He’s finally reached his potential over the last two seasons, and recovery from injury aside, would hopefully have had three or so more years at his peak before the Raiders paid him one more astronomical deal to keep him a one-club player.

That’s feeling a long way away right now. Right now there is nothing but the dark thrall of depression, disappointment and hoping for miracles that won’t come. Hudson Young hasn’t signed with the Chiefs. Not yet. But one week in September that will almost certainly change.

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