Queensland Reds Digby Ioane says he wants an extra $125,000 from the ARU

[travelling_gerry]

By Wayne Smith
May 25, 2009 Dynamic Wallabies winger Digby Ioane will follow the lead of Queensland Reds team-mate Hugh McMeniman in accepting a Japanese or European offer unless the Australian Rugby Union finds an extra $125,000 to keep him in Australia.

Robbie Deans will meet Ioane on Wednesday or Thursday in a last-gasp effort to persuade the 23-year-old winger to turn down overseas offers as high as $1.1million a season, but unless the Australia coach brings a sizeable cheque with him, chances are he will be wasting his time.

Ioane views as "an insult" the ARU's base offer to him of $175,000 a season, even though that figure could balloon to $410,000 once match payments for Tests and Super 14 games are factored in, along with car and living-away-from-home allowances.

"But I could stay for $300,000 (base rate)," Ioane said on Sunday.

"I love Queensland and I would love to play in the (2011) World Cup. It's just sad. I really want to stay. But what I got offered I felt was just an insult. Money is a big thing to me. I need to support my family, my mum and my dad. For me family comes first.

"I'm looking to go wherever Madness (McMeniman) goes. I've had heaps of offers from Japan and Europe. The money they're offering is a bit crazy."

Ioane even admitted the realisation his contract was up for negotiation had spurred him to produce the sizzling form that saw him finish just behind George Smith and Benn Robinson in the polling for the Australian Super 14 Player of the Year award.

"I knew I was coming off contract so I knew I had to perform," Ioane said.

An ARU spokesman said on Sunday that if the differential between what Ioane could earn overseas and the extended ARU offer really was as wide as the $700,000 Ioane has indicated, there was nothing the national body could do but wish him well and encourage him to return to Australia as soon as possible to resume his Test career, now stalled on just four caps.

"There is only so much money in the coffers," the ARU spokesman said. "It's not a bottomless pit. But it should be pointed out that in 2008, there were only 20 players in Australian rugby who were offered over $400,000."

The top-of-the-range payment was just over $700,000, a figure reached by only a handful of players.

Reds coach Phil Mooney, while reluctantly coming to terms with the loss of his highest-impact forward, McMeniman, has not abandoned hope of strike winger Ioane remaining with Queensland next year.

"From our end, Digby is not gone yet and we are certainly going to try hard to retain him," Mooney said on Sunday. "But losing Hugh has made it all the more important that we now pick up Rocky Elsom."

After his storming man-of-the-match performance in spearheading Leinster to their Heineken Cup final victory over Leicester on the weekend, blindside flanker Elsom has become one of the hottest properties in world rugby.

It is understood that the ARU is offering him an overall package of $650,000 - including the Super rugby component and match payments - with a further $100,000 available as a third-party deal if he chooses to join the Reds rather than his former team, the New South Wales Waratahs.

Both Ioane and McMeniman admitted they had noted reports of what Elsom might earn if he joined the Reds, but insisted they were not leaving because 40-Test veteran Elsom was being offered so much more.

"Rocky just won a Heineken Cup final and had a great game so I can understand why they're chucking the bucks at him to try to get him to come to Queensland," said McMeniman. "I just hope if he comes it doesn't set back a guy like (blindside flanker) Scott Higginbotham who I reckon is set for a really big season for the Reds next year."

McMeniman, who has not yet decided whether to join a Japanese or European club, is leaning towards Japan where the level of rugby would put less strain on his often-injured lanky frame. He is also still hoping the ARU will grant him an exemption to play for the Reds again next season.

Aside from marquee players, only those footballers eligible to be selected for Australia are permitted to play in the Super 14, which means McMeniman and/or Ioane will disqualify themselves from playing for the Reds once they sign with a foreign club. It is a rule designed to ensure the Australian selectors have as many local players as possible to pick from.




http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,...002381,00.html

[Flamethrower]

Digby Ioane will follow the lead of Queensland Reds team-mate Hugh McMeniman in accepting a Japanese or European offer

"I love Queensland and I would love to play in the (2011) World Cup. It's just sad. I really want to stay. But what I got offered I felt was just an insult. Money is a big thing to me. I need to support my family, my mum and my dad. For me family comes first.

Digby isn't the sharpest tool in the box

Money is really important so he wants to leave.
Family is really important so he wants to stay.

I'm glad he left the Force.

[jargan83]

"I love Queensland and I would love to play in the (2011) World Cup. It's just sad. I really want to stay. But what I got offered I felt was just an insult. Money is a big thing to me. I need to support my family, my mum and my dad. For me family comes first.

To me that says, family is important, but if the right offer comes along.....Sayonara.

The again I'd be insulted to if I was 23 and offered a $400,000 contract, even mortified

[Swee_82]

Digby isn't the sharpest tool in the box

Money is really important so he wants to leave.
Family is really important so he wants to stay.

I'm glad he left the Force.

From that, I got that money is important to support his family. Still, people support their extended families on salaries much less than someone on an ARU contract, 175k/year + match payments isn't peanuts- if the stats from the ARU guys are right (top 20-odd players earning 400+k total), then it sounds about par, not an 'insult'.

For my money, giving up his chance at the Wallabies and RWC when he's hit the vein of form that would justify selection there for the coin is a bit insulting.

[shasta]

In his defense - according to a docco I saw on TV - it's not uncommon for Samoan & Tongan families to steer kids towards Rugby & League in order for them to help support the family. It's also not uncommon for the players who make it to take advice on contract matters from parents. That might not be the case here but it's a good possibility, seeing he's just about spelled it out.

[James]

Money is a big thing to me. I need to support my family, my mum and my dad....

.... and they eat diamonds for breakfast.

[AndyS]

Wayne Smith, May 25, 2009

THE day Australian rugby has been dreading has finally arrived. The gold Wallabies jersey no longer stacks up.

What price the honour of playing for Australia? $100,000 a year? $250,000? $500,000? Now, what if the per annum difference between what a player could earn by remaining in Australia and representing the Wallabies and going overseas to play in Japan or Europe exceeds half a million dollars?

As the Americans say, do the math, which clearly is what Digby Ioane has done. The ARU comes to him midway through the Super 14 season - when, incidentally, he is tearing apart team after team - with a base offer of $150,000. Now, if Digby has done his sums correctly, that $150,000 includes the $110,000 basic wage for a Super rugby player, paid out of the annual allocation from the ARU to the Reds, which means the national body places a value of only $40,000 on his services. OK, there are all sorts of other fringe benefits, which I'll get to in a moment ...

Miffed, but figuring it is merely the customary low opening bid, Ioane goes back to the ARU with a counter-proposal of $380,000. This prompts some reaction on the ARU side of the table, but not enough to set off the most delicate of movement censors. Their offer goes up to $175,000.

Ioane goes to the mailbox and pulls out a $900,000 offer from Japan. Wow! But wait, there's more. The mailman only comes on Tuesdays and next week he's back with an even better offer from another Japanese club, $1.1million. "That's $1.1 million per year," explains Ioane, as though even he can't believe it.

The ARU pulls out a piece of paper and starts scribbling down some numbers ... match payments of $11,000 per Test times, say, 15 Tests equals $165,000. Throw in $3000 per Super 14 game times 13 games - based on the shattering assumption that the Reds aren't likely to figure in the play-offs - and round it off to the nearest zero for $40,000. Don't forget a car allowance and living away from home - which is Melbourne - allowance, and let's say another $30,000. That comes to, hmmm, carry the one, carry the two ... oh, a total of $410,000.

So that's $410,000 and a gold jersey on one hand and $1.1million plus a set of chopsticks on the other. That's a $700,000 differential, not counting the chopsticks. Over the life of a standard three-year contract, that's $2.1million the ARU is hoping players are prepared to pay for the honour of representing their country.....

and a good bit more HERE
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Interesting, in that it suggests the ARU number covers both S14 and international. Still, I would have thought Digby might have been best served locking down a Wallaby spot before bitching that he is underpaid. Also can't help but feel that he hasn't done himself any favours with statements like "I knew I was coming off contract so I knew I had to perform" - it does beg the question how he would be intending to play once his contract is sorted out...?

[mudskipper]

Gee $1.1 million he should take the offer and get titanium shoulder reconstructions... That’s a lot cash in many ones language...

[shasta]

That article only makes me more certain in my view that player salary money should be split among the provinces to spend as they will. Wallaby players should get only (albeit much more lucrative than present) match payments and winning bonuses. There is a problem then with marquee imports but perhaps they should be sponsored. Even if I'm just paranoid and all contracting is above board at present, it still does not detract from the fact that some franchises get their stuff sorted sooner than others. That is giving them the advantage. The paranoia part is that it usually seems to be NSW.

[jargan83]

The paranoia part is that it usually seems to be NSW.

With ARU headquarters being located somewhere in North Sydney?