Pulver wants Super Draft

[travelling_gerry]

There are multiple benefits from a draft system, says Bill Pulver

• by:Bret Harris
• From:The Australian
• April 06, 201312:00AM

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ARU chief executive Bill Pulver has advocated the introduction of a draft for Australia's five Super Rugby teams.

Pulver believes such a move would help distribute playing talent between the five teams and provide a promotional vehicle for the game.
"I quite like the idea of a draft," he said. "There are multiple benefits. One is you will distribute the talent more evenly among the franchises to create more of an equal playing field. Two is I want to give those young players a profile in the game.
"Imagine if you are draft pick No 1. Suddenly you are on the Australian rugby map.
"I don't know how many kids would put their name into the draft. Ultimately, these kids would get into a Super Rugby program which accelerates their development considerably.
"If you've got a terrific young lock who goes into the Queensland franchise as one of their draft players and is training alongside James Horwill and playing in a Super B team-type competition, I've got to believe he is going to develop in a far more accelerated way and be ready to compete at Super Rugby level.








"Enhancing the profile of the game overall would be an additional benefit," he added.
Pulver said the draft concept was being considered by the ARU's rugby commission, which included the Super Rugby chief executives, the Rugby Union Players Association and club rugby representatives.
"It's an idea being developed," Pulver said.
"Are we absolutely locked in that we are going to do this? No, we are not. But we've got a pathway to make a decision over the course of the next couple of months."
Pulver said the ARU was also considering decentralising the national academy system, which is based in Sydney and Brisbane.
The ARU set up the centralised academy system a few years ago to reduce costs but the move was unpopular with the Super Rugby franchises, which preferred to run their own academies.
"If we went to this model (draft), an alternative may be to have smaller academies in each franchise that would go hand in hand," Pulver said. "The Brisbane and Sydney academies in my view have been doing a very good job, but the missing link is the acceleration of development at a higher level capable of playing Super Rugby.
"The question is whether we can afford both. We are a bit resource-constrained at the ARU, so we've got to pick our targets carefully."
In a significant development, Pulver has described the proposed Super B program as a "second-level" competition rather than a third-tier, which would be filled by club rugby.
"One of the concepts we are developing is the Super B or universities-type competition where we have a second level of competition at the Super Rugby level with a specific objective to accelerate the development of elite talent capable of competing more effectively at a Super Rugby level," Pulver said.
"Importantly, this is not a third-tier. The third-tier is club rugby. This is simply additional depth of elite player development at a Super Rugby level. The concept is they would play a curtain-raiser for the two home games of Super Rugby every week.

[Scozzie]

The draft system seems to do a reasonably good job in the G-ayFL and American Football, and it would certainly help to distribute the talent coming through to the teams that need it. But, they'd need to look at some sort of retention policy, to stop players making their mark at a "so-called lower profile team", then moving off to a "so-called higher profile team".