Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

and when was the last time they were dropped from the squad?maybe Toner? Healy had huge injury issues.

A central contract mostly protects your squad status. its not a conspiracy. its just logical. why would they pump money into the few players and not have them involved. personally i think its a stupid system that doesn't reflect form. if it was 20-30 odd players yeah fine. but a rolling number of about 11 etc with all the status and sponsorship profile that brings, nah not for me. look at Stockdale on the outside now. yeah his initial burst onto the scene demanded central contract status, by why now? sport is way too fluid for thsi shite, and the system is archaic. move it off an official list, keep it in house or just top up provinces with extra money. its all the same budgets (in practical terms), its just an illusion that it isn't.

I mean Keenan has been great. but if you give him a central contract and don't give Larmour one. what does that do for anybody? ditto say Kelleher or Doris, when their rivals are basically their equals.

i think we will move away from it now. we are producing far too many good rugby players. atm we ahve a system where we have high profile central contracts not deserving of their spots, even argubally in the squad. like 400k-500k more than their in form equivalents. thats just nuts in sport. terrible in a team environment where most players are now equals. theres a reason the Liverpool players won't mind if Salah gets 500k a week. cause he's the best in the World. That also may have been true for Drico and POC, ROG, O'Brien back in the day but now? only a peak Sexton could fit that mould. Furlong due to his position and ability. now its way too even. Again if the IRFU want to expand it again like the old days, yeah maybe it works.

best players at the time.

Now...

POM, Murray, Earls et al.

Naaah.

So make it as simplistic as you want, its not true and distorts everything we do.

At this rate the whole team will have to be on central deals. Sheehan looks as good as kelleher. Doris and COombes etc. Again if we want to go back to the old days and have more deals, fine. but it doesn't work with 11 ringfenced players. they have to be head and shoulders above the others. Only Furlong fits that now, at this stage. And guys like POM were never head and shoulders above anybody.

Outhalf is a great example of what we are facing. we have loads of options coming on board. Two at Munster, which will most likely force Carbery to make a decision. Lowry will move to outhalf. none are as good as Sexton. however we are in probably the 4th cycle of pro rugby in IReland. it makes sense that the disparities of individual talent are petering out. mostly now the players are all pretty solid on basics. strength, fitness, core skills. so who you give deals to is far more complex than the old days. and by oild days i mean pre 2015.

its only starting to be fluid now. mainly because our talent is spread so well. which is natural seeing we are now in 2021. anyway we've been here before we will never agree. only Toner has really been dropped from the squad and he was finishing up. the system was grand when it was the old days, and a larger group. then they changed it to 11 and it was relatively ok as you had big characters getting them. but they held on to them longer than they should. with the pandemic i suppose its justifiable that some of the lads were rewarded with deals for exploits. but now with alot retiring shortly, and alot of the players now equals among the squad, it only makes sense to reset it.

anyway its a positive thing. Coombes, Doris, Conan. Out of that 3 none of them deserve to be a special status player. cause they are brilliant.

one example, wow case closed.

if you don't believe that a player getting a 700k deal even when his past is long gone, is special status, and essentially protected, i don't know what to tell you. for every jack mcgrath theres dozens of other examples of the opposite happening. Bowe, stockdale, D'arcy, Pom, Murray. all rewarded with middling form on the back of past exploits. Craig Casey could win World player of the year and he'd still be earning about half a million less. so Murray is rewarded with what is essentially a protected special status. i mean money and contracts in sport is status. as i said Salah in soccer is a perfect example. its getting to the point where his team mates will demand Liverpool pay him 500k a week. thats what happens when you reach those levels. Murray did for a time. at his peak. now he doesn't deserve that discrepancy in wages. now i believe it confers him more things, but i have zero proof.

but anyway whatever. im looking at it as a positive. i.e that we have mutiple guys per position now, and its far more complex shoehorning them into 11 deals. you seem to want to turn it into a negative. thats your right.

anyway i'm fairly certain central contracts in their current guise will die out. so its all kind of moot. how do you pick between Conan, Coombes, Doris in the central contract system if only 11ish guys are getting them? you don't. so you either go back to a larger number or you take it off the books as it were. in no other teram sport in the World with squads of 35 plus are underperforming players given limited, publicised special higher paid contracts, earmarked out in press releases. its **** daft, and way past its sell by date.