LOOKING for something to blame for Mark Gasnier being lost to rugby league? Well the player, for one, thinks those plastic Tazo footy cards found in packets of chips are a good place to start.
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The France-bound star yesterday spoke out at the lack of money trickling back to players from the use of their images in marketing campaigns - even for the little things. Things like Tazos.
"It's tough to say [if the NRL does enough to keep the high-profile players in the game]," Gasnier said. "Do I think they get what they are entitled to? Maybe not. Before you jump and say the boys are greedy and all the stuff like this - we're very happy with what we earn, and grateful, but is it fair when it comes to stuff like footy cards? I'm happy to say those Tazo cards for instance, I'd love to know their sales - we get $1000. Is that fair?
"Not attacking the [ Daily ] Telegraph , but I'd like to know what you guys made off them footy cards that you buy two bucks a pack with the thing. Do the players get any of that? No. Little things. It isn't out of greed, and it's important you guys don't take that out of context, all I'm saying is that little things like that might help."
The chair of the Australasian Promotion Marketing Association, Kylie Green, said Gasnier should have looked to his manager to bring in the dollars.
"I think sometimes these guys have to think that without the NRL, would they be a celebrity personality?" Green said. "Sometimes they have to give back to their industry. Twenty years ago most footballers were working full-time … it's become a lucrative business now and they are paid very well just to play football … They've got to understand that they are doing it for the next generation.
"If Mark had the right manager in place looking to get lucrative deals, that would have built up his profile here. You look at how Ricky Ponting has done, he has loads of sponsorship deals, with beer companies, deodorants …
"He's a very good example. He has some really good deals one-on-one and he probably has $1000 from [Cricket Australia] paying him for using his image on a trading card."
The NRL would not disclose the value of the deal with the Smith's Snackfood Company, which includes the Tazos in its packets of crisps.
