Canberra Raiders chief executive Don Furner says he will be interested to see how the NRL divides up the extra $100 million to be spent on growing the game from the grassroots up.
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Furner also said the additional $100 million split between the 16 clubs will take some of the pressure off the Raiders financially with the reduction in pokie machine revenue.
The NRL announced on Thursday it had come to a funding agreement with the 16 clubs as a result of the $1.8 billion television rights deal.
The highlights of the funding arrangement include:
- An extra $100 million will be allocated to the 16 clubs from 2018 to 2022;
- Around $100 millon more will be invested in developing the game from the grassroots to elite competitions;
- Clubs will receive a payment of $1.5 million per year from 2016 to 2022, and
- A grant of 130 per cent of total player payments will be made every year from 2018 to 2022.
Speaking from the US where he and other senior Raiders management are on a fact-finding mission, Furner said he was pleased with the funding outcomes.
"One thing that I'd like to push for still, there was talk of equal funding and other types of funding pools for clubs that do the heavy lifting with regard to junior development," Furner said.
"I sound like a broken-down record talking about the same thing, but unless we keep talking about it, it won't get changed.
"There has been discussions on it and I'd love to see it.
"Maybe a ranking system or they could look at what you spend in that area and reward you for it."
Furner said the Raiders were among the top clubs in the NRL in terms of how much they spent on junior development.
"Of that $100 million that's going to be put into grassroots funding for the game, which is fantastic, we will be very interested to see how that is split up," Furner said.
"Maybe that's an extra grant for clubs that do junior development work, or that will help put more development officers on and they will control the spend, I will need to look at the details of that.
"We do a very good job of junior development in our region.
"I'd like to think that they think we do and they may well may give us more resources for that and I look forward to seeing the details of that."
The Raiders have traditionally developed a lot of their own talent and brought them through the ranks to form the bulk of their first-grade team.
But they have recently begun signing more established players from rival clubs, with five-eighth Blake Austin and halfback Aidan Sezer two examples.
"We can get rid of junior development and wait and buy a Blake Austin who has been developed by two other clubs, but then we don't develop a Jarrod Croker or a Lachlan Croker or a Shaun Fensom," Furner said.
"It's not something that we want to do, but we need to be resourced better to do it."
Furner said the additional funding would greatly assist the Raiders as they deal with reduction in revenues to their leagues clubs.
"Without a doubt going forward we need more money from the peak body because we have to be less reliant than we have been over the years on poker machines and our leagues clubs," Furner said.
"Legislative changes to that industry has got harder and harder so we have to be more self-sufficient.
"It puts us in a better place to be less reliant on them, so that's fantastic."
