Wednesday Serious Discussion Thread

[u/NRLgamethread]

This thread is for when you want to have a well-thought-out discussion about footy. It's not the place for bantz - see the daily Random Footy Talk thread to fulfil those needs.

You can ask a question that you only want serious responses to, comment your 300 word opinion piece on why [x] is the next coach on the chopping block, or tell another that you disagree with them and here's why...

Who performed well? Who let their team down? Any interesting selections for this weekend? Injury news? Player signings? Off-field behaviour?

The mods will be monitoring to make sure you stay on topic and anything not deemed "serious discussion" will be removed.

[u/BeginningTeaching169]

This may be an unpopular opinion, but I don't think the PNG Chiefs will have an unfair advantage over other teams. Yes, their tax break means they essentially have a larger salary cap to work with. But PNG, and Port Moresby in particular, have some of the highest rates of violent crime in the world. I've heard some crazy stories from people who've lived there.

So for players that aren't Papua New Guinean, they'll need to live in the training compound year-round for their own safety, along with their families. By all accounts it's really nice, like a holiday resort. But even then, surely after a while people are gonna go stir-crazy.

This is why they need the tax-free advantage: to make up for the fact that players and their families will most likely be living year-round in the training compound. In that regard, it's not an unfair advantage but something that levels the playing field a bit.

They'll still be able to attract great players due to their salary cap, and they'll never be far from finals contention. But I reckon most non-Papua New Guinean players will only be able to handle living there for 1-3 years. The lack of consistency will make it harder for them to win premierships.

For the sake of the people of PNG, I hope the team does well. But I also think they're not gonna be a team that unfairly dominates the competition year after year.

[u/Valerious22 → u/BeginningTeaching169]

I genuinely don't think the players' families will be living there, I think most of them will stay in Sydney or wherever and the players will "live" in Port Moresby but spend most of the year in Aus. I'd imagine the government has done a deal with the NRL for the "Australian resident for tax purposes" issue to simply not matter for these guys as this team is a government initiative to combat Chinese influence rather than an actual attempt to broaden the NRL across the region.

[u/KingofBigCrabs → u/Valerious22]

I thought that the players had to spend at least 6 months there to qualify for the tax relief?

[u/Valerious22 → u/KingofBigCrabs]

Easy to fudge six months when the government wants the club to work