IN THE modern era of Super League, superstars demand and receive astronomical contracts. But their telephone number deals are prompting questions.
In some cases, you have to ask how many of the elite of the game are delivering value for money on the field. The cost of reputations is starting to exceed real values.
Today New Zealand fans have the chance to see at Ericsson Stadium in Auckland a player who is beyond reproach.
No one gives better value-for-money to his club than Cronulla's Andrew Ettingshausen.
Ettingshausen is the type of player who rarely misses a game through injury while down the years he would consistently be the best player in the world in his position.
A number of sporting superstars develop personality bypasses, but this is an allegation which could never be levelled at Ettingshausen. He is a champion in every sense of the word and provides an ideal image for the game.
A Shark through and through, Ettingshausen has also given great service to Australia and New South Wales.
In short, he is a player worth twice what other superstars receive, because he delivers.
Brisbane's Alfie Langer is in the same category. The intriguing question now is what will happen to superstar salaries during the next couple of years? Super League must be careful. It has got itself into a situation where players are paid these huge base salaries and yet very few are performance related. But I can't see that the truly star players will receive any less in the future.
The players certainly wouldn't accept reductions without a fight, but I can see the clubs banding together and saying the situation has got out of hand and that the contracts must be performance related. Players paid like stars will be expected to play like stars.
IT'S hard not to like everything about the Cronulla Sharks.
At the start of the year, I tipped the Sharks to go all the way and win the Telstra Cup.
I am still very comfortable with that prediction. What is significant is that despite three of their top players, Nathan Long, Richard Barnett and Sean Ryan, being sidelined with injury, the team is still producing.
Their kicking game is second to none. In Mitch Healey and Paul Green, Cronulla has two of the best in the business. They have a mixed bag of kicks, while their judgment of distance is immaculate.
It is an area where the Warriors and the Sharks are chalk and cheese though the home side today will benefit from the injury- enforced absence of Healey.
The Warriors let themselves down by too often on the final tackle producing kicks which fail to obtain the optimum result.
The latter doesn't necessarily mean a try, but it does mean a good result, such as rolling the ball into the ingoal area.
From last tackle kicks, I would say the Sharks' results are the best in Super League.
To win today, the Warriors must pressure the Sharks' kickers. If they don't, they will find themselves under tremendous pressure.
While the Warriors and the Sharks kicking games are very different, I see a lot of similarities between the clubs.
Both have a lot of flair and like to use their backs. In short, the Warriors have the ability to do everything Cronulla does.
Like those superstar players, they must now deliver. ON the Warriors sale scene: I met Auckland Rugby League members in Sydney last weekend.
It was a good meeting and one of the things resolved in the meeting was that the ARL, as owner of the Warriors, would instruct those concerned to cease any negotiations with either current or potential players.
In fact, negotiations with anything to do with football will be stopped.
The reason is easy to understand when you liken the situation to buying a car.
I suggest there is no way you would continue negotiations over the car if during these talks the owner clocked up another 100,000km on the clock.
Since the discussions, Super League, after meeting with the ARL, has issued a moratorium stopping all player negotiations until next month, or the end of peace talks
