Seriously?
How much do you think rugby league agents earn?

Nah. Just saying there are thousands of ways to EARN a living where you graft and toil and reap the rewards you deserve.

Then there are a some easy money ways that milk honest people in a sort of parasitic way.

More than they deserve?

Would you see an agent encourage a player on his books to play for what he would call "A good team". or would he encourage him to sign for a club offering more money? I think I know the answer.

You’re right mate. Who needs agents. I have no doubt that a professional sports team with in house legal teams etc wouldn’t try and pull a fast one with a young up and coming lad.

Who do you think the player would want to sign for?
Example:
2 year contract with saints on 60k a year
3 year contract with wakey on 80k a year

No issue with players having professional representation as most are not the brightest and could be taken advantage of. However, I feel agents should be centrally employed and in no way whatsoever financially benefit from negotiating their clients contracts. That way they can only be acting in the interest of the player rather than their own bank balance.

Quite a few agents in RL also have football players on their books and are involved in multi million pound deals with them believe it or not but it’s fact. So I’m afraid the RL player is playing second fiddle, what an agent gets out of a RL players deal, I’m afraid is a drop in the ocean so they don’t pursue the players interest as vigorously as a big deal elsewhere, trust me on this one, I’ve been there.

Let's get real about agents. If they were so bad they wouldn't get any work.
I use an agent pretty much every time I've got a job. Most I would not have known about without them.
Some were very good and coached me a little but too.

I'm sure it's the same in sport.

Sorry but that’s rubbish. If we were talking complex multi million pound deals in far off lands as in football then yes. However we are not, what we are talking here for the vast majority of players depending on ability is similar money to that paid to a staring GP, a deputy manager at a supermarket or a police officer after finishing his probationary period.

None of the above require an agent. You don’t need to be a genius to be a copper. Yes they have unions of sorts but nothing to match an agent.

They are simply not needed. All that’s needed is a players union who send a representative to any negotiation. There job is not to negotiate but to advise. Legal advise and financial advise. Basically to say whether the deal on offer is fair and above board NOT whether it’s the best. The latter is the players task and I don’t care how allegedly dim they are, that’s life, that’s their responsibility and ultimately their call.

Maybe if they were forced to make hard real world decisions off the pitch like the rest of us then some might also make better on field calls, it’s called growing up, just a thought.

Whilst I agree in broad terms with this, without some guidance, there would be players, particularly the younger ones, getting short changed and whilst the balance of power may be too much in the wrong direction a decent agent can see the bigger picture and not just the £ signs.
Many of course are greedy, self serving whatsits.

We all get short changed or make wrong choices at some point in our young lives, I don’t see why sportsman are in any way special or more important than some young kid starting a career in engineering for example. And yes I realise it’s a short career but most are if you balls them up. As I say if we are talking millions of pounds I get it but RL isn’t in that class, I actually hope it never is.

This is part of the problem with pro sport, we over emote it and tend to give players more importance than they warrant. I know it works both ways and it’s not an ordinary job but everything comes with a price.

For me there is no place in our sport for agents apart from a few players operating at the top end ie Sam Burgess etc. That’s only because the figures and complexity involved does start to become specialist.

Young player signing for a club like Trinity, basic representation to protect against obvious exploitation (which is unlikely imo) is all that’s required, you don’t need an agent taking a cut for that imho.

All clubs wether football or RL will try and get their players as cheap as possible, like companies will pay the lowest wages if they could all get away with it, always remember, you’re just a number or in sport a piece of meat

If you don't have to be a genius to be a copper where does the criteria start, presumably from your opinion it's somewhere well below your rank in life, maybe a lorry driver or dustman, or a scaffolder, perhaps you'd like to share your thoughts as to the starting point of being a career genius, it certainly won't be a rugby player as you've already made that clear

Perhaps while your on a roll you could explain why in your world rugby players don't have to make real hard life decisions like the rest of us do, don't they have mortgages and mouths to feed etc, it would be interesting to know how you link that to making better on field decisions also, well at least we now know the meaning of growing up