At 18 years of age and in his final year in high school, the Cleveland Cavaliers (an NBA franchise) gave him a contract worth an unimaginable amount of money for a kid.

Nike gave him a contract worth $95 million before he had set foot on an NBA court.

He is known as 'The Chosen One' and Nike and James's legion of sponsors will brand him and everyone will roll in green on the dream. Michael Jordan has been replaced. At one of his final games at high school all 24 NBA franchises had a scout/coach at the match.

Money talks and it has set a precedent. Money doesn't wait until college players graduate and are drafted by the pros, managers simply go to the high schools and buy them. Why wait four years and let somebody else use an asset that could be used by you?

Irish rugby has already gone that road this summer.

The principal isn't the same but the principle is.

The current conjecture about the third tier might take a little bit longer to dissipate as the serious rugby rolls in. The rugby takes everyone's mind off the squabbling. Nothing keeps the peasants in a perpetual state of revolt more than disenfranchisement.

The senior clubs on this current path will be extinct within 10 years. The junior sections of these clubs are like the remnants of those Klondike gold rush towns with tumbleweed rolling across the streets for dramatic effect. No coaches, no managers, no players, no referees, no pitches. No interest.

The volunteer movement is dead. They have become alickadon'ts. Every year it will erode and get eaten away.

Some clubs can't even now consistently field a second's side. The Sahara increases its circumference by 10 miles a year . . . you can't stop it.

The barons have lit the touch-paper for the dissipation of the senior club teams.

The tackle bag holders will now not even get to play for their clubs. The revitalised (not a good word to use) 'A' series will be implemented from this season on. It was discontinued a few seasons ago for monetary reasons . . .

they were also shite meaningless affairs with no sense of purpose to them, merely an exercise in keeping the rest of the squad fit and playing to the patterns that the provincial management wanted, should they be needed.

Over the summer quite a number of Fidels and Ches from the First Division clubs decided that enough was enough (I won't name them), but their proposal was to break away from the IRFU, to form their own amateur union and conduct and govern themselves as they saw fit . . . including keeping their players for themselves. A bit dramatic I thought.

At this stage you have to ask yourself a question: What is the club game all about? Is it an organisation of likeminded individuals who come together to play rugby union aesthetically for enjoyment and camaraderie, to play essentially an amateur version of the code and to be selfserving and autonomous to provide facilities for that purpose only? Or are they merely there to give players a kick start on their way to a pro career?

At this current state of evolution, the answer is obvious but it falls somewhere between the two.

The clubs still do provide a number of players to the provincial squads, but it's down to a trickle now and soon the taps will be shut off.

The clubs beef over the course of the years is that they have borne the cost of developing a player . . . put hands in pockets, underwritten overdrafts, effectively funded the quality players.

The province swoops, signs them and the clubs never see them again. No compensation. Not even a thank you note. Occasionally they might get dispensation to play in an AIL game.

That was then, this is now.

At higher levels it has been decided that clubs are to be bypassed when it comes to fostering talent . . . they won't even have the gripe of saying that they developed players and received no recognition, thanks or financial compensation.

The way forward is through the schools. Difficult to make comparison between LeBron James, and, say, Luke Fitzgerald, but the Blackrock school's player came straight from school to the Leinster senior squad. The Leinster management were fast-tracking him to the top (funny how they missed the bid from Munster).

This is the way it will be from now on . . . schools, academy, 20s, 21s, As, Senior. Club won't even come into it. There are many reasons. The prime one being that when these kids leave schools, they are professional rugby players.

They are extremely fit, they have serious weight, fitness, diet and skills regimes. Put them into a club environment and the fear is that everything will be diluted . . . the systems at club level are not anywhere near as good. It is a factor in quite a number of prospects slipping through the net. Keep them in the academy, nurture them and prepare according to dictats from above. Another factor would be to protect them from the hands of insufferable gobshites that populate clubs and inflict themselves upon talented players.

None of the established players ever play for their clubs. It seems that even the bag-holders are reticent about turning out for their clubs now. If that is the case, then it's all over. I have always felt that it is dangerous for the pros to be let loose on club competitions. They run and tackle harder. They are far stronger than the club player.

It's only a matter of time before someone gets injured.

Club sides will have no one worth watching soon.

I find it incredible that the clubs effectively form the provincial executives from elected members, yet they have been disenfranchised to such a degree that their very existence is in doubt.

It is a high-risk strategy employed by the IRFU . . . the schools, elite or not, are educational establishments primed and mandated to give our sons an education. The IRFU have no call or mandate for these young men.

Even now, the good schools players are taken out of their schools environment and away from their classmates on their respective SCTs and brought to provincial schools training on a regular and regimented basis.

These days you can dispense with your girlfriend by text without any recourse, communication or further explanation. Given the IRFU's ambivalence towards dealing with the clubs, maybe like a girlfriend scorned, they have turned up on the boyfriend's doorstep looking for an answer.

From experience, the IRFU are a reactive organisation.

It's obvious they haven't given clear thought on how to deal with disentangling amateur from professional. The clubs have been clever enough not to look for guidance and have taken things into their own hands. Whether a 10-team division one structure will change things is debatable.

The Australian 8-team semipro league has three years to work properly. The IRFU, late in the day, has written to every club secretary to ask for their belated opinion. "Whom should you have me release, Jesus of Nazareth or Barabas?" Pilate showed more interest in the whole thing.

Meanwhile, evolution is taking its course. Every club in Leinster seems to have lost about 150k for the season . . .

except one. The rumour mill is on fire. Club trustees are unwilling to underwrite overdrafts to sustain continuous losses. The provincial unions are also in a perilous financial state, so the inevitable has at last begun to come about.

Lansdowne and Monkstown have been in talks . . . Lansdowne need a ground, Monkstown senior status.

Blackrock are currently considering proposals to sell three acres to a developer and demolish their clubhouse in a radical restructure. Wanderers allegedly have been talking to one of the biggest developers in the country. It's happening . . . amalgamations and asset sales. Whether it saves or sustains is another matter, but they have no choice.

One thing though that is worth a thought is the accumulated land bank of say, Monkstown, Wanderers, Old Belvedere, Railway Union, Blackrock, St Mary's, Terenure and Greystones (subject to leases) would be worth in excess of 1bn at today's prices. If they all got together they could sell all the land and take over the union, or better still, form their own. Not an option really. Great for the IRFU though.

No more club problems to deal with. No more fan base, no more mini-rugby, no more ticket allocations. . . no more rugby . . . the game they are charged with propagating.

In the meantime, I will be applying to join every club in Leinster this season and wait for the end to come, and the dough. If the IRFU have decreed it then it will happen. Money talks.

nfrancis@tribune. ie