NO-ONE is whingeing about Mark Gasnier signing for St George Illawarra - not yet.

When it was first mooted that the former Australia centre would be returning to rugby league with the competition leaders, I spoke to a few players at other clubs informally about it.

One or two said that allowing Gasnier to have a "back-ended" contract - meaning he could be paid very little this year and a lot towards the end of his four-and-a-half year contract - was a little unfair.

They'd rather see him join Newcastle, who have space under the cap this year and need him, or another team near the bottom of the table.

But the majority were happy to see him back in rugby league and out of the evil clutches of rugby union.

That's all well and good but what happens in September when Gasnier is performing feats like his Centenary Test acrobatics with Greg Inglis - for a team that is pretty hard to beat anyway?

I'm tipping reasons Gasnier should not have been allowed to join the joint venture will then be falling from the sky like the rain in Christchurch yesterday.

There's one argument I have already put to NRL chief executive David Gallop: how can the league compel Melbourne to release superstar players who have binding contracts for next year and at the same time allow someone like Mark Gasnier to rejoin a club with its 2010 salary cap at its limit - initially for a pittance?

"The two situations are not necessarily analogous," Gallop responded. "We judge every situation on its merits."

The fact is, league fans deserve a more detailed explanation than that and when the questions start flying, I am reasonably confident we'll get one.

Explain to us how it's OK to break up the Storm but not OK let Mark Gasnier sign with the competition leaders whose cap is full. I'm all ears.

Perhaps the Gasnier signing is a timely illustration about the different cultures in league and AFL - or even between a sport with an independent commission and one without.

The AFL will pay someone a million or more dollars a year and hand him to a club "in need" - like an expansion team. The other clubs nod in agreement, if begrudgingly.

It was reported at the weekend that the AFL had offered to top up any Greg Inglis contract with a Melbourne club to the tune of $500,000  year.

But in rugby league, where the self-interest is kept in check but ever-present, no-one can imagine a governing body interfering in the affairs of clubs so blatantly.

The "interests of the game" are not sufficient grounds to favour one one club over another in our game.

That's why - as things stand now - there would be a lot more whingeing if the Dragons had been stopped from signing Gasnier.

But if the joint venture wins its first premiership in October, that will change. The new body which starts running the game a month later will have a handy example for why interfering is not such a bad thing after all.

(Editor's note: St George's price for the NRL Premiership was today cut by TAB Sportsbet from $3.25 to $3.00 after the club secured Gasnier. It is their shortest price this year.)