Parramatta Eels to make Nathan Peats the price of their salary cap dramas

NATHAN Peats has been knocked out, nearly blinded and fractured his neck. All for the Eels. But none of that matters in the business of rugby league, writes PAUL KENT.

ANTHONY Watmough was widely lauded last week for his willingness to “take one for the team”, as he said, and retire to help the get the Eels below the salary cap before Friday’s game.

That Watmough already had one foot in retirement got lost in the tributes.

Such loyalties got sorely tested on Tuesday when it emerged that Watmough’s retirement, along with Ryan Morgan’s departure, were not enough to make the Eels legal again and that another player, most likely Nathan Peats, had to go.

Nathan Peats faced the media on Tuesday and admitted his uncertainty over his future.

Peats is at the peak of his career. He is 25 and nowhere near retirement.

He took a call from Eels coach Brad Arthur on Monday night and was told his number had gone in the frame to be moved on as a way to make Parramatta salary cap compliant.

Peats was crestfallen. Much of what he believed in, the whole club, team, player philosophy, was gone.

He believed he had gone above and beyond for the club.

In his three seasons at the club he has been knocked out and picked up, nearly blinded, dislocated his elbow, fractured his neck and cost himself a shot at the NSW jersey last year after he wrecked a knee the season before.

All for the Eels.

The game takes a tremendous toll on players. Yet for all that Peats is the fall guy.

The business of rugby league came to Parramatta this week.

Little of it is fair. It is just the way it is because numbers are numbers and can’t be stretched and the Eels must get below the salary cap.

Yet the future for Peats is in the other guy, Watmough.

Watmough arrived at Parramatta last year on a rich four-year deal that few believed he would see through. It was long accepted his knee was as worn as a bald tyre.

Parramatta knew this but it matters little now.

The Eels somehow signed Watmough without a full medical.

Before he got to Parramatta the Eels somehow overlooked a pre-contract medical and Watmough signed away, all four years, and the Eels quickly dressed him in club colours.

His value to the club was going to come beyond just what he would bring to the playing field.

Once in club colours, Parramatta physio Vicki Locke examined him and found that chronic knee injury. It was the first line written in her report that the NRL took away with them last Friday.

Despite the pre-existing condition the NRL is set to rule that Watmough’s knee, re-injured in February after a collision with Beau Scott, is career-ending.

Watmough will live with the bum knee the rest of his life. At least until he has it replaced.

That is the price of what players give nowadays.

The NRL’s reluctance to write off all Watmough’s contract on the new career-ending insurance scheme is good, despite making it more difficult for Parramatta to solve their cap issues.

It meant the Eels had to add Peats to the list of Watmough and Morgan to get their salaries down.

It also stems what would most likely lead to a flood of claims as clubs look at the new insurance scheme as a way to move on players no longer providing value under the cap.

They will be easy to find. Nobody plays 10 years without some permanent scar.

Peats suffered a fresh one on Tuesday. It is the modern game.

Originally published as Parramatta Eels to make Nathan Peats the price of their salary cap dramas