Simple fix to stop NRL salary cap cheats

SALARY cap cheating is the great scourge of the NRL, writes PAUL KENT. Here is the simple way that we can fix it.

IN any business besides baseball, where a batter can miss seven out of every 10 and be considered a wild success, a 26 per cent success rate is poor going.

In the 19 seasons since the NRL formed in 1998, with a $3.25 million salary cap but with several notable exclusions, there have been only five seasons when clubs have officially not been systematically cheating the salary cap.

So just 26 per cent of NRL ­seasons were fair.

Todd Greenberg announces Parramatta's salary cap punishment. Picture: Brett Costello

The only clean seasons in the NRL were 1998-99, 2003 and 2011-12, and even 1998-99 comes with an asterisk after the NRL called a moratorium on wages in the aftermath of Super League.

The St George Illawarra joint venture could not possibly get below that and ran around with a roster worth closer to $9 million in 1998, although in a gentlemen’s agreement the volunteered figure was generally about $6 million.

Wests Tigers were also considerably over the salary cap, although not as high as the Dragons.

All clubs were given two seasons to be under the $3.25 million cap by the 2000 season.

Take out those seasons and the legal seasons in the NRL falls to 15 per cent. Just three from 19.

The first believed to be even season in fact turned out to be the first dirty season, when Canterbury refused to play by the rules in 2000.

The Bulldogs did not get busted until 2002 but, as part of the NRL investigation, the Bulldogs also confessed to cheating in 2000 and 2001.

The 2003 season was clean and won by the fairytale Panthers. They were 100-1 at one point to win the competition but on the back of blossoming juniors they went on a run that ended in premiership glory.

The Warriors cheated the following season. They weren’t busted until 2006 but when the NRL got a proper look they found the cheating also went on in 2004-05.

Melbourne won the minor premiership the following season, 2006, but the trophy and prizemoney were later stripped when they got busted in 2010.

Melbourne Storm were stripped of two premierships among their many punishments.

The NRL found Storm cheated for the five seasons from 2006 to 2010. It cost them two premierships, some minor premierships and considerable cred. We believe 2011 and 2012 were clean.

Then came Parramatta, who started cheating in 2013 and kept on it for the next four seasons, exceeding the cap by $3 million over those four seasons.

Taking in fines for “undisclosed (but not hidden) loans”, “undisclosed payments”, “reclassified third-party” agreements, “voluntary but belated disclosures”, “undisclosed” payments of a car and all the other variations of innocent cheating, according to the NRL’s own website, there has never been a season in the NRL when every club was below the salary cap.

We need to fix it. Cap cheating is almost spoken about now like speeding, an acceptable sin.

It is a large reason Parramatta got caught, speaking so casually about what they were doing.

To stop it we need to acknowledge that the only time salary-cap cheating was revealed to an extent competition points and premierships were stripped was after a whistleblower leaked evidence.

It is the only sure-fire method to unveil what is truly going on in clubland.

Here is how we fix it:

The NRL needs to put up a $500,000 reward for anyone providing documented evidence that reveals systematic and deliberate cheating.

This will meet violent opposition from those in clubland, who will need to fiercely oppose it for one simple reason.

The Eels were the latest club to be penalised for being over the salary cap.

Whistleblowers are the one party they cannot shut down. They are beyond the club’s control.

It could be a lowly employee at a club providing inflated invoices, a disgruntled manager, a car salesman signing over a vehicle to a player’s wife, all of whom see $500,000 as life-changing.

And here is the best part of putting up such a massive reward. It will not cost the NRL one cent.

How, I hear you ask?

Once the NRL is satisfied it has documented evidence that a club is cheating, it pays the whistleblower out of its fine to the club.

So in this season’s edition Parramatta is fined a further $500,000 which goes straight through to the whistleblower. Effectively, the club will be paying their own whistleblower to turn on them.

Salary-cap cheating is the great scourge of the NRL.

The NRL needs to put up a $500,000 reward for anyone providing documented evidence that reveals salary cap cheating.

More, it provides damaging ­evidence for anti-NRL people to attack the game, unable to get even our own house in order.

The evidence supports their case.

The AFL blushes at only one major salary-cap breach. Carlton was caught in 2002 and lost a stack of draft choices, enough to set the club back years.

Nothing since.

The popular opinion in the AFL is that the penalty for being caught is so severe clubs will not risk it, certainly not to the extent NRL clubs do.

Unfortunately, too often the NRL tries to be all things to all ­people and so is too soft. Allowing Parramatta the chance to win a premiership in the same season they were caught cheating, for ­example, is such an example.

It is enough incentive for clubs to continue rolling the dice, hoping to bank a premiership.

The NRL can cut deeply into that mindset.

Just put up the poster.

JUST ANSWER THE QUESTION

DARREN LOCKYER

Nominated for Men Of League’s Captain’s Captain, to find the foremost Kangaroos skipper.

You’re Australia’s most capped skipper, that’s a big honour.

A lot of my games were overseas so most of my memories as captain are of playing over there.

Is there a difference between captaining club and country?

The players who get to Australian level are talented and know their job. What you wanted to do was get them to play for one another rather than tactics and gameplans.

Darren Lockyer in action for the Kangaroos.

What’s the key to captaining Australia for you?

Playing away from home you come into some hostile environments so it’s about showing mental toughness as a person. That’s one thing I found at Test level, which was playing with mental toughness more than anything.

I’ve never heard anyone talk about it that way.

A lot of time, playing the Pommies, they would try to put you off your game by playing the niggle. I thought your body language was always important to make sure they weren’t winning that battle.

What about the current Test debate, incumbents versus succession planning, which works best?

A bit of both. You’ve got to have an eye on the future but you’ve also got to have one eye on the present. Mal (Meninga) wanted to get that Kangaroos DNA so the older guys, the ones we’re talking about, they knew what it was all about.

Vote for your Kangaroos’ Captain’s Captain: menofleague.com.au

Originally published as Simple fix to stop NRL salary cap cheats