Jack Wighton’s Souths deal makes a mockery of the NRL salary cap

Jack Wighton’s bombshell defection to join a rival on a lesser deal marks the latest extinction to strike the game of rugby league.

The deal makes a mockery of the salary cap. Picture: NRL Photos / Brett Costello

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In another blow for communism, Souths have secured the services of Jack Wighton on a million dollar discount only days after vanquishing the defending premiers and opening a new Centre of Excellence made of rich European mahogany.

Even worse, this was all achieved while reportedly retaining a suite of backline guns, probably while still paying Greg Inglis, Sam Burgess and Craig Coleman.

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Wighton’s decision to ignore big money offers and accept a paltry $900,000 to pursue premiership glory is romantic by today’s standards, except that it’s rendered the salary cap as extinct as the shoulder charge.

While the signing will reportedly see a number of Rabbitohs take a pay cut or a hike, it’s still a rich club warehousing a marquee five-eighth in a champagne backline and the optics smell like an anchovy’s feet.

Wighton’s defection is the latest blow to the NRL’s beleaguered salary cap, a policy meant for fairly distributing talent that only serves to inflame class warfare and drag sombreros back into fashion.

Much like the policy’s own rule to prohibit clubs from cynically undervaluing players, the $12.1m restriction on player wages exists to some only as a “nominal value”.

The deal makes a mockery of the salary cap. Picture: NRL Photos / Brett Costello

While many adhere to this ceiling, others treat it as a mere guideline, thus leading to a gap between the haves and have-nots as cavernous as a Thursday night at Accor Stadium.

For any unfashionable club to have a chance of signing Wighton – i.e. the Tigers, or heaven forbid, the Raiders – it would require the darkest of dark arts to even compete with the hideously thick wallets of the competition’s elite.

This could include selling-off the health of their cap with an offer beyond their means, selling-off their integrity with a black label third party deal, or simply selling off their future by offering eye-watering overs to a dispensable backrower who played two Origins last decade.

Take for example, the Tigers unrequited blank cheques for Latrell Mitchell and Cam Munster, the litany of clubs caught cheating to finish 14th, or the Warriors acting as the holiday destination for off-contract Storm backrowers approaching superannuation.

The Raiders aren’t happy about the move. (Photo by Mark Nolan/Getty Images)

Anything less is no match for a ‘winning culture’ or a list where there’s ‘plenty of room’ because they just offloaded Boyd Cordner and Dally Messenger nor is it a match for a new speed boat.

In short, some joints in the NRL enjoy a salary cap exemption on salaries.

And the worst thing about Souths associating themselves with this behaviour?

By questionably stockpiling WMDs, they’ve become no better than insidious movements like Saddam Hussein’s Iraq or Wayne Bennett’s Broncos in the process morphing into something they loathe.

When Russell Crowe bought the failing club and decked out A-list celebs in team garb, we marvelled at his ability to blend Souths’ working class shtick with Hollywood glitz, but this deal undoes all his hard work.

Not only does recruiting Wighton on the cheap contribute to the death of the cap, it blows years of moral ascendancy for Souths by placing them in the same bracket as the Roosters, a club they have long condemned for failing to lodge a tax return since the 70s.

Dane Eldridge is a warped cynic yearning for the glory days of rugby league, a time when the sponges were magic and the Mondays were mad. He’s never strapped on a boot in his life, and as such, should be taken with a grain of salt.

Originally published as Jack Wighton’s Souths deal makes a mockery of the NRL salary cap