NRL players must be held accountable for salary cap rorts
If the NRL is serious about eliminating salary cap rorting, the punishment should just be for clubs, but one-year bans for players and their managers who receive illegal payments, writes PETER BADEL.
Opinion
Don't miss out on the headlines from Opinion. Followed categories will be added to My News.
If the NRL is serious about eliminating salary cap rorting, it needs to get serious with across-the-board sanctions.
Clubs should not be solely held accountable.
Any player found to have received payments, deemed to be illicit by NRL salary-cap investigators, should be banned from the code for one year.
Their managers, to whom players pay up to $70,000 a year for professional representation, should be banned for twice as long.
The type of systemic salary cap cheating that we’ve seen in the NRL is evidence that for rorting to take place, it must be deep-seated and involve a web of deceptive parties.
I was once told there are two certainties in life: death and taxes.
There is now a third — NRL players borrowing a line from Hogan’s Heroes and screaming “I know nothing” when their club is caught fudging the figures.
Forget that boat in the garage. Or the Harvey Norman vouchers. Or the $25,000 in cash one Sydney-based NRL star once found in his fridge.
Forever and always, NRL players hear no evil and see no evil.
For decades, the code has created an unhealthy subculture among its 400-plus registered players.
The players are never to blame. Never asked to take ownership for anything external to on-field performance.
Well, when it comes to a salary cap scandal, they should have to face the music.
It would take an extremely naive person to believe that at least some NRL players are not privy to the furtive creative accounting practices of their club.
They must surely be aware of their exact salary when it is deposited into their bank account each month — and whether any alarm bells ring if a separate financial amount suddenly appears.
Indeed, there is an argument players reside in a state of plausible deniability, happily ignorant for a club to rort the cap as long as it stays on the down-low, no evidence is found and they receive the money they are promised.
In the wake of the Storm’s massive salary-cap scandal in 2010, the NRL beefed-up its standard player contract. Agents, players and CEOs are now required to sign statutory declarations agreeing that any contract registered with the NRL is valid and does not contravene salary-cap laws.
In the world of anti-doping, athletes know ignorance is no defence. It isn’t good enough for the world’s best Olympians to say to drug testers, “Sorry, I wasn’t aware the protein shake I was taking contained a banned substance”.
Bad luck. WADA doesn’t bat an eyelid as they slap cheats with a four-year ban.
The same mentality should apply in the NRL.
It is not acceptable for players to simply say “I know nothing” when the latest salary-cap saga uncovers dodgy money they received.
They should know where their salary is coming from. They should ask questions. They should care.
On Tuesday, I asked one of the code’s leading agents if players would be aware if they are receiving illegal payments.
“Absolutely,” he said.
“It is an absolute crock of shit for players to claim they aren’t aware of receiving dodgy payments.
“I’ve been doing this a long time and every time I negotiate a deal, players know the terms. They know exactly what they getting.
“When a third-party deal is struck, there are two ways the money is passed onto the player.
“The company can pay the player directly into his bank account. In my experience, it usually is paid first to the manager, who takes his commission, then pays the remaining amount to the player.
“When I deposit money, I write ‘TPA’ and the company’s name so my player knows exactly what he is getting.
“Every player I have ever represented knows exactly what are they getting.
“If they were being short-changed $100,000 on their contract, they would kick and scream.
“Ultimately, it’s up to the NRL to decide whether to expose players and agents.
“If they aren’t prepared to do it, what was the point of asking for stat decs from players and agents in the first place?”
‘That was a very false win – in Sydney NSW win by at least 30’
We’re headed for an Origin decider – but you could be mistaken for thinking the Blues had already lost the series. HAVE YOUR SAY
Origin III will define one of these men for the rest of their lives
For all of their achievements so far, Nathan Cleary and Cameron Munster have been playing in the shadows of greatness – in a little over two weeks one man will claim the spotlight to himself, writes BRENT READ.