Monday Buzz: Clubs lose patience as sluggish NRL sits on a fortune

MONDAY BUZZ: THIS is potentially going to be the biggest and most bitter off-field fracas since the Super League war, writes PHIL ROTHFIELD.

Artwork: Scott “Boo” Bailey.

EVERYONE in rugby league knows the NRL so frustratingly operates in slow motion.

On Friday, November 27, 2015, the independent commission signed off on a $1.8 billion television deal. That’s exactly one year, four months and 27 days ago.

Unlike other businesses that can rarely rely on guaranteed long-term income, the NRL knew it was getting $360 million per year in cash from broadcast fees for the next five seasons from Fox Sports and Channel 9.

That’s before Origin and finals gate-takings and sponsorship revenue.

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With the money locked in it was a perfect opportunity to start planning the future.

To show a bit of vision and inspiration. Plan future player payments. Salary cap. Club grants. Grassroots investment. Pathways. A women’s comp. A strategic plan. Bush footy etc, etc. Something.

Yet one year, four months and 27 days on nothing has happened.

A salary cap figure of $8.7 million has been revealed for next year but rejected out of hand by the clubs and the players’ association.

Artwork: Scott “Boo” Bailey.

So after 16 months we’re still only at a negotiation stage in which the clubs are about to combine with the players’ union to launch a full-scale assault for a $10 million cap.

They will accept nothing less.

This is potentially going to be the biggest and most bitter off-field fracas since the Super League war.

The game is seriously ­facing months of upheaval.

Players’ union boss Ian Prendergast says strike action is a last resort but a possible outcome.

The NRL got an 80 per cent increase on the previous broadcast deal but is refusing to pass on a fair share to the people who made it all possible — the players.

It has boxed itself into a corner by agreeing to pay the clubs 30 per cent more than the salary cap. So the more the players get, the more they have to pay the clubs.

That was the dumb part of doing the clubs before the players.

Jack Bird is off to the Broncos next year.

It’s outrageous that the administration at Moore Park headquarters is now threatening clubs that have already overspent for next year that they won’t register contracts.

This is their fault. The only people to blame are those working for the NRL at such a snail’s pace.

The people who have had, I repeat, one year, four months and 27 days to get this mess sorted out.

What have Todd Greenberg, John Grant and their senior management been doing?

Whatever happened to the highly paid Shane Richardson’s grand plan?

If they can’t give the players a fair slice of the pie, where is all the money going?

Surely this should all have been worked out before the start of this season.

The independent commission was set up to provide the management expertise to run rugby league like a proper business.

Instead, the game is a mess.

James Tedesco is set to join the Roosters in 2018.

For weeks and months we’ve been writing about player deals and swaps in a transfer system that has gone crazy.

Now the NRL is saying some of those deals are in jeopardy.

Maybe the Bulldogs won’t have to sack five players, after all?

Where does it leave Josh Reynolds?

Can the Roosters afford James Tedesco if the cap is only $8.7 million?

Can the Dragons have Gareth Widdop and Ben Hunt soaking up $2.2 million of their salary cap.

Will the Broncos have to let Jack Bird go? Can the Cowboys still afford Jordan McLean?

Seriously, this is all out of control. And it’s all because the NRL has been too slow.