NRL Rich 100: Reece Walsh, Reuben Cotter & Dylan Edwards head list of shocks and snubs in 2023
Some of the rugby league’s brightest stars have shockingly been snubbed from the Rich 100, emerging as the NRL’s best bargain buys. See who missed out
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A two-time premiership-winning fullback and a World Cup-winning forward can’t make the NRL Rich 100.
Penrith’s Dylan Edwards and North Queensland’s Reuben Cotter are two of the most stunning omissions from the NRL’s highest money earners for 2023.
A month-long investigation undertaken by senior rugby league journalists Phil Rothfield, David Riccio, Brent Read, Michael Carayannis and Peter Badel has delivered the 2023 NRL Rich 100.
Ranked in order of their NRL contracts from one to 102, the much-anticipated list features rugby league’s highest earners and will be revealed in The Sunday Telegraph.
Yet neither Edwards or Cotter have made the list.
Joining them outside the top 100 as bargain deals, are Queensland and Brisbane Broncos fullback Reece Walsh, plus Broncos teammates and representative stars Pat Carrigan, Herbie Farnworth and Selwyn Cobbo.
Outstanding Parramatta centre Will Penisini and North Queensland playmaker Tom Dearden have also failed to make the Rich 100.
Yet it’s the omission of Edwards that will stun fans.
Long after he’s retired, the Penrith fullback will be revered for his instrumental role in the club’s greatest era of success.
Last year’s 2022 Clive Churchill medal winner for man of the match in the Panthers’ grand final win, Edwards sits around the $450,000 mark this year.
It’s unders in every sense of the word.
Look at his numbers already this season.
No other Panthers player has made more tackle busts or more run metres. He’s in the top two for tries scores and try assists, and misses less than one tackle per game.
The challenge for Penrith will be staving off interest from rival clubs with Edwards free to sign with another club for the 2025 season from November 1.
Star five-eighth Jarome Luai is in the same situation, which leaves Penrith in a delicate salary cap battle to keep both key figures at the club.
Cotter’s omission from the Rich 100 is equally as shocking.
He has proven, by his performances for Australia and for the Maroons during this year’s series, that he ranks among the top 10 forwards in the game.
Yet his $400,000 contract this season ranks him well down the list of highest money earners. Contracted to the Cowboys until 2025, Cotter’s deal will undoubtedly rise over the course of the next two seasons, with representative bonuses almost certain to catapult him into next year’s Rich 100.
The North Queensland forward is contracted until the end of 2025 and is, pound for pound, the most value for money player in the competition.
The Cowboys took a leap of faith in Cotter by securing him to a long-term deal at the end of 2021 after suffering a serious Lisfranc injury.
On the open market you’d expect Cotter to sit above the likes of Jack de Belin ($700,000), Luke Thompson ($800,000) and Brandon Smith ($800,000).
On the surface, the Broncos are flying with a roster loaded with rising stars.
Yet rapid-fire success can also rip a salary cap apart and that’s what Brisbane are in danger of when you consider that Walsh is earning $400,000 a season.
Given his performances at the back this year, for the Broncos and Queensland, it’s a cut-price deal that deserves to be regarded as a bargain buy.
Penisini, their talented centre, has made no secret of his passion for rugby union and the fact that his best friend Joseph Suaalii has already jumped ship to the rival code, has led to suggestions his schoolboy teammate could follow suit.
Missing out on the Rich 100 due to his $375,000 to $400,000 salary, many Eels fans would argue that is justified as the 20-year-old talent continues to develop his game, having made his NRL debut as a teen in 2021.
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