Ignore the hard noises, the NRL are going soft on Manly’s salary cap cheating
THE NRL’s supposed punishments for Manly’s salary cap infringements are bizarre and backs up the theory that this tough rhetoric is all about appearances, writes PAUL KENT.
Opinion
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FORGET everything you saw, the NRL’s hard-line stance against Manly was nothing but posturing.
After police leaks and intense media speculation sparked the NRL into investigation nine months ago, Emerald City was simply under too much pressure to clear Manly.
So they pushed on, hoping nobody would peel back the curtain.
The Sea Eagles believe the NRL is applying the internal process to come down hard on the club for the sake of public appearances rather than the legal process which would exonerate them.
It would explain some of the bizarre decisions from Monday’s sanctions against Manly for salary cap cheating.
Why are two officials, former chief executive Joe Kelly and chief operating officer Neil Bare, about to lose their jobs for their role in the scandal — yet no action has been taken against the beneficiaries of their alleged actions, the players?
While there is no suggestion players knew of payment discrepancies, why aren’t they ultimately responsible for their own finances, in the same way athletes are responsible for what substances go into their bodies under Australian Sports Anti-doping Authority code?
Why were no competition points deducted from a team where as many as 15 players, according to NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg, were allegedly given under the table money?
What the NRL did do was equally perplexing.
Owner Scott Penn got hit with a $750,000 fine.
The sanctions actually put more money in Penn’s pocket, not less.
It breaks down like this:
The Sea Eagles were fined $750,000 but a third of that, $250,000, is suspended if Manly undertakes “appropriate governance changes”.
So they go find a course that tells them not to cheat, apparently, and once they tick that box it leaves $500,000 to pay.
The Sea Eagles have also been hit with a $660,000 penalty “applied to the salary cap” over the next two years.
So the $660,000 that Manly can’t spend on the cap will now go towards paying the $500,000 fine.
It leaves Penn $160,000 in the black.
Beautiful.
The greatest damage is to coach Trent Barrett and his roster, forced to head into this season and the next without a mid-range player. Yes, just a mid-range player after the $330,000 is applied.
As for Penn, other than his $160,000 bonus no other action has been taken. Which is just as well.
In November 2016 Penn revealed his family was tipping in about $1 million a year to keep Manly operating.
If the NRL hit Penn with a 12-month suspension — as it did with Kelly and Bare — what would he do?
He would throw the keys at them.
Why continue investing a million dollars a year into a team which he was banned from running?
And if Penn walked out you could shut the doors on the Sea Eagles forever.
Who would buy a club that costs about a million dollars a year out of your own pocket to run?
The NRL can’t help.
Greenberg was on record last year saying that the NRL no longer has the funds to support a club that gets itself into financial trouble.
And then the NRL’s $2 billion broadcast deal would have to be renegotiated at a reduced amount because the NRL would no longer have eight games to sell. Seven games and a bye would be worth significantly less.
And this, for an organisation that has no money in the bank from its last $1 billion broadcast deal and was rejected by all the major banks for a $30 million bridging loan before Christmas because the banks did not believe the NRL was worth the risk, wold be a disaster.
Since Penn was not part of the negotiations, he escaped sanction.
Dodged a bullet there.
Bob Fulton is still waiting for a phone call to tell him what he did wrong.
Greenberg was categorical Fulton would not be welcomed back to the game after resigning as an Australian selector last year.
Yet Fulton has not been told why.
“All I want is transparency,” he said.
He was part of the broader negotiations with players but not present for the details to be worked out, when the alleged deals were done.
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