NRL 2021: Bulldogs resist before bowing to get-out clause to secure signing of young gun Matt Burton

The Bulldogs went against club policy by becoming the 12th NRL club to insert a controversial get-out clause in a player contract when they landed Matt Burton.

Matt Burton in action for the Panthers. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

The Bulldogs broke a club policy by giving Matt Burton the power to walk away from the club after just two years — a gamble Canterbury had no other ­alternative but to take.

Burton only signed the lucrative $1.45 million three-year deal to join the Bulldogs next season on the premise that the final season of his contract had a get-out clause.

The controversial clause that gives players the option to exercise the final year of their deal is holding NRL clubs to ransom and contributing to several crippling salary cap crises.

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The Bulldogs had to take a real gamble in landing Matt Burton.

A News Corp investigation can reveal there are 12 NRL clubs who have at least one star on their list with player option deals known as a “suicide clause”.

The Parramatta Eels and the struggling Brisbane Broncos can be revealed as the worst culprits, with both clubs having four players each holding final-year options in their favour.

For the Eels, it leaves them with little room to recruit players given the salary cap uncertainty of not knowing whether those players will take up their options worth a staggering $3.65 million.

In the Broncos’ case, the $2.6 million no-win deals — that includes Matthew Lodge with an $800,000 option in his favour and Cory Oates holding a $500,000 option — are severely impacting coach Kevin Walters’ ability to rebuild the club.

The Roosters, who have been one of the NRL’s most successful clubs in the modern era, have refused for the past 10 years to sign any deals that has a player option.

However, the rebuilding Bulldogs would have lost Burton — who has been hailed as the answer to coach Trent Barrett’s halves problem — to a rival club if they didn’t break club policy.

Matt Lodge has a $800,000 option in his favour.

“They didn’t want to do it,” said a source close to the deal.

“No club wants to do a player option deal. They are suicide clauses.

“But the simple fact was that Burton would have signed with a rival club had the Bulldogs not agreed to include a third-year option in his favour.

“Not including it would have been a deal breaker. Only desperate clubs offer player option deals and well … they were desperate.”

Leading player managers said the player option was an insurance policy for underperforming players.

“It’s just madness that clubs still do them,” said a high-profile manager who asked to remain anonymous.

“Only underperforming players that aren’t worth what they are being paid activate the options. No player that can actually get more than what the option is worth has ever activated an option clause. The only ones (players) that take them up are the ones the club doesn’t want to keep.”

The Broncos are already feeling salary cap pressure after Kotoni Staggs knocked backed a $300,000 option for 2022.

Following a breakout season in 2020, when the centre became the player the Broncos signed him to be, Staggs is now hawking himself on the open market for $700,000 a year.

Lodge is at the other end of the scale.

After being signed at market value on a deal that included two years’ worth of options in his favour, Lodge will almost certainly take up the first of his two $800,000-a-year options after failing to live up to his price tag.

The Broncos are already attempting to off-load Lodge, who has fallen victim to the new and faster game, and are willing to pay as much as $400,000 a year to rid themselves of the player option deal.

Mitchell Moses is set to eat into the Eels salary cap next year.

Walters has inherited a player option crisis, with the injured Oates also set to cash in on a $500,000 deal signed under former head coach Anthony Seibold. “You have to look at who did these deals,” said another manager.

“Not just the coach but the manager.

“There could be something in that but good luck to him. He certainly looked after his players at the club’s expense.”

The Eels are also flirting with danger.

Their current good form could come at a future price with Mitchell Moses to cost the club at least another $800,000 next season, while Ryan Matterson will only agree to a $500,000 option if he can’t get more elsewhere.