Kieran Foran seeking $200,000 severance payout from Parramatta Eels

KIERAN Foran is seeking a severance payout from Parramatta of up to $200,000, as the club looks move him on and start planning for 2017.

KIERAN Foran is seeking a payout of up to $200,000 from the Parramatta Eels as the club looks to finalise his departure to allow it to start planning for 2017.

Foran spectacularly decided to walk away from the NRL and his $5 million deal with the Eels earlier this month, as he looked to a complete break from the game to sort out a number of personal issues.

As part of his decision, Foran formally requested a release from the Eels for the rest of his playing contract - but that request now comes with a financial settlement application.

Kieran Foran requested a relsease - and could get a big severance package for it.

The star Eels recruit was believed to be on a base salary of around $800,000 a year. It is believed Foran is seeking between two and three months of this salary as a severance payment from the club - either until the start of October when the NRL season ends, or the beginning of November, when the current salary cap year officially ends.

Given any severance pay would take into account his base salary, a two-month payout for Foran would add up to about $135,000, while a three-month payment would equate to around $200,000.

Player-wise, finalising Foran’s departure is the first order of business for Parramatta’s preparations for next year. Once his severance is finalised, the club can start to examine both the re-signing of Corey Norman and the possible signing of Jarryd Hayne from the 2017 season onwards.

Insiders say that once the terms of Foran’s departure from the club are finalised, they will look to hold discussions with Norman, before working out how much room they have in the cap for Hayne.

The ability of the Eels to sign Norman and Hayne is set to depend on the club’s negotiations with the NRL about how and how much of any severance pay for Foran will be classified.

Subject to the approval of salary cap auditor Jamie L’Oste-Brown, the club may be able to find a way to exclude the amount from its cap for 2016.

If it is under its salary cap for 2016, this may allow the Eels to bring forward some of the club’s payments to players for the 2017 season - helping it to find more room in the cap next year for players like Norman and Hayne.

This could prove crucial, as the NRL’s initial breach notice against the club found $1.3 million in dodgy third party deals offered by the Eels would need to be included in the club’s salary cap between 2017 and 2019 - jeopardising its cap position.

The Eels are still hoping to retain Corey Norman, despite his offield controversies.

With the departures of Foran and Anthony Watmough - who were the biggest beneficiaries of these future TPAs - the Eels’ salary cap position for the next three years would now improve dramatically.

Foran was scheduled to receive $450,000 in under-the-table TPAs between 2017 and 2019, while Watmough was in line for $400,000 - reducing the Eels’ salary cap overhang for 2017-19 to just $450,000.

There is no suggestion Foran and Watmough have done anything wrong.

Interim Parramatta Eels Boss Max Donnelly, right, with coach Brad Arthur.

Meanwhile, the Eels’ new board met the club’s players for the first time, with interim Eels chairman Max Donnelly, interim CEO Bevan Paul and interim director Jim Sarantinos meeting the club’s players for the first time.

With coach Brad Arthur also present, insiders said Mr Donnelly told the players that the club would this week commence the recruitment process this week for the club’s two most senior executive roles: that of CEO (to replace the sacked John Boulous) and head of football (to replace the sacked Daniel Anderson).

Arthur is understood to be particularly keen to fill the head of football role, as the role has effectively been vacant since May when Anderson was first suspended by the NRL.

“For the players, nothing changes - it’s just a different board,” Mr Donnelly is said to have told the players.