Parramatta Eels salary cap: After all the cheating, the NRL’s most poorly run club still have nothing

ALL that cheating — cash payments, third party rorts, fictitious invoices - and the Eels have nothing to show for it but a couple of wooden spoons.

IT all began to unravel in the offices of a city law firm where integrity unit boss Nick Weeks had set up his temporary war room.

Armed with the mobile phone records of every Parramatta Eels employee and their computer hard drives, Weeks and his team of forensic experts began ploughing through 750,000 documents.

Cash payments to players, third party rorts, emails from player agents, fictitious invoices and much, much more.

NRL Integrity Unit boss Nick Weeks and CEO Todd Greenberg reveal the punishment.

One by one past and present officials were summoned in secrecy to the legal firm, a tactic Weeks used to protect their identity rather than risk them being seen at NRL headquarters and being accused of dumping on the club.

Every interview and every conversation was taped.

Eventually with all the evidence gathered, it became apparent the club had cheated to the extent of being more than $3 million over the cap since 2011.

Last Thursday Weeks walked into chief executive Todd Greenberg’s office with his spreadsheets and the grim findings.

They both delivered the news to the independent commission later that day.

Still Greenberg couldn’t reach his final decision on a penalty. The commission agreed $1 million was the right fine. All weekend Greenberg tossed and turned over a fair points deduction.

Would 12 be enough? How would Melbourne Storm and Bulldogs fans react. Did Parramatta fans and players still deserve some hope this year.

How would the other 15 clubs, their members and fans, and all the major stakeholders feel about it?

In the end they got off lighter than Melbourne Storm and the Bulldogs.

Outside of the Auckland Nines, there was no silverware to take. They’d won nothing but a couple of wooden spoons since the rorts began.

Talk about the world’s dumbest cheats.

Former Parramatta CEO Denis Fitzgerald watches from the back of the room.

Not only did they leave such an obvious trail of dishonesty and deception through board minutes, emails and text messages, their actions in spending more than their rivals amounted to nothing.

They came nowhere near the finals (2012 Wooden spoon, 2013 wooden spoon, 2014 10th and 2015 12th.)

It’s the further proof that Greenberg and Weeks made the right decision by issuing five of their officials show cause notices as to why they shouldn’t be deregistered.

If the club couldn’t be run even by cheating, what hope do they have on a level playing field.

Greenberg summed it up best with his comment: “This is the most poorly managed club in the competition.”

“We’ve tried everything with their board and officials to come forward and to be honest and upfront and all we’ve got is denial.

“The broken the cap in five of the last six years. They’ve had 25 different directors in the last seven years and six CEO’s in that time.”

The club had paid the price for cheating — now the players must look to the future. Pic: Twitter.

As much as there is interim pain for Parramatta army of blue and gold supporters, there is great hope for the future.

Work is soon to begin on their brand new 35,000 seat stadium. Their Leagues club makes an annual profit of $16 million. They have the biggest junior nursery in the country.

They have the best new coach in the game in Brad Arthur. They have Kieran Foran and Corey Norman to call the shots. They will get five new officials to replace those who been deregistered.

This is an opportunity for a fresh start. An opportunity for them to become the most powerful and successful club in the game and the pride of Sydney’s west.