NRL fans weary of clubs rorting salary cap, but there’s an easy solution to clean up mess
NRL fans are sick of reading about salary cap breaches but, concerningly, there’s a huge correlation between clubs that breach the cap and those that make the grand final. With the system the way it is, can you win a title without breaching the cap?
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NRL fans are sick and tired of reading about salary cap breaches. But there is an easy way to solve this issue.
Make public the salaries of every NRL player. It’s how it works for the big American sports of the NBA and NFL, so why not the NRL.
In our recent NRL survey, 86 per cent of respondents were adamant that salaries of players should be made transparent. Clubs can still cheat the cap but it would be much easier to expose.
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Over the past two decades, the game has suffered due to a number of NRL clubs’ willingness to break the salary cap.
For loyal supporters of the game, it’s becoming hard to stomach. Salary caps are incredibly hard to comprehend and many fans struggle to understand what is inside a salary cap, what isn’t, what constitutes a third party agreement and what doesn’t. It’s easy to get confused and bogged down in the details.
Why is it that only the NRL seems to become embroiled in these salary cap crises?
What is truly troublesome is the amount of NRL grand finalists who have been caught exploiting the cap in the same season they’ve reached the decider.
If Tuesday’s allegations are found to be true, Cronulla would become the eighth premiers since 2000 to have been fined for breaching the salary cap in the same year they claimed the title.
Between 2000 and 2010, seven premiers were proven to have overspent their cap, with some cases far more serious than others.
Outside of the Storm in 2007 and 2009, the offences weren’t deemed severe enough to warrant the stripping of titles.
Further to this, champions Brisbane (2000) and Manly (2011) were found guilty of cap breaches the following season.
The Knights also had cap offences either side of their 2001 premiership.
There is no suggestion Brisbane, Manly or Newcastle had overspent the cap in their premiership year.
Several cases have been very minor misdemeanours, such as the 2010 decider when the premiership-winning Dragons received a $15,700 fine for their breach.
Regardless, they were one of just a handful of clubs playing above the cap that season.
Other instances have been far more serious, such as the Melbourne Storm’s systematic cheating across a number of seasons that was exposed in 2010.
Serious cases have dated all the way back to the Canberra Raiders glory days at the beginning of the nineties.
The Raiders breached the cap in 1990 when defeating Penrith in the grand final.
The following year, when beaten by the Panthers in the decider, the club breached the salary cap by a staggering $1.5 million.
Rightly so, supporters of underperforming clubs are questioning the legitimacy of rosters dominating the competition on any given year.
The echoes of fans are growing louder with every new breach.
While there’s been many minor breaches of the cap, these are the chief rorters of the salary cap in recent seasons. We don’t want to add any more teams to this list.
HISTORY OF MAJOR NRL SALARY CAP BREACHES
Manly Sea Eagles (2018)
In March, the NRL found had made payments of $1.5 million outside cap rules involving 13 players over the last five years. The club was fined $750,000 and forced to play $330,000 under the cap for both 2018 and 2019 seasons. Former CEO Joe Kelly (now at the Roosters) and chief operating officer Neil Bare were suspended for 12 months.
Parramatta Eels (2016)
A Daily Telegraph investigation revealed the Eels had breached the salary cap over a four-year period through third-party payments to several players. They club was fined $1 million and stripped of their 2016 NRL Auckland Nines title after the NRL found they were over the salary cap by over $500,000. They were also stripped of the 12 points they had earned before the punishment was handed down and were allowed to play for points once they were salary cap-compliant.
Melbourne Storm (2010)
Following claims by a whistleblower that the club was keeping a second set of books, the NRL discovered the Storm had made $3.78 million in payments to players outside of the salary cap between 2006-10. The Storm were fined a record $1.689 million, stripped of the 2007 and 2009 premierships, the 2006, 2007 and 2009 minor premierships and the 2010 World Club Challenge. They were also controversially ordered to play the 2010 season for no competition points.
New Zealand Warriors (2005)
In 2005, the Warriors revealed the club’s former management had exceeded the salary cap by $1.1 million over the previous two years. The NRL fined the club $430,000 and cut their payroll by $450,000. They also the 2006 season with a four premiership point deficit which eventually cost the Warriors a place in the finals.
Canterbury Bulldogs (2002)
With the Bulldogs on the verge of claiming the minor premiership in August 2002, the NRL found the club had breached the salary cap by more than $2 million over three years, all due to undisclosed player payments. They were fined $500,000 and stripped of all 37 premiership points, finishing with the wooden spoon.
Originally published as NRL fans weary of clubs rorting salary cap, but there’s an easy solution to clean up mess
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