NRL: Proof Roosters’ salary sombrero is a myth

The NRL has delivered the proof that the Sydney Roosters’ so-called salary cap “sombrero” is a myth.

The Roosters celebrated their second NRL premiership in a row this season

The NRL has delivered the proof that the Sydney Roosters’ so-called salary cap “sombrero” is a myth.

The league’s own evidence has revealed that the all-conquering back-to-back premiers have done it the hard way, powering their way into rugby league history despite playing with a paltry amount of third-party sponsorship deals.

Incredibly, the star-studded Roosters ranked 11th overall in the league after pulling in a combined total of $68,966 in “private sector arms-length agreements”.

That was astonishingly less than 1/10th of what the No 1 ranked Melbourne Storm players received in bonuses totalling $809,998 this year.

Most likely, these statistics the NRL revealed on Friday will probably only give salary cap sceptics more ammunition to have a crack at Trent Robinson’s roster and ask, how is this possible?

But what this list also highlights is the significant advantage one-city clubs such as Melbourne and Brisbane have over their rivals.

The Broncos were second overall ($349,852) while Penrith came in third ($233,333) followed by South Sydney ($198,591) and Cronulla fifth ($211,952).

Newcastle was next ($181,275) followed by Manly was next ($148,718), Wests Tigers ($132,458), St George Illawarra ($82,951), Parramatta ($80,166), the Roosters, Canterbury ($59,680), grand finalists Canberra ($45,333), Warriors ($27,591), Gold Coast ($18,153) while astonishingly North Queensland was last ($15,667).

Not surprisingly given last summer’s “train wreck” of off-field scandals, the NRL also revealed that overall third party agreements were down significantly.

They plummeted from $7.8m in 2018 to $6m this year, while the private sector agreements were also down from $4.2m overall to just $2.7m.

Another significant factor in the decline would have related to the retirement of superstars such as Billy Slater and Johnathan Thurston, which the margins indicate came at a significant cost to their club’s overall tallies.

The Storm were down $200,000 on 2018 while the Cowboys nosedived by about $350,000 in private agreements after losing Thurston.

The total number of agreements was also down from 205 to 171, the number of player agreements was down from 94 to 81 and the club average was down from $264,000 to $166,000.

Despite this the NRL believe these figures should give fans faith that the policing of all third party payments is working better than ever before.

NRL chief operating officer Nick Weeks explained: “We recognised the genuine concerns our clubs and fans had about third-party agreements.

“That’s why we introduced more strenuous measures to ensure these agreements are genuine arms-length deals.

“We are confident that this level of transparency about third-party agreements will improve confidence in the effective operation of the salary cap and reduce the amount of speculation and guess work about this part of the game.”

The Daily Telegraph