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Teams are cheating: NRL club bosses’ concerning revelation
By Michael ChammasMARCH 7, 2022
More than two-thirds of NRL club bosses believe there are teams who are cheating the system by facilitating off-the-books payments to their players outside the salary cap.
The legitimacy of third-party deals has long been the gripe of passionate NRL fans, many of whom find it hard to believe it is a level playing field when it comes to the salary of players at certain clubs.
A whopping 70 per cent of the 23 CEOs and chairmen who took part in the anonymous annual Herald poll said they believed some clubs illegally obtain third-party deals for their players.
“The NRL have done a good job cleaning up a lot of the confusion and irregularities around third-party agreements,” one club boss said under the basis of anonymity.
“But many clubs believe that there are still instances where a club will operate outside the TPA rules to secure income for a player. That sort of assistance can make a big difference in signing or keeping a player.”
The NRL has stamped out a lot of third-party deals following the Parramatta Eels’ salary cap scandal in 2016, however there is still a perceived problem among the clubs.
Over the past four years the total registered third-party agreement market has nearly halved from more than $8.2m in 2017 to $4.2m last year.
Equalising the competition to ensure that salary cap rorting does not impact results is critical,” another club boss said. “Clubs should compete on a level playing field.”
The combined private sector arm’s length agreements have reduced from $4.6m in 2017 to $1.5m in 2021, which was impacted by the significant reduction of player appearances due to COVID-19.
One of the biggest contributing factors in the decline has been the retirements of some of the game’s superstars like Johnathan Thurston, Cameron Smith, Cooper Cronk and Billy Slater.
In 2018, the Storm had the highest amount of private sector arm’s length agreements of any team in the competition with in excess of $1 million of TPAs for Cronk, Smith and Slater.
In 2019, the Storm also had the biggest amount with the next highest clubs including the Broncos ($350,000), Panthers ($233,000), Sharks ($212,000) and Rabbitohs ($199,000).
The Roosters had just $69,000 worth of private sector TPAs in 2019, however the likes of Cronk and James Tedesco benefited from additional whole of game sponsorship which wasn’t included in the team-by-team breakdown.
The top three players in the game have consistently made up circa 20 per cent of the TPA market, with the top 10 making up around 40 per cent of the market.
Responsibility to ensure the integrity of the game will fall on the shoulders of chief executive Andrew Abdo, whose popularity has increased among the clubs to a record high rating of 4.4 out of 5.
"We have increased surveillance and education in this area," Abdo told the Herald.
"The NRL salary cap and integrity team will always take action if any potential breaches are reported or detected."
We complete regular audits. Clubs, players and agents are aware and educated about our rules. If the rules are breached we will take strong action as we have done in the past."
ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys has maintained his support in club land, scoring a rating of 4.5 as he heads into his third NRL season at the helm.
Another key take-out from the annual Herald poll is the support of an 18th team to join the competition before 2027.
With the Redcliffe Dolphins awarded a license as the 17th side for the 2023 season, the favoured destination for an 18th team is to add a second franchise in New Zealand alongside the Warriors.
Full article, with the survey & graphs here:
https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/te...es-concerning-revelation-20220305-p5a228.html
The Sydney Morning Herald approached all 31 of the NRL club chief executives and chairmen to take part in an anonymous poll covering the big issues in the sport, and 23 responded. In the first of a two-part series, this is how the game’s most influential figures view its burning questions on the eve of the season
