@balmain-boy said in [Signing Suggestions & Rumours](/post/1087199) said:
Souths should have 360k taken out of their cap for the next 10 years. That's if they don't want a million a year for the next few years
I thought if you were medically retired the player got his money per year as per contract and the money no longer counted in the salary cap
So why than does Burgess have to work 10 years in the office to get his money?
Am I missing something?
Yes, though it is all a massive grey area.
You can be medically retired by the insurance company, or the NRL itself. If Insurance covers a player's wage by medical retirement then the club doesn't have to pay it out, and it gets excluded in the cap.
I've recently learnt that the Chief Medical Officer of the NRL can also retire players, but the club still has to pay their contracts in full, unless insurance declares him unfit to return etc. ***It's not 100% clear what happens with salary when the NRL 'medically retires' a player***, the NRL seems to be able to negotiate terms to a degree. But given the rumour of Souths offering him a 10 year deal worth 3.6 million in an off field role this is their way of ensuring he gets paid in full, via a revised payment plan of sorts. It is his playing contract they're paying him and thus they spread it out to soften the blow.
It is 100% clear, the NRL has a clear written rule about it. They have to prove it wasnt a pre-existing condition, that it was a new unique career ending injury and it has to be able to be shown to have happened at a particular moment in a specific game during the term of his current contract.
Clear rules. Burgess had had 2 previous reconstructions on that shoulder before his last contract.
Career ending is the key. It’s an 18 month injury