The Salary Cap Effect

[Tucker]

Been a lot of chatter lately surrounding the the continual domination of the 'glamour' clubs during the salary cap era. I thought Id compile the results so we could all have a look and start a conversation based on facts. The salary cap was first introduced in a bit of a hap-hazard form ahead of NSWRL season 1990. It lasted 8 seasons until the NRL came in to being in 1998, where it has operated ever since in its current form. Of the 35 seasons of Salary Capped competitions so far, the following are the results:



35 years of operation;

• has seen 22/27 clubs play in the Final's Series

• has seen 16/27 clubs play in Grand Finals

• has produced 13 different Grand Final Premiers

• has produced 12 different Grand Final Runners Up

• has produced 11 different Minor premiers

• has produced 16 different Wooden Spooners

• has seen the following strike rates of teams making the finals compared with how many seasons they tried to

POINTS of INTEREST for the Salary Cap Era:

• Brisbane Broncos have made the most finals series, reaching 27 from 34 attempts. The year they missed was when they went to Super league and won that.
• Melbourne Storm are the consistently greatest club, when it comes to making the finals, reaching 24 from 27 attempts. Pretty much only miss the finals 1 in every 10 seasons.
• Weve seen 13 different premiers, 12 different runners up, 11 different minor premiers and 16 different spooners.
• 13 different teams have played finals more than 10 times.
• The three best clubs of the era are Melbourne, Brisbane and Roosters. Despite the success theyve all had, they have also each earned the spoon.
• Despite what most say about Roosters rorting the cap, the Penrith Panthers have made the same amount of grandfinals as them, whilst winning more premierships and losing fewer grand finals.
• Over 35 years, our club and its predecessors have played in a total of 6 finals series and have won a combined 6 spoons.
• In the past 12 years, only three clubs (Storm, Roosters and Penrith) have won the minor premiership.
• In the past 12 years, eleven clubs (Manly, Roosters, Bulldogs, Rabbits, Broncos, Cowboys, Storm, Sharks, Raiders, Panthers and Eels) have contested for the Premiership title.

 

[AmericanHistoryX]

Thanks Tucker. But how does it explain the bottom feeders?

 

[Tiger_Yoshi]

Been a lot of chatter lately surrounding the the continual domination of the 'glamour' clubs during the salary cap era. I thought Id compile the results so we could all have a look and start a conversation based on facts. The salary cap was first introduced in a bit of a hap-hazard form ahead of NSWRL season 1990. It lasted 8 seasons until the NRL came in to being in 1998, where it has operated ever since in its current form. Of the 35 seasons of Salary Capped competitions so far, the following are the results:

View attachment 16295

35 years of operation;

• has seen 22/27 clubs play in the Final's Series

View attachment 16297

• has seen 16/27 clubs play in Grand Finals

View attachment 16299

• has produced 13 different Grand Final Premiers

View attachment 16298

• has produced 12 different Grand Final Runners Up

View attachment 16300

• has produced 11 different Minor premiers

View attachment 16301

• has produced 16 different Wooden Spooners

View attachment 16302

• has seen the following strike rates of teams making the finals compared with how many seasons they tried to

View attachment 16304

POINTS of INTEREST for the Salary Cap Era:

• Brisbane Broncos have made the most finals series, reaching 27 from 34 attempts. The year they missed was when they went to Super league and won that.
• Melbourne Storm are the consistently greatest club, when it comes to making the finals, reaching 24 from 27 attempts. Pretty much only miss the finals 1 in every 10 seasons.
• Weve seen 13 different premiers, 12 different runners up, 11 different minor premiers and 16 different spooners.
• 13 different teams have played finals more than 10 times.
• The three best clubs of the era are Melbourne, Brisbane and Roosters. Despite the success theyve all had, they have also each earned the spoon.
• Despite what most say about Roosters rorting the cap, the Penrith Panthers have made the same amount of grandfinals as them, whilst winning more premierships and losing fewer grand finals.
• Over 35 years, our club and its predecessors have played in a total of 6 finals series and have won a combined 6 spoons.
• In the past 12 years, only three clubs (Storm, Roosters and Penrith) have won the minor premiership.
• In the past 12 years, eleven clubs (Manly, Roosters, Bulldogs, Rabbits, Broncos, Cowboys, Storm, Sharks, Raiders, Panthers and Eels) have contested for the Premiership title.

Wow what stats…. How many seasons did it take you to produce these..😂

 

[Tucker]

Thanks Tucker. But how does it explain the bottom feeders?

The bottom feeders are run by dopes who cannot understand the complexities of working within and manipulating a budget. It can be achieved without cheating.

 

[BAGNF05]

The bottom feeders are run by dopes who cannot understand the complexities of working within and manipulating a budget. It can be achieved without cheating.

Yes and no.

Melbourne cheated.

Penrith are probably a good example of excellent administrators whereas the other top clubs are gifted favours in my opinion. A consequence of some conflicts of interest that are as obvious as dogs nads.

 

[Tucker]

Yes and no.

Melbourne cheated.

Penrith are probably a good example of excellent administrators whereas the other top clubs are gifted favours in my opinion.

This victim mentality is not healthy.
Take the Sharks, Canberra and Newcastle. Not galmour clubs, they struggle in their own ways, yet they enjoy many successful years of playing finals. Sharks have managed 19 finals series. If we add Balmain, Wests Magpies and Wests Tigers together, we have played in 6!
What about Penrith? Classic battlers that chipped away and dragged themselves to 8 grand finals.
The teams always at the bottom, just dont do it properly.

 

[BAGNF05]

This victim mentality is not healthy.
Take the Sharks, Canberra and Newcastle. Not galmour clubs, they struggle in their own ways, yet they enjoy many successful years of playing finals. Sharks have managed 19 finals series. If we add Balmain, Wests Magpies and Wests Tigers together, we have played in 6!
What about Penrith? Classic battlers that chipped away and dragged themselves to 8 grand finals.
The teams always at the bottom, just dont do it properly.

I blame our administration largely but cannot totally discount the fact that it’s not an even playing field.

 

[AmericanHistoryX]

Thats the thing. So much for Celery Cap.

 

[BAGNF05]

Thats the thing. So much for Celery Cap.

I want salaries to be published. It will help the lower clubs better manage the cap.

 

[happy_tiger]

I want salaries to be published. It will help the lower clubs better manage the cap.

Unfortunately ican never see it happen

 

[Tucker]

I blame our administration largely but cannot totally discount the fact that it’s not an even playing field.

I hear the rumours of an uneven playing field. I dont see much proof.
The most consistent of the glamour clubs are the Broncos. They have made the finals once in the past 5 years, with one of the years being a spoon.
Its all cyclical for most teams. Take the Roosters...7 years after the cap was introduced, they finally made the finals. They then enjoyed 9 years of success, making 4 GFs and winning 1. The next 8 years were lean, making the finals twice. Now they are in a purple patch again with only 1 missed finals series in 12 years, resulting in 3 premierships. Most would agree they are due some lean years and it looks like that begins as early as next year.

 

[Kelce68]

Yes and no.

Melbourne cheated.

Penrith are probably a good example of excellent administrators whereas the other top clubs are gifted favours in my opinion. A consequence of some conflicts of interest that are as obvious as dogs nads.

Agree.

Penrith appear to be the purest form of a properly run football club. Authentic from grass roots through. They built their factory properly and are, and will continue to, reap the benefits. It's hard to be mad at them for that.

Melbourne develop grown men better than any club I've seen. Credit for that. But they have history with cheating. As do Bulldogs, NZ, Parramatta, Manly and Cronulla.

Paradoxically and hilariously, even us, through the Farah ambassadorship debacle.

Roosters are in a league of their own when it comes to intangibles. Arguably the most financially well-backed club (other than maybe the Broncos), with countless financial heavy-hitters and elites involved in the club. There are former players, as recently as last month, openly stating that the brown paper bags ongoing joke isn't entirely a fabrication.

That's not to mention the networking environment created over there. Whilst this can be explained away as a well-run football club, which it undeniably is by most metrics, it creates an irrefutable advantage, not based on football, to a football club.

That is a major shortcoming of the salary cap. It struggles to capture or regulate these intangibles. Purely in my opinion.

Clubs need to use what ever advantage they can. For some, it's a nursery, for others, it's networks and dollars.

None of that refutes the fact that poorly performing clubs are, more often than not, poorly run clubs, but I don't think it is as simple as that.

As always, the truth is somewhere in the middle.

Well done Tucker on the time taken to put this together.

 

[BAGNF05]

I hear the rumours of an uneven playing field. I dont see much proof.
The most consistent of the glamour clubs are the Broncos. They have made the finals once in the past 5 years, with one of the years being a spoon.
Its all cyclical for most teams. Take the Roosters...7 years after the cap was introduced, they finally made the finals. They then enjoyed 9 years of success, making 4 GFs and winning 1. The next 8 years were lean, making the finals twice. Now they are in a purple patch again with only 1 missed finals series in 12 years, resulting in 3 premierships. Most would agree they are due some lean years and it looks like that begins as early as next year.

You can’t be looking too hard. There’s examples everywhere. Who does Buzz talk about whenever he brings up a football summit? he wants to get Wayne, Belly ache and Robbo in a room and solve all the game’s problems. Under the guise of ‘smartest minds’. Those guys have been involved in numerous rules committees over time too.

There’s a power club in the game and the results reflect that.

All that said, it’s not impossible to overcome if you get good administration in place. Or employ a peptides regime.

 

[Tucker]

The squeaky wheel always gets the oil.
The fact that these coaches are the Alpha Dogs in the comp does not mean they are given special treatment. It means they are the loudest. The rest are surely having their voices heard as well, its just these guys are the rockstars of coaching and their interactions are likely to be reported upon by journalists who dont know their arses from their elbows....such as buzz.
Blaming the Salary Cap is a crutch used to explain away decades of ineptitude.

It reminds me of the skinny kids complaining that the athletic guys were getting all the girls at school. If that is what is working, if thats what they want, then dont sit there sulking, get your arse to the gym!

 

[BAGNF05]

The squeaky wheel always gets the oil.
The fact that these coaches are the Alpha Dogs in the comp does not mean they are given special treatment. It means they are the loudest. The rest are surely having their voices heard as well, its just these guys are the rockstars of coaching and their interactions are likely to be reported upon by journalists who dont know their arses from their elbows....such as buzz.
Blaming the Salary Cap is a crutch used to explain away decades of ineptitude.

It reminds me of the skinny kids complaining that the athletic guys were getting all the girls at school. If that is what is working, if thats what they want, then dont sit there sulking, get your arse to the gym!

Two things can be occurring at the same time.

At least we have our alpha dog in Richo now, giving us at least a battlers chance.

 

[Tucker]

Two things can be occurring at the same time.

At least we have our alpha dog in Richo now, giving us at least a battlers chance.

Yes. He is a squeaky wheel.
Sheens was once one and we saw some success.
The admin and coaches determine who makes the 8.
The players determine who wins the GF once the finals begin.
The Salary Cap provides a relatively even launching pad.

 

[happy_tiger]

It's ok to look at the salary cap era as a whole...but if you looked at the last 7 years it would be concerning

 

[AmericanHistoryX]

The squeaky wheel always gets the oil.
The fact that these coaches are the Alpha Dogs in the comp does not mean they are given special treatment. It means they are the loudest. The rest are surely having their voices heard as well, its just these guys are the rockstars of coaching and their interactions are likely to be reported upon by journalists who dont know their arses from their elbows....such as buzz.
Blaming the Salary Cap is a crutch used to explain away decades of ineptitude.

It reminds me of the skinny kids complaining that the athletic guys were getting all the girls at school. If that is what is working, if thats what they want, then dont sit there sulking, get your arse to the gym!

Not today. The squeaky wheel gets de platformed.

 

[Tucker]

Roosters are in a league of their own when it comes to intangibles. Arguably the most financially well-backed club (other than maybe the Broncos), with countless financial heavy-hitters and elites involved in the club. There are former players, as recently as last month, openly stating that the brown paper bags ongoing joke isn't entirely a fabrication.

Im sure they bend the rules surrounding third party agreements. Thats smart. If you arent looking for strategic advantage, then thats your own stupid fault. We have plenty of high profile supporters, including a billionaire. What deals are being done third party wise?

That's not to mention the networking environment created over there. Whilst this can be explained away as a well-run football club, which it undeniably is by most metrics, it creates an irrefutable advantage, not based on football, to a football club.

Yes, life after football is kind to their good players. Not unlike the old boys sytems of top schools and Universities. Thats life. There are "haves and have nots" in every field. I come from a long line of "have nots" and have struggled against the "haves" my whole life. Its hard, but not insummountable. Our alumni need to get smarter.

That is a major shortcoming of the salary cap. It struggles to capture or regulate these intangibles. Purely in my opinion.

I dont think it is required to. There are plenty of other intangibles such as location of the clubs. If I am a red hot talent from anywhere north of Sydney, it is unlikely Ill want to move to NZ or Canberra. The Queensland teams have the selling advantage of lifestyle on top of salary. Melbourne has anonimity. A lot of players would prefer living and working on the coast as opposed to Penrith.
Point being, they all have their pros and cons. I dont know what the pro's are of being a Wests Tiger. That needs to be identified and pushed.

 

[Tucker]

It's ok to look at the salary cap era as a whole...but if you looked at the last 7 years it would be concerning

Why? its already been established that Roosters are cyclical and their cycle is ending, Storm are an anomally. How much does that change once bellyache goes? Broncs are batting at 43% and Penrith...well I think we all agree that they are not aided by the Salary Cap one iota.

The shit clubs need to stop being shit. Dont pretend to do a global search and then bring in Hodgo...actually do one and bring in someone who is a killer in their field. Change your ways. They aint working.....