- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
This weekend’s NRL grand final features 2012’s two best teams, who also happen to be the past decade’s worst salary cap cheats. Well matched foes indeed.
The Bulldogs were found to be in breach of the cap in 2002, resulting in the loss of 37 competition points and a $500,000 fine. The Storm got done in 2010, in the process losing two premierships, three minor premierships, one World Club Challenge, the 2010 season, and $1,689,000.
The Dogs made the grand final qualifier in 2003 and had the premiership won by 2004, while the Storm made the grand final qualifier in 2011 and have made the decider in 2012. In both cases success immediately followed the breaches.
Of the 17 players who played in the 2004 grand final for Canterbury, 13 were in the squad of 2002. The numbers in the case of Melbourne are far less pronounced but when three of the the names retained are Cronk, Smith and Slater, it’s not hard to see why the team succeeded. Bellamy isn’t included in the cap, but he hung around too.
In pure football terms, what the Storm and Bulldogs achieved is amazing, however there is more to it than that. Every time Melbourne and Canterbury win, another team loses. Another team which was not able to hang onto starts initially attracted to the club through dodgy deals. Another team which wasn’t able to draw on an NRL sponsored persecution complex as motivation. Another team who played by the rules.
Regardless of whether a club attracts and retains players legally or illegally, once a team is assembled, the less sinister aspects of the situation take root. Players purchase property in the area, they put their kids into local schools, they make friends with their teammates and learn each others games.
They come to love their club. In short, they are able to build a far more complex relationship with their surrounds than salary alone would explain. And it is here that the club “benefits” from having cheated.
By drawing on a reservoir of relationships formed amongst each other, players are prepared to stay for less, so they can continue to enjoy the non-monetary aspects of life at the particular club. Compliant clubs are not able to get their players into such a position. Neither Melbourne nor Canterbury is responsible for these rules, but they do profit from them.
I’m not arguing that the penalties are not severe enough. They are. But nuanced they are not. It’s not good enough for these clubs to simply fall under the cap and continue go about their business.
That approach fails to appreciate the issues involved in the cheating initially, and the factors that will come into play as the club rebuilds. What must be the goal of any penalty is that the club must derive no benefit whatsoever from the breaches.
Juventus was relegated to Serie B, and Floyd Landis was banned from cycling for two years for doping. Two very different examples, sure, but some thought went into preventing their future success in the short-term.
It is not my job to come up with specifics; it’s the ARLC’s. But when the next club strays, let that be the objective of any sentence handed down.
If such a philosophy is adopted, hopefully the days of winning the premiership within two seasons of a breach will be over.
Reckon you can pick the winning team? Build your own dream team with Draftstars daily fantasy and compete on any match. For great odds on the NRL head on over to PlayUp. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.