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Before the Brisbane Broncos announced yesterday that they had lured Wayne Bennett back to the club, the rugby league rumour mill had the star coach returning to the St George Illawarra Dragons on a three-year deal worth approximately $3 million.
This in turn had generated talk of the NRL introducing a salary cap for coaches; discussions that were prompted by the news that those responsible for running the Newcastle Knights on behalf of the NRL deemed $800k a season as too much to pay for a coach.
One can only imagine their response to the news that Bennett’s Brisbane contract is worth $4 million, or $1.33 million a season.
A spokesperson for the NRL confirmed that coaches’ salaries were a talking point for the competition, but denied that there was any plan to include coaches’ wages in a salary cap.
When I first heard about this story on the radio, I scoffed loudly in my car, much to the amusement of the occupants in the vehicle stationed next to me at a red light. I thought it was ridiculous that a club could be prevented from spending however much they wanted in order to attract an elite coach.
However, perhaps there is some logic to the argument.
The NRL website clearly outlines the reasons for the competition having a salary cap on players.
The NRL Salary Cap serves two functions:
1. It assists in “spreading the playing talent” so that a few better resourced clubs cannot simply out-bid other clubs for all of the best players. If a few clubs are able to spend unlimited funds it will reduce the attraction of games to fans, sponsors and media partners due to an uneven competition. Allowing clubs to spend an unlimited amount on players would drive some clubs out of the competition as they would struggle to match the prices wealthy clubs could afford to pay.
2. It ensures clubs are not put into a position where they are forced to spend more money than they can afford, in terms of player payments, just to be competitive.
So the reasons for the NRL salary cap can be summarised as ‘parity’ and ‘protection’.
Point 1 is an argument for another day, but Point 2 is interesting considering the subject matter.
The $1.33 million a season the Broncos are reportedly paying Bennett to return to the club is worth more per year than any player on the Brisbane roster. Ricky Stuart’s deal with Canberra was rumoured to be around the $1 million mark as well, while Des Hasler is said to be earning $875k with the Bulldogs.
Admittedly, not all clubs are splashing out that kind of money for coaches, but even allowing for the tabloid inflation of those figures, considering the salary cap for 2014 is set at $5.5 million, you can start to see just how significant those type of head coach contracts for are for the clubs, and their overall spending.
If part of the reason for the player salary cap is to prevent clubs from spending more than they can afford, the NRL is essentially saying that the cap exists to save clubs from themselves. By that rationale, surely there should also be a cap on how much a club spends on a coach? If not the entire footballing department?
Based on Bennett’s stint with Newcastle, some are questioning question whether the $1 million offer from the Dragons and the $1.33 million deal with the Broncos are sound investments. Likewise Ricky Stuart’s contract with the Raiders.
Should those clubs be saved from themselves when it comes to the contracts they’re willing to hand out to coaches? Why should the clubs only be protected by bad financial decisions on players?
If the answer to that last question is that those particular clubs can afford to make ‘mistakes’ because they have more money to spend, then why isn’t that extended to the players they can afford?
It does seem like there are some serious contradictions at play here.
I’m not suggesting the NRL abolish the salary cap. Doing so probably would lead to clubs overspending, which leads to clubs going broke. No one wants to see that.
Yet if you are going to have a players’ salary cap, there is a school of thought that says there should also be a salary cap for coaches, or that the existing cap should include the coach’s salary.
Rather than being scoffed at, it really is food for thought.