Stuart. Thanks for your reply, & the best part is your understanding.

I have just watched the latest interview on the eels web site with coach Brad Arthur. This man has been a tower of strength at the club, yet so much of the questioning to him & the players deals with issues that are things they cannot answer, they are just as much if not more so victims of & in the problems from the leagues club administration & not theirs yet they cop it each week.

For me, & I am a long time eels supporter of more than 40 years & seen the many lows, but also the highs & I am proud of them in this drama which is the worst in the clubs history & again I do not know of one eels supporter who would disagree with that. What I want to see, is some honesty in the way things go on. honesty from top to bottom at player, club & NRL levels, start the process of cleaning up the game & have that level playing field for everyone to understand what is going on, what needs to go & to happen.

If this does not happen, the dissatisfaction at all levels will just continue to grow, & the game itself will decrease with a lot of uncertainty regarding the future & its survival.

From an eels supporters perspective, rather than just a fan, we are at the bottom now, but the future is bright, only thing that can stall or stop it will be from forces from outside.

Lets consider the value aspects of what the eels have done along with the others, especially the aspect that the storm was running two sets of books, seems to have been forgotten. In dollar terms with what the cap was back then compare it to todays cap value.

The dogs had someone of high profile taking the days merchandise money home to count rather than it going to the club.

The eels situation, goes back some years & precedes the board just suspended, when they had a CEO that was involved with one of the above mentioned clubs & quite open in what he did, & who actually recommended him to the eels, same as the more recent one just sacked, with references? The sacked board had self reported all the incidents they could last year, when a forced governance & salary cap audit was carried out by PWC & by the NRL auditors. At the end of which there was disagreement over some aspects of the governance review which were subject to further discussion re the bringing in the 4 items not agreed by the board.

The fine was subsequently reduced owing to the so called breaches being because of accepted needs owing to injuries & the team having to have 17 players name in the run on side. 4 points were suspended with the prospect of them being applied should further breaches occur. At that point of time, being end of 2015 the club was deemed as cap compliant & things moved along to this year.

Suddenly through leaked documents from board meetings the club was under suspicion again, the media goes into a feeding frenzy on all sides to find out every little area they could with what was going on. The eels are caught out, fined & docked 12 points, deemed guilty without knowing the exact charges. They got caught & as one reporter were guilty of the cardinal sin of the so called 11th commandment , Thou shalt not get caught.

So the club losses its whole board, an administrator appointed & guess what, this is what the members have been calling for now for some time. But lets not get ahead of ourselves. They got caught but the big area of where they got caught is with the wonderful fantasy land of TPA payments, being deemed illegal. Surely they never existed back when the Storm & doggies got caught, or they were all above board.

What comes out is the story of the clandestine world of TPA payments, player agent/managers trying for top ups outside the normal agreed NRL legal contracts that have limits on them. TPA as it seems have no limits & cannot be guaranteed by the clubs meaning any club & not just Parramatta. Also affecting these items is the aspect that people with businesses associated with a club cannot be used to provide TPA’s, so the eels get caught with the son of a club supporter who has money & supplies items to the club is caught out, along with some other similar deals as well. possibly not much different to a player whose spouse owns a business & gets a contract for work at a particular club, or a house at another, or a car or two at another or the manager of another resigns & the NRL cannot touch him.

Thing is that all the clubs pay out TPA’s of course all are legal except the eels ones which they say were guaranteed by the eels so they are illegal. Problem is that, how often do we here of players complaining about their TPA’s have not come through, surely the wonderful agents who act on behalf of the players would not pressure the clubs to take over the failed TPA’s would they? So to make it legal at least for the eels, they include in the punishment on top of the 12 points deduction, then a later addition of the removal of for & against points (a new tack on), the already $1m fine, all the TPA deals that were supposed to have been arranged by the agents, & not guaranteed by the club, into the next 2 years salary caps, thus the penalty is a continual one over what will end up being the years from 2015 (first offence) until 2018, when they should have a clean sheet.

So compare with the Storm & Dogs, & even the Warriors what is the comparison in terms of their specific years in money terms? The Storm was caught in the year following their GF victory, were deemed over the cap then & in the year they were playing in (so I understand) & why they were docked points in that year owing to them being over the cap again. For the eels, if they play in the finals it will be as the result of much adversity, along with the loss of 3 senior players in Jnr Paulo, Nathan Peats & Keiran Foran. Also back up center Ryan Morgan, along with several other injuries with the team flat out finding fit players to play, they have at least a full team out at the moment compared to the beginning of the year when they were supposedly cap compliant. But now we sit in a position of possibilities only for this year with two more years of cap punishments ahead.

The other interesting this is that the eels have the former NRL cap auditor who did the forensic audit in 2015 which concluded with the club being clear & cap compliant after players were not resigned & the applicable fines were paid. When this latest era began the same auditor worked with the club which had several players leave in order to become cap compliant. The win in the early 9’s tournament which consisted of players primarily from the non top 25 team was stripped as was the prize money.

If other clubs supporters looked at the whole story, as to what penalties have been applied to the eels they may find things a bit different. Despite what some media journalists & commentators would have all in NRL land believing the majority of eels supporters are in denial regarding what has gone on, that too is not correct, as I know no eels supporter who actually believes we are & were not guilty. For over a year now there has been moves to try & force new elections but of a type to rid the club of factions & get business people on board. The fact that we finally had an EGM set up for next month is proof of that.

The other big thing that the eels supporters, & members would love to see, & I would think so would most others of all the clubs want to see the NRL really look into the whole area of the salary cap, especially the role played by all the player agents/managers in the way that these TPA’s are sourced.

One thing that the NRL could do would be to have a clause in the standard contract along with any TPA agreed contract that the player & Agent/manager acting on behalf of the player, that simply states that any TPA entered into by the signatories to the TPA are not guaranteed by the club, & no claim can be made against the club or persons associated with the club.

Lastly, if there is one thing that I & I know many other supporters of not just the eels would love to see & I have seen many such articles written is for a forensic investigation to take place into what has happened with the eels, including how private interviews & the like were leaked to sections of the media, along with investigations into the handling of these issues by the NRL as well as the agents & their roles in placing clubs in the positions they are in now, all of them.

Well, I did it in fun, but gee imagine how it would have been received if another religion that is more used to being in the media was used instead. Would likely had a fat farm targeted against it, now see if this post gets removed.

Does not matter who the player is, no team can rely on one player to resurrect their season & club. The knights sadly like the eels had to start from all but scratch with a new coach & gradual build up of players (lets keep the article to the football team context), moving some players on, some that left on their own free will, retired & others for different reasons. It has taken 3 years to achieve a position on the ladder that showed the progress before the points deduction.

If Brown stays on as the head coach, he will need to move some on for next year especially with those whose contracts are finished, & those wanting out of cut from the top roster. The team will need at least one more year in the ladder climb with selective recruitments in key positions, & if they achieve that rise, then 2018 will be where they can launch their real progress from.

Should Hayne return to the NRL, he would go to a club which has a strong coach that makes it clear he is one player in a team, it would also need to be a team that is definitely a finals team as he would add the icing to any potential that’s there & the club along with him is not relied upon to turn a game in their favour & that’s why he has not won a premiership as yet.

I tend to think that somewhere along the line you have snuck in to a church & consumed their whole supply of communal wine prior to this article. The worst of it though is the mockery you make of a persons personal beliefs, as such you would be the worst salesman that could try to entice Jarryd Hayne or any other person who does have a real faith in God, one that knows Him rather than some knowing about him.

No issues with the NRL helping however as long as they don’t become dictatorial in the approach.

The 5 people who are affected should go, & so should the remaining board members, the members are pushing for reform & that will come sooner rather than later and that is how it should be.

The next step in this mess that must come from the NRL as it cannot come from any other arena is for the NRL to launch an investigation into the various player managers and the way they are dealing with the TPA payments. If a club cannot legally be involved with them nor can they guarantee them, why is that the NRL is lumping them onto the clubs to pay them & include in the cap as they have done with the eels?

Did the shonk insider information provided by Todd Greenburgs former mate under NDO agreement the eels club board agree to waver play a part in this so called investigation & what part did that person play in the whole business?

As many questions that has been answered for the NRL there are too many more to be answered by them to not just the supporters as well as eels members but by every such supporter across the NRL boards as to how they are operating. Every supporter no matter their team know that their are issues abounding but seems the heads are too frightened to do real investigation to clear it all up.

The eels board has gotten their just deserts, but the supporters have been dished up with sour cream that has gone off, time the NRL really decided to crack down on the whole issue across all boards, clubs and more so the agents.

Mary, I do agree with you regarding the non co-operation aspect, & there’s enough proof around for it as well. The big aspect that I do not agree with in the way the NRL imposed the penalty, is that the board, & only the 5 mentioned were deemed guilty of what charge? They became prosecutor, judge, jury & sentencing judge at one time. Lets not forget the NRL had also signed off on the items brought forward from last years twin investigations either.

The other aspect of it all, is that the whole issue has been from day one eve played out in the media as well. The problem I find with it is that the new NRL CEO had to come out & sound tough, without any formal defence from the 5. Certainly the 5 were given chances to talk with the NRL, that is from the NRL’s view, yet we have several announcements from the Eels Chairman to all the supporters & like, that they were actually talking to the NRL??? Who is not telling the full truth?

I have no issue with the element of the guilt of the 5, I would think though the NRL could have called them into a meeting, arranged it at a suitable time & gone over all the allegations & what they had found, then given the 5 the chance to defend & present their case, prior to the public announcement being made.

Anyway, its been a long sentence for all the supporters, & after so many years an eels supporter from a family who was in the foundation work of the club & member, I am glad he didn’t live to see this stuff. I believe we are heading in the right direction with the EGM issues & also hopefully see a CEO that can the club forward, someone respected & knows how the NRL works. So, hopefully that man can be recruited to the club.

If we have to pay the appropriate money that is not an issue or should not be, unless more corners are to be cut. Having someone such as Gurr as CEO would show the club is fair dinkum in wanting to go forward, likewise will the business world see that & our sponsorships will come as well. We also have a top coach that needs to be signed for extended period.

My understanding after Sterlo said that the former Roosters CEO Bernie Gurr would be the man to get for the CEO’s position, something that has gained a lot of support, & its been reported that he is (was) interested in the position. I for one would be more than happy with him being appointed.

I also believe that there was nothing really wrong with the old membership of a football club & leagues club, the football club membership voted for their board & they became directors of the PLC as well. The dissolving of the Football club was a mistake, those members only had to pay a nominal fee on top of the PLC membership which meant it was not hard or an expensive cost to be a football club member. All the leagues club have a huge number of members & the vast majority I believe would only be members for what the Club provided in benefits for them ie: the social activities, rather than the football side of things.

A start with Gurr would be great & along with others are more than capable of putting together a new future set of rules for the governance of the football side of the business. The current boss of the PLC Bevan Paul would also be an asset on an interim board.

Steve, thing is that since the big move against Fitz developed in the late 200’s mainly owing to years without the cup, some very weird statements & control that he had, the need for a new direction was paramount. Members put their trust in a couple of high profile ex eels legends promoting change really meant the first real steps into the quicksand, as the defeated side would not let go.

I was at the meeting that the 3P group got in & spoke on 2 occasions regarding some things I heard from supporters of the new board, I still hear those voices & the way things went in 2010, & walked away, near 40 years with the football club, also dropped the leagues membership, which I now regret.

The sorrow of the Sharp years is the focus has been (& I guess rightfully so) on what they have done regarding the cap issues & promises of a new governance set for the future was not delivered. What is easily forgotten that under his & the boards watch is that the eels finally have the start of an excellent training & development area at North Parramatta, one day it will be as good as the Penrith set up, something that the current board should be proud of & they should be remembered for it as well.

Sharp has indicated the need for change & agreed with the EGM & a new board, he has publicly said he will step down fro the PLC as well. Geoff Gerrard is part of the current board & is looking at an interim position tor selection of new CEO & independent board members. It is a good move & I hope there will be news out there very soon.

Mary, a fair article, thing is though when one looks at the board both current & past since the Emperor’s demise, the most ex players on the board came in with the 3P ticket, two from the old board were voted in. The 3P mob in reality laid the embryo to what we are now seeing, shortly after they got in one of the players stood down & the next in line got the position, leaving another non player on the board.
The board with Sharp after ousting the Spag led board contains only 2 ex players, Sharp & Gerrard, so its not a player dominated board & I don’t think it has been for some years now even under the Emperor (would need to check my remaining old PDRLFC annual reports to be certain). Looking at the non players on our board in the past they have been of various backgrounds & in different business channels, a current mayor along with ex Federal Government member, no ringing benefit having ex politicians anyway.

You should be very much aware that a lot of the overspends & so called excesses date back pre the current board, the problem is that the current board in trying to fix things, ending up as being no better than anyone who gets stuck & quicksand & struggle to get out, without a competent person available to throw the life raft for them to put over their heads & pull them out, likewise probably ones who did not want to grasp the raft anyway. There is without doubt that the current board tried to fix things, just as much or more they were incapable of being able to do it, without the help, their biggest mistake really was not going to the NRL as soon as they realised the depth they were in, right at the beginning, not last year or the year before.

Now 5 are gone, one denying he knew & pleading innocence & no doubt the others will do the same. The only way forward for the club is new board, a complete new board & the so called coup you mention is but one, & they are not coups as such as they are using the clubs constitution to make change, & now a 2nd group is making the effort to organise a EGM where they want to bring in a change that hopefully will rid the club of factions especially those that have caused the problems in the past.

The other side of the whole saga, is the so called TPA’s & how they are a noose around the NRL’s neck, clubs are not allowed, so the NRL say to guarantee them, yet one can bet more than you could feed into a poker machine that player agents/managers who expect the TPA as over payments in contract negotiations tell their players that they will be getting them, the players no doubt realise aspects in them as well, but the agents when the TPA’s do not come good then pressure the clubs to cover them, which dare I suggest all clubs end up doing so.

As one report said, the eels board committed what is deemed the 11th commandment, you should not get caught. How many leaks suddenly started & where did they come from, legal & otherwise? The eels are caught & those at the club responsible deserve the finality of what they have done. But they along with the supporters, members, & others associated with the clubs, & I say that in the plural meaning all clubs need the whole debacle of illegal payments no matter what type be investigated by the NRL, they said they will look into agents/managers & their role in these payments, & that is something that must be done for the good & future of the game.

If TPA’s are supposed to be illegal if guaranteed by the clubs, then the managers must reveal that to their clients, & any failure in them is not guaranteed by the club, in the same aspect, TPA’s should only be in a separate NRL contract for them. The eels essentially have been the fall club, as how many of those previously have had so much “Forensic” like investigations done on them, & to the extent carried out on the NRL. Bare in mind they were under investigation last year, & then had a decision fine, & suspended points penalties, then they cop another deeper one including the ones they did last year.

What gets me in this article is the very aspect of kicking a dog when its down.

The eels have great support at the fan base, like many I no longing am able to get to matches owing to, for me health, but that does not stop me supporting them & have done now for near 50 years, if I stop supporting them it will not mean I support any other team, RL at all.

RL, loves to see the eels in the headlines whether winning or losing as they sell news papers as well as the tv audience & head crowd figures in NSW as well. When something happens, which started around 8 or more years ago with the dissatisfaction of the emperors last fling as ruler the club has attracted attention for all the wrong reasons, factions that can not let go, along with any little hiccup, ends up on back page with large banner on the front page to point to the breaking news.

Seems to me, that even if this article is a fantasy one, its still another attempt to deride the club & keep all the focus on them for all the wrong reasons. So thanks for nothing & good bye Roar.

I would like to ask a question in regards to Josh Dugan.
First off I am neither saints or souths supporter but have watched Dugan for a while now & after every game I see on TV I come up with the same question.

Is Dugan the most player prone to suffer various mini type injuries in a team. I tend to lose count of the amount of times he comes out of a tackle or some plays, even after passing & running, likewise in his defence as to how many times he seems to go down after a play with the need for attention from the trainer.

On his day especially in attack, & even last night against souths he played some good football but those times he stayed down needing attention seemed to be more than I have previously noticed. It has me concerned that if he’s picked for SOO then there could well be some concerns in that arena as well.

The way the NRL is structured now, & its the same as all of the big game team sports there really is nothing there to reward players, there is some discounts for long serving players, but like the Cap & TPA’s the average follower has no idea about how they operate.
In the days of Mary’s dad following we had a 13 import rule, idea was to get the clubs to promote & develop juniors in their districts, the imported players had an asterisk against their name. Would be deemed discriminately these days to single them out.

We had imports such as Sterlo & Price at the eels as Mary also said, but they were one club players later day players such as Hindmarsh would also be an import, yet he too was one club, like Nathan Cayless was, so too Luke Burt. A dying breed of players indeed, but to me an easy way to fix it could be readily introduced.

Any player who comes up through a clubs junior ranks & into top grade, should have an annual bonus payment made to them, the longer the contract & time he stays at the club the more bonus is paid or, a similar amount be allowed for that player as a discount against the cap.

For some one who joins the club from outside the area, & deemed an import, then these payments or allowances would not be available for the first contract he signs at the club. However, if he resigns at the club then he is entitled to the same rate of bonus or discount into the future as long as he stays with that club.

In some ways it may be seen as a restraint as if the player goes elsewhere after only one term at a club & becomes a club hopper he is disadvantaged but, the need to provide a fair & equitable way to keep some form of loyalty to & from the club needs to be seriously considered.

Mortimer should stay, as he has good utility basis, Peats will bring some good options for the TItans, in fact may be the best buy of this season for any club.

My understanding of the cooling off period is that its an option that a player can take before the contract is registered with the NRL. If player, manager & club are in complete agreement with the contract it can be registered before the cooling off period & becomes officially in affect on that date.

Not entirely. The court did make provision for the 5 to have access to the documents in order to make their defence & submission to the NRL.

What it did was to make a decision that says they cannot affectively work as board members for the football club, without reading the full contents I understand it does allow the 4 members who are also directors of the leagues club to continue in those roles.

David once again you & so many on your side of the argument hold the lynch mob mentality of Charge is made against individuals, & they are deemed guilty of all offences at that point of time. Time to run them out of town & lynch them. The old west lynch mob, here in Oz kangaroo court & lynched without any sense of fair play. The journo’s & peoples court here the charge & charge them Guilty as Charged. No redress in any way.

Ian Schubert is still at the club, so I understand & will no doubt earn his keep, when he finished last years investigation the club was deemed cap compliant for 2016. NRL says we were over cap 5 out of 6 years, takes the eels back to the wonder group who took control prior to Sharp. They must be also deemed complicant in the goings on, but as they are not there any more they NRL cannot touch them, if a north of the border incident is used as the yard stick.

Why is it that the 5 eels board members are not allowed to defend themselves while still having access to the clubs records to mount their cases, which is unlikely to have been the case had they rolled over & walked, is that really what the NRL & media accusers really wanted? Meaning the NRL can then take control of the Eels football club & it would also put the Leagues club at a untenable position with 4 of their directors unable to do their duty either.

The NRL is trying to control the game by stealth, easy if they can pick off the vulnerable ones, & those that they can take over in some form of accountable coup. A bit exteme??? Check out the news & ideas the NRL is trying to force onto ALL the clubs to sign up for, starting next year. Seem to hear its only the clubs that the NRL have their hands into that have already signed to it.

Is there a fear among the parra haters that the club officials may actually be right & the NRL wrong? That the eels have actually been under the cap for this year, & have played with a legal team. The leaks & information use by the journo’s, media as well as the NRL are actually flawed rather than fact.

I have seen no real proof provided in the issue, the NRL hands down a preliminary decision but deregisters 5 of the officials. meaning they have no access to their own club records to defend themselves. Last year former NRL auditor went over the clubs accounts & the club copped a fine & 4 points docked, suspended dependent on no future breaches, The decision against the eels this time round has found issues with TPA’s but they go back to former days, which should have been revealed under last years audit.

NRL tack on to the eels cap, the $750.000 TPA problems from the past years onto this years general salary cap, which puts the eels side over the salary cap. Yet the NRL has been the prosecutor, Judge & Jury eels guilty as charged out go the 5 said to be responsible, even though some was a fault of previous board members who were kicked out. GO to jail, go direct, no right of attorney, you are guilty even though you may not be.

I would ask every fan of RL, to sit down & ask themselves, is your favourite team squeaky clean & could stand up to the same investigation that has just hit the eels? Is the general Salary & TPA’s payments at all clubs squeaky clean? I honestly doubt it as one thing I hear so often by players coaches most club officials & fans alike the salary needs reviewing as does the TPA & general overall system of payments to players.

Both need to be reviewed so that they are both totally transparent, so that all the players, fans etc, have the ability to know their team is playing by the rules.
Has the eels bee totally ok, probably not, but what of all the others? I have seen some mention here on the Roar regarding more than one questionable deal at different clubs, some a hushed up, others end up out of reach of the NRL..

If anyone here has a charge laid against them by the police or even their boss at work, you generally have time to go over the charge, you have a solicitor or legal council to help you before any trial comes out, it generally is in an open court with all the evidence etc presented by your solicitor in defense, as well as the prosecutor for the other side. The sentence is then handed down based on the evidence, the opposite has happened here.

Issue is not just this club & tpa’s, how many here can say that there own club is not in violation of both cap & tpa’s? The NRL have said they are going for the player agents now & checking them out, maybe the best option is to do an extensive investigation into every club, players, agents etc, sort this whole area of salary cap, tpa’s out once & for all.

We now have the 4th club that’s been caught, at least two others have been able to cover up a couple of things so far, worst though is that one is privately owned & likely outside the NRL’s snare. Time to get the whole payment area sorted out.

The thought of Fitzegerald being again in charge of the club is more frightening than leaving the current board in place. His early years brought respectability to the club & not forgetting 4 premierships, but the last 10 years was one of ineptness, & that’s being nice. Should he come back, it will split the club more than it is now.

David, you seriously have to be joking.

Mary. I thoroughly enjoy all your posts as well as this one, being a long time eels supporter from a long time family of eels supporters & foundation member, I will not give them away no matter what. The game last night was perhaps one of the greatest games the eels have played, rates in many ways as high as the first premiership that I was at, the come from behind was similar as well, as was the hard fought moments.

The sorry part of all the reports of the game last night, is that all of them have mentioned the off field issues, while some of those comments may be written to highlight all the adversity the players, coach, club & fans have had to put up & despite them all the team has shown its above those issues. Some of what you wrote has actually been out there in the media as well including the events with Keiran.

I am like most eels supporters are sick of the latest stuff, as most if not all of it has no foundation, proof or the like with them, so far no charges have been laid, so I for one feel that having those issues should have no place in a game report, no matter how good the intent.

Many years back in the opposition code of Rugby Union former Priest John Cootes was a very handy player in both the local comp as well as representing Australia, he was a very good player but he also would not play any game on a Sunday. The ARU was advised of that & if he was picked to tour or play for the country he was not available for Sunday matches. This was accepted at the time, & its an issue that has never really come up until the last Hoppa decision.

The NRL has players of many religious beliefs, including Islam, Mormon & other Christian beliefs, I have witnessed where players such as SBW, El Mazri fast on the recognized days, some have been weak as a result but they have lifted in their game when playing. There are many Mormon belief players in the NRL, none of whom object to playing on Sunday. Same with those who are Christian in belief from other denominational links.

When the resigning at Parramatta talks had begun, he had said to the club that he wanted exemption from Sunday playing, would think it also included training or any other RL activity, the club refused the request.

I am a retired Minister of religion, & have some understanding of the Mormon faith so cannot comment regarding the strictness or other regarding the Sunday playing, however from a pure Biblical position, as RL is this players primary job as such & means of financial support, there are two aspects that should govern his decision,
1: honesty, to this if he wanted the exemption that should have been negotiated at the time of his contract being formulated, & a clause allowing for the exemption put in the contract. If no clause then he is obliged to honor the play & train requirements, if its in the contract he has the right to the exemption but the club should have made it public, also the NRL would possibly need to ratify it as it could set a new precedent.

2: This is the only other point where the Bible gives direction. Work 6 days & one day of rest. While there is the mention that the 7th day, which in old calendar is Saturday, its to be a Holy day as God rested on that day. As we use the New Testament first day of the week Sunday for worship, then all that is changed is the day associated with Worship. However, its been a very long acceptance by all the mainstream Christian Denominations that people who are required to work as part of their normal employment to work shifts including weekends are not prevented from doing so. In fact a minister of religion has the Sunday as his main work day.

I knew one old worker who would not work on Sundays, but as a condition of employment it was part of the award, if he had no choice but to work on a Sunday, as an additional day (under the award) then he would get the paymaster to work out what he earnt for that day, & gave that sum to his Church as a free will offering.

These I believe are the criterias set out in the Bible for the individual believer.

Base on my understanding, its something that is between the club, NRL & the player to agree with, but it should be done openly & honestly I am not making any judgement or the like regarding Will’s decision.

Houses & Cars?

Eagle Jack. Much of what is reported is without foundation, it is pure speculation, especially regarding the cap. A news item the other night said there is a TPA breach shown in 2012, nothing definite though, that is before the existing board came in. The club was fined last year over prior cap breaches, much of which was when injuries decimated the club & had to take Wentworthville player to a game but unable to play as there has to be 18 players go to a game. Player was Lassala.

Actual cap breaches have already been paid for by last years fines & point loss, suspended. The only issues that seem to be in line are or may be TPA agreements, along with one in regard to an English player who came here injured had to have surgery, played a couple of games, then sort a release to go back to England as his wife had gone home. Eels released him then paid out money for him to go. Most eels supporters said it was a good deal to be rid of him..

This current board may not be best, but they are trying especially the chairman to steer the club in the right direction. The rubbish that has taken over the club has been there prior to the current board, whereas the former emperor simply stayed too long, & the next ones in? That is really where the problems escalated & why they got booted out, a total shambles.

Believe me the eels fans want this finished ASAP none of us want to be part of any cheating, reason why the previous board were booted, but any punishment needs to fit whatever crime is actually found, & those who are responsible past & even present should be accountable. Lets deal with facts & not trial by media & this is where the NRL needs to also look into the part the media has played in this episode

Sandow, was on big money & sent packing after his memorable 2014 performances. Hoppa also gone, those two were on big money. There has also been others, & this year Pauli Pauli released to Knight. Eels are under cap this year, as the board works with the NRL.

David

The current board have tried to be totally open with the NRL since they themselves found past issues & tried to fix them. The eels are under the cap for this year, & beyond & will have to release a lot of players for 2017, already several of the players are being targeted by other clubs, so facts are the club is currently compliant & not over, but still dealing with past board mismanagement.