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So far, the Storm players are saying they knew nothing of the secret payments that were sending their club over the salary cap. And so far, I believe them. I may end up with egg on my face, but I’ll back the players that they were unaware of the cooking that was occurring with the books. My beliefs are based on a number of factors.
First, in my experience, players don’t discuss what they are earning. They may discuss openly the length of contract of they are seeking, but not the finances behind the deal.
Secondly, few deals these days see a player actually earn the same amount for each year of his contract.
To avoid the cap, deals are front loaded or back loaded, so players earn different amounts for different years so the books balance (or give the appearance of balancing). Players are, therefore, hardly going to be doing the maths to see whether the club is over.
Thirdly, the amount of players leaving would have had the players believing that the club was staying under the cap.
Fourthly, it would seem that a large part of the reason for the blow out came from third party deals which were guaranteed by the club rather than just third party deals. With managers likely to have been ensuring players that everything was sweet, I’d argue they were none the wiser.
If anything, the managers of the star players have so far escaped any scrutiny. I wonder for much longer this will be the case.
Back in 2002, I was working for the Bulldogs and I remember having breakfast with second rower Jamie Feeney, who was simply dumbstruck that the club was so far over the cap.
“It’s not like we have a team of internationals”, he told me over a bowl of cornflakes.
I’d imagine it is similar at the Storm. With honest toilers like Bryan Norrie coming in to replace the likes of Dallas Johnson, it is fair to say the players thought the club was staying under the cap.
As I said, I may end up ultimately disappointed, but at this stage I’m backing the players.
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