With the footy finals having reached a cathartic conclusion around a month ago, clubs across the country are currently looking toward recruitment and retention, mindful of how they’re going to stay within their salary cap for next season.
In the AFL, coaches approached the trade period with all the awkwardness of a young boy asking a girl to his first dance.
Meanwhile, in the NRL, business is being done behind closed doors. Although, as was covered recently, sometimes that door (or window) isn’t closed far enough to avoid prying ears.
I don’t like looking at the Melbourne Storm’s success through a negative prism, but despite all the talk of redemption, surely I am not the only rugby league fan out there who thinks their premiership is still tinged with a shade of controversy?
The salary cap scandal from 2010 still reverberates in the side Melbourne assembled this year. While Craig Bellamy might look a little like Tim Robbins, I’m afraid that’s where the redemptive similarities end.
The fact remains that the Storm built the crux of their current squad by cheating the system. That they are now under the cap holds little currency with me.
Their players have been overpaid by who knows how much, and for how long. It’s little wonder these same players were willing to take a pay cut in order to keep the majority of their team together.
Perhaps we could subtract the amount the Storm went over the cap from their current allowance. Then we can start to talk about a level playing field.
And while they’re at it, they can give their rings back! Sure, they might look as good as a poster of Rita Hayworth, but they are as hollow as the hole in the wall that the poster conceals.
The Swans’ pursuit of Kurt Tippett raises some interesting points about the AFL’s salary cap.
Apparently, the Swans receive a salary cap concession to account for the higher cost of living in Sydney. While Victorian AFL clubs cry foul, this is one bandwagon I’d like to see Sydney-based League clubs get on – to extract some retribution of their own.
Of course, this trade has now turned into quite the poisoned chalice for Adelaide, and who knows where Prince Tippett will end up?
We could all yell about salary caps until we’re blue, purple or red and white in the face, depending on who we support.
There probably isn’t much chance of changing the status quo. But the salary cap systems in both the NRL and AFL definitely need some extra work.
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