The NRL doesn't recognise loyalty

I realise that $200,000 is a total player figure. But it is only part of the total available.3rd party deals with people not involved with the club are unlimited.

This. Exactly!! so maybe these imbecilic manly fans that have been blazing across twitter in the last few days, embarrassing themselves and the code in the progress, can stop abusing and swearing at Dave Smith as the cause of this problem.. Their rabidness is an absolute disgrace.

"should automatically be left out of the salary cap, and contracted to whatever his club deems fit to pay." Can't believe you are advocating this. The distortions to the Salary cap are obvious. Teams with 3 or 4 veterans could potentially have a 1m+ advantage in playing staff over other clubs with no veterans. Clubs would game the System. Play a 16 yo for a round and at 26 enjoy veteran status (if the cutoff was 10 years service). David if you are going to advocate the veterans rule I want to see you lay out the exact parameters. - any limits on payment? - Is there a qualifying age. - do you have to be a local junior to qualify?. - any limit on number of veterans per club? - how to deal with the outcry if a team gets lucky and has 3 superstar veterans on 800k a year? all exempt from the cap?. Please explain why the AFL has tried the veterans rule and plans to ditch it shortly. ? David I don't think you have thought this through. It would cause more problems than it solves.

btw I'd happily have Brett join his Brother at the Rabbits next season, not happening I know. GI while a rock at the back just doesn't get involved enough in attack. B Stewart at the back, GI in the Centres with Walker and Keary in the halves, this would be a quality backline. As it currently stands, we have a halfback out of form with little confidence, an aging and slow 5/8 who is really a lock plus carthorses out wide in Reddy and Champion. One of the most ponderous backlines in the NRL.

Agree with EJ on this, the Salary cap and a 10 year exemption should be two entirely separate matters. The 10 year cap exemption has been floated about for a while now. Why is it taking so long to implement. One Club players are as rare as hens teeth these days. A player who has served 10 years at a Club should be cap exempt. It's up to the Clubs if they can still afford to pay said player his asking value. As for Stewart leaving, plenty of long serving stars have been forced out previously and plenty more will follow until the exemption is introduced. Thats the nature of the business. The whole " I wont play against my brother " is poppycock. When you get paid 600 k a year you play who your told to play. It's like Benji saying he could never play against the Tigers, it will likely happen Tahs year ! Lordy the Sea Eagles are the flagship for consistency love them or hate them. I'm a Bunnies supporter however I don't hate them. I admire what they have achieved. If the Sea Eagles make the semi's this year that will be 10 straight years, no Club has done that in the modern era.

The $200k allowance is total, not per player. And Manly have quite a few players in the long-serving-player camp: Watmough (2003-, or 2002 if you include Nothern Eagles years), King (2003-/2001 Northern Eagles), B Stewart (2003-), G Stewart (2003-), and as of next year, Matai (2005-). I'd say that $200k is probably already well-spent.

Has Toovey actually said anything about this Chop? This isn't about Manly per se. It has been bubbling for a while now. And the NRL will bring in further salary cap dispensations for decade long one club players. It is only a matter of time. I didn't realise Crocker, Thurston, Inglis, King spent 10 years at a club before being moved on. In fact we all know why Thurston was moved out of Sydney and it certainly wasn't for salary cap issues.

I really don't understand all the articles regarding Glenn Stewart and why things need to change because he's moving to Souths. Look at all the players through the last 20 years or so that have had to move....off the top of my head Brad Clyde Ricky Stuart Glenn Lazarus Greg Inglis Matt King Andrew Ryan Jonathan Thurston Michael Crocker Steve Price Ruben Wiki None of this outrage regarding those players moving, is it because it's Manly and they're a team we're used to hear whinging right now? Every time Toovey is in the media he's bleeding about something. As long as you have a salary cap, you will have issues like this. If you allow clubs discounts to retain their juniors, Brisbane, Penrith and Parramatta would have a massive advantage over clubs like the Roosters, Souths and Melbourne. The salary cap is far from ideal but a necessity to avoid a competition like the EPL where only a handful of clubs can win each year.

In fact, Kite started at the Raiders so he's an NRL tourist....

Yes, I can imagine clubs holding onto players for 10 years just so they can abuse the cap. Sound logic.

Agree 100%. Salary cap is great for an even competition, but there needs to be some recognition of club loyalty. Leagues greatest strength is it's tie to local community and tribalism and yet they are doing their best to undermine it. Jokers.

Sorry David but i don't agree - You can't have the best halves pairing,a class fullback and arguably the best back line and expect to hold onto G Stewart as well.If G Stewart means so much then offload Foran or Choc.

Please Stormboy, you lose credibility when you say things like "and Manly are allowed to be picked off by other clubs". In the old days clubs like Souths were decimated by the likes of Manly. One should never feel sorry for a club like them.

The salary cap's purpose is to stop clubs from spending themselves into oblivion. If you allow exemptions to encourage one club players (even if brought in for the best of reasons), you can guarantee the clubs will abuse it.

the NRL puts peer pressure on fans to pay up and become members of their club. The NRL try to guilt fans. At the same time clubs like the Storm and Manly are allowed to picked off by other clubs. Why anyone would become a club member of a NRL club.

Why dosent the NRL implement something similar to what the NBA does with its salary cap called the Veteran Free Agent exception or "The Larry Bird Rule"? It basically allows a team to resign one of its veteran players but only a portion of the players salary is counted towards the cap. It is a win-win for the team & player,& really the league itself

A lot of people are jumping on the NRL for 'allowing' this to happen by not giving dispensation to clubs for long serving players (full disclosure: I am firmly in the camp that after 8-10years at the same club only half your salary should count towards the cap) yet I haven't seen anyone mention that Manly made a rod for their own back by back-dating a lot of their contracts so that they'd only have to pay a smaller amount at the beginning of the contract compared to the end. This was going to come to a head once you had these contracts getting larger each year. If your front office screws up the process then it's going to get burned. And so is the player. But as has already been said - these were CHOICES made by both Stewart AND Manly. Nobody has been FORCED to do anything.

Commercial sport is money, loyalty not even a criteria, league players need now realise this and not kid themselves, classic examples are benji and gsteward.

Unless I am reading from a different book.The NRL has in place a Long serving Player allowance of $200k for eligible players who have spent 8 continuous years of grade football with the club including Holden & NSW cup.Has any of this allowance been used up by other players at Manly? There is a marquee player allowance outside the cap of $800,000 pa,made by club sponsors seeking to use a player's intellectual property. Then there is an unlimited amount that can be earned by sponsors not associated with the club and who do not use the game's intellectual property. Now I have no idea what was offered to Stewart in this regard,but I suggest all avenues would have been explored,and he may well have thought his worth was far greater than that of up and comers and in line with the likes of Foran and DCE.And yes he is a top line forward. If a club puts the bulk of its financial egg into the basket of 2-3 players ,it leaves the club very little room to manoeuvre,long service allowance or not. Market forces have been the deciding factor,as is the case with pro sports.The reason Souths had the money under the cap(Burgess going and possible Teo),could well have included sponsors not associated with the club putting in their two bob's worth. That is the reason this year's comp,has more upsets and one of the most unpredictable (apart from refs blues) on record.Teams are fairly evenly balanced. I further suggest once all clubs are financially underpinned,there will be a lot more flexibility toward long service players.

great article David. I find it unfathomable that the NRL has sat around with their finger up their proverbial for so long on this issue. It has been spoken about for years but nothing has been done. Salary Cap dispensation for long service just seems like a no-brainer. Seems that many of the commentators here cannot see past their Manly hate and see what is best for the game of Rugby League. You cannot begrudge Stewart getting one last pay day, this is his livelihood and he will be finished in 2 or 3 seasons so of course he will take the money. It just should never have come to this and the NRL need to have a good hard look at themselves.