Another season’s end, another round of clubs fines for breaching the salary cap. This time it was the Sea Eagles, Newcastle Knights, Sydney Roosters, Gold Coast Titans and Wests Tigers named as the offenders.
The breaches date back to the 2013 season, and the Titans aside, seem like minor offences at worst. For instance the Tigers over spent on their Holden Cup cap, which hardly equates to a Melbourne-like scandal.
What is worrying however, is the fact the NRL minor premiers and premiers were among the teams fined.
Although there has been no suggestion that the Roosters cheated the cap, it’s not a good look that a fine has been handed down to the all conquering Bondi-based side.
Cap breaches occur in a variety of ways, and don’t only affect the well performing sides. A few years back, the Sharks were fined heavily due to salary cap breaches, despite an unsuccessful season.
Breaches can occur due to unforeseen rep payments, bonuses, or simple minor overspends. The fact that teams continue to cop these fines perhaps proves that they are not a strong enough deterrent to stop them from going over the salary cap.
As I read it, the salary cap is the maximum spend number allowed, and anyone spending above the cap has enabled themselves an unfair advantage.
In terms of cap breaches, none are more well known, and serious, as the Storm scandal that saw them stripped of two premierships, three minor premierships and barred from playing for points in 2010.
The difference between the Storm offence and those that led to fines is that the Storm were systematically rorting the caps by lying about player payments. The five teams fined for their 2013 goings on look like mistakes.
The Titans were hit the hardest after being fined $300,000 ($75,000 of which was suspended) and hit with a suspended fourmcompetition-point penalty, to come into effect should they offend again.
It’s my belief that competition-point penalties would lead to a drop in in salary cap breaches. Simply put, if you’re going to start the next season in the negative, you’re behind the eight ball from the get go, something no team can afford.
Obviously there are occasions where fines are enough. For instance, the Bunnies heading into 2014 would have had no idea that they would see Alex Johnston eligible for rep bonuses, having not made his debut well into the 2014 season.
If this was to put them over their cap, that’s understandable.
For the Titans to have paid Scott Prince more than what his contract stated, that’s a serious breach and should incur a competition-point penalty.
The fact that the Titans came forward with the information likely led to their suspended points sentence, however it’s worrying that they had to come forward for the breach to be uncovered.
I’m not saying any team out there is intentionally cheating the cap, however surely harsher penalties would ensure this.
Whether one dollar over, or $1 million over, it’s still creating an unfair playing field in a sport that trumpets the cap, and the even spread of results it provides, at every chance it gets.
da plane
Guest
the storm cheated the cap as the dogs did- by the way where is Inglis's $650 k boat nowdays?? - players say we didnt know well the jury is out on that still
Storm Boy
Guest
Who cares. The clubs spending the most on science are winning the grand final. No cap on that spending but it adds to making the comp unfair. Instead lets cap the player salaries so that RU and AFL can attract them. Open cheque books and forget the salary cap. It would make the NRL the #1 rugby comp on the planet. So what if a few clubs go belly up along the way.
Rabby
Guest
The fundamental problem is that the cap is very hard to apply and even harder to police. There are so many nuances and loop holes of what does and does not get included in the cap that it renders a level of uncertainty. In such cases, clubs may ask for clarification from the NRL but slow and inconsistent responses means that CEO's are forced to take positions which may not subsequently prove correct. In a competitive environment that is always going to force clubs to take risks, to walk a tight line and at times maybe even break it. Somehow, the cap needs to be simplified. Something away from money. Maybe players should be ranked according to performance stats and then allow every club to recruit players upto a given point level. This removes the corrupting influence of money and makes the whole thing far more transparent since a player may not want to disclose what he is earning but wouldn't object to his skill rating being quoted. The idea needs work but it could be a lot fairer and less open to abuse than what we have now.
Matthew Edwards
Roar Pro
Pretty sure you mean over 4 years. not for 4 years.
Matthew Edwards
Roar Pro
The clubs that only break t by small amounts often do so due to incentives written in contracts and calling people up from outside the 25 to cover for injury. If we start focusing on those instead of the genuine breaches like the titans and Broncos then the players will be effected more than the clubs. Major breaches deserve fines and stripping of points. With small breaches a fine is sufficient.
Mushi
Guest
Technical breaches are exactly that as disagreement between the nrl and the team on the grey areas or due to events that are pretty difficult to plan for.
Alex L
Roar Rookie
Title should be: Fines are not preventing people making accounting errors.
Muzz
Guest
If i was a Storm supporter, i would just leave it alone. It's like picking a scab of a wound and not letting it heal.
Benny
Guest
Storm were over by a couple of million for 4 years. dont try to justify buddy
Perry
Guest
In 2009 the former Bronco chairman Don Nissen gave evidence in the corruption trial of politician Ken Nuttal who was accused of taking bribes from Ken Talbot, who was the chairman of the Thoroughbreds (businessmen supporting the Broncos). Nissen gave evidence that Talbot gave cash payments to star Bronco players and acknowledged that it was cheating the salary cap. Nissen refused to co-operate with the NRL investigation. Other Bronco officials played dumb. The NRL said it was powerless to do anything because Nissen refused to co-operate. Nissen still attends Bronco games in the club's private box. The NRL don't want to know about the cap cheats. They only take action when they absolutely have to. Just like the blood bin rule and the concussion rule in the grand final, rules can be broken if it suits the agenda of the NRL.
William Dalton Davis
Roar Rookie
You're saying that you don't see the difference between these cases and the storm systematically cheating the cap over 4 seasons? That's a nice bubble you're living in there.
E-Meter
Guest
Clearly a case of, if the van's rocking, don't bother knocking.
Fairy fairfax
Roar Rookie
Well said.
William Dalton Davis
Roar Rookie
Ah kk. Thanks for clearing that up. Thought that was a weird one.
Stormybill
Guest
So The Storm over the cap is cheating but anyone else is a mistake ?
The Barry
Roar Guru
I don't think representative wages are included but most players have upgrades or bonuses built into their contracts that kick in when they make rep teams. It's normally fine unless a team has a number of players make rep teams unexpectedly at the same time.
Doc79
Roar Rookie
How do the broncs escape censor? What a farce! The NRL should strip them of a season's worth of high exposure Friday night games. Maybe some other team's sponsors will get some air time for the cash they stump up.
William Dalton Davis
Roar Rookie
I for one don't think rep payments should be included, and that the clubs should be given a hard cap with the only bonuses going to long serving players and possibly a marquee allowance, and all deals going directly through the NRL. Anything else, be it third party deals, representative wages, private sponsorship, etc is purely up to the players and agents to find themselves, and if any club so much as points a player in a certain direction on those matters it's an automatic loss of competition points. Wouldn't happen though.
Phil
Guest
Can you be half-pregnant? Same with the salary cap. Simple: If you go over the cap- you get an unfair advantage over another team. I'm sick of hearing about these 'technical' breaches or about bonus or rep payments etc.. the responsibility is on the club to plan better and to structure their contracts and payments better. What I would suggest though, is that maybe the salary cap system (or the contracts themselves) are too complex and need to be simplified?
Arnold Krewanty
Guest
Funny thing was a lot of people knew about Prince's house deal. It was even mentioned in the local rag. Pretty sure Schubert actually investigated it when it come up. Titans are really treading water at the moment. A tough season coming up to, with things cap wise only looking rosy after 2015.