Fans should not be punished for Eels' salary cap mismanagement

Who should be punished then Supporters and players are part of the club Storm and dogs supporters and players suffered the same fate but nothing was said So the eels have a god goven to rort the cap since 2013,assemble an iĺlegal squad and then you want nrl to sweep under the carpet?

No dramas just publish every players wage. Easy make them declare every bit of income they recieve. Just make it part of NRL contract easy. No salary cap dramas anymore

Tigers are also poor need the NRL to bail them out.

The third party agreements need to be looked at. Parramatta are seen to be cheating even though they've likely spent less than Brisbane did over the same period. The teams who struggle for third parties seem to continually struggle to compete. If teams like Brisbane are allowed to spend whatever they can source measures should be put in place to make the financial strugglers more competitive. If the nrl wants to continue with this model there needs to be less teams in Sydney in order to increase the corporate support for each side.

"The players have done nothing wrong'. Please! They have received financial benefit beyond their entitlement according to the rules of the game, they are as responsible as anyone else in this fiasco. Isn't that where the money from the breaches goes? To the players. I guess their protection lies in the fact that they have no idea what the total salary bill is, or what third party agreements other players have, but they and their managers have a responsibility to ensure that they are not entering into to agreements which fall outside the rules. This means making sure that their third party agreements are legitimate.

I can't believe that anyone would suggest not taking points away when the precedent is already well established... Why the hell would the Eels be treated differently. They are serial offenders and need to be severely whacked.. The only way to do that to enable necessary change is to take points away period.

So fans of the other 15 clubs should suffer as a result of their cheating then David?

I'm actually opposed to TPAs because it unfairly favours those clubs with large corporate backers in their district. Mind you there is much in the game that is inequitable and if the administration had any abdominal fortitude it would look seriously at addressing them. But the powerful clubs have just too much vested interest and influence

I completely agree David , most of these muppets have no idea what , if any infractions have occurred that haven't already been dealt with by the NRL. Fans demanding action because of media hyperbole. Where was this witch hunt in regards to the missing $300,000 at the Broncos. That's right their owners family own the majority of the country's media. The same media hanging Parra without a trial. Agendas much. Anybody calling for action without all the information is a fool.

The Barry, you are sounding more like the DT, where is your evidence that the Eels over the cap in 5 of the last 6 years? The Eels came clean with past indiscretions, mostly relating to second tier cap breaches by playing reserve grade players because of the huge injury toll. Generally from 2014 on they have been fairly clean (I mean what club does not stretch the rules) and with the lengthy investigation now going on I am certain they will find something. However whether big or small I'm sure we will find out when the NRL finally announce their results.

If Parra have cheated the cap this year than they deserve any penalties issued but they have hired Ian Schubert to monitor the cap and apparently compliant for 2016. Therefor this team should not penalised with loss of points. However if the rorting was for prior years than change those results, take the wooden spoons off us by all means, I have no objections being a Parra supporter!

This board hasn't been totally open... they showed the NRL some things and tried to hide the rest under the carpet. In a couple of weeks they have an AGM where they have to face the members. Guess what the board has schedule a movie night to meet the players and invited all the members to attend it, so that less turn up to the AGM. This board has to go too. They may not have started the rort but they have been a part of it since.

Fair comments there David. However you have fallen into the same trap as every other journalist and supporter commenting on Parra's cap problem, you have found them guilty in the court of public opinion. No evidence necessary, just speculation, but what the heck, there're guilty as charged (whatever those charges are?). If you had taken the time to actually read the evidence (and in fairness I have done little being a Parra supporter) the original info documented by the DT was PART of a discussion about TPAs back in 2014. When the actual minutes were made public it threw a whole different light on the DT article. But of course that wasn't worthy of much (if any) DT reporting. Nothing like letting the facts spoil a good (or bad) story. There has since been some leakage of a TPA for Watmough paid by a subsidiary of a supplier to Parramatta Leagues Club. Now this is where a real conflict comes into play imo. Clubs are supposed to have NO sourcing of TPAs (yeh as if that actually happens in the real world!) BUT they are supposed to check if any organisation has any commercial relationship with them. What!? Anyway lets just see what the NRL has found before throwing Parra to the wolves. I mean this has been the most drawn out investigation ever undertaken by the NRL. Much longer than the cap rorting by Broncos when Gee resigned (took about 5 minutes) but they interviewed Seward (former Parra CEO) but not Gee, and also much longer than looking at Cowboys chairman selling players cheaper housing (another 5 minute job) but apparently that doesn't affect their cap (unbelievable!).

TPAs are only back door deals if your club is dodgy and makes back door deals. There's so much room within the rules for TPAs that there's no excuse for being so dodgy about them. It's like saying the rules for monopoly are dodgy because one player keeps stealing from the bank.

That's what TPA's are for, eh? To think the raiders couldn't hang on to milford after they offered more than the broncs did on paper.....must have been the wayne factor. They play for free then.

Ah it's the player managers defence, eh? How about the NRL auditors do the job they're paid for and audit ALL clubs every year without preferential treatment?

But a concession to the broncs rorting is above board? A least the raiders of 91 were fined the princely sum of $40k back in the day for a cap breach even when they were the then glory boys of the comp.

It is simple. They cheat, they lose points. A precedent was set by how the Storm were punished, so any other penalty will be easily challenged by other teams and officials. It would be easy for them to demand the Eels lose points and to approach the matter through legal channels of necessary. I do not understand why there is so much contention around this issue. You cheat, you lose points.

Or Gee, director of football operations and rorting the cap. Quickly, quickly no news here. Courier mail is news corp. News corp is broncos. Broncos are channel nine, Friday night. Winning!

"...Parra didn’t even make the top 8 during their period of cheating." That, right there, is the epitome of incompetence.