Gutted at watching Melbourne play for nothing in 2010, NRL boss Todd Greenberg says he will be “very happy” if Parramatta win the premiership – despite being stripped of 12 competition points for systemic salary-cap rorting.
After being hit with a breach notice outlining the loss of the points they had accrued so far this year, plus a $1 million fine, Eels lawyers late on Tuesday had success in the NSW Supreme Court.
There they secured a temporary order barring the NRL from enacting registration sanctions against Eels chairman Steven Sharp, football manager Daniel Anderson, chief executive John Boulous and fellow officials Tom Issa and Peter Serrao sought.
Unlike Melbourne in 2010, Parramatta have at least been given a glimmer of hope for the season ahead, given they will be able to compete for premiership points as soon as the decimated front office get the playing roster under the cap.
While the decision is sure to anger Storm fans, Greenberg said he’d deliberately worked hard to avoid repeating that decision, which was made under a previous NRL administration.
“If Parramatta wins every game under the salary cap, I will be very happy,” Greenberg said on Tuesday.
“But they have to comply with the salary cap like every one of the other 15 clubs.
“I watched Melbourne Storm fans and players have to continue to play a season without the ability to accrue points – I thought that was soul-destroying, both for the players and the fans.
“I’ve tried very hard to find a way forward here that Parramatta Eels can take a step forward today.”
The Eels have 10 days to get their house in order ahead of Friday week’s clash with South Sydney at Pirtek Stadium, but even coach Brad Arthur concedes he has no idea how the club can get under the cap in that time.
The club must shed players, with Greenberg saying squad members could not simply all take a pay cut to get under the limit.
To make the finals, the Eels – who have won six of their first nine games this year – will likely need 12 victories in their remaining 15 games, provided their roster is salary-cap compliant.
Greenberg said Parramatta would retain their plus-45 points differential and refused to say if he’d be comfortable with the Eels edging another side out of the top eight on for and against.
Despite affording the Eels an opportunity that the Storm weren’t six years ago, Greenberg said the league had no alternative than to issue Parramatta with its breach notice after finding the club had rorted the cap by $3 million since 2013 and by more than half-a-million alone in 2016.
“This has to stop and it stops today,” he said.
The NRL integrity unit obtained more than 700,000 documents as well as images from computers and mobile phones to uncover the Eels’ alleged breaches.
“The strategies include paying players undisclosed remuneration from the club’s own resources, sourcing third-party payments in breach of the salary-cap rules and arranging with club suppliers to inflate or issue fictitious invoices to raise money that was to be made available to the players,” Greenberg said.
Greenberg also said it was up to police and other authorities to decide if they needed to get involved in the saga.
Sleiman Azizi
Roar Guru
Given the constraints the NRL are required to operate within, their decision, I think, is a reasonable one.
Joe
Roar Rookie
Even though the Eels are getting to play for points, something that was not afforded to the Storm, I think Greenberg is correct in his decision. The penalties that were handed to the Storm were classic knee jerk reactions without any thought or process. This time around they have taken the time to think things through and have got it right.
fazed
Roar Rookie
Issue is not just this club & tpa's, how many here can say that there own club is not in violation of both cap & tpa's? The NRL have said they are going for the player agents now & checking them out, maybe the best option is to do an extensive investigation into every club, players, agents etc, sort this whole area of salary cap, tpa's out once & for all. We now have the 4th club that's been caught, at least two others have been able to cover up a couple of things so far, worst though is that one is privately owned & likely outside the NRL's snare. Time to get the whole payment area sorted out.
up in the north
Roar Rookie
By being willing to take this decision to court those members are underlining how inept they actually are. They've been given a light penalty for years of endemic corruption, and rather than accept the referees decision have chosen to go down this path. Don't they realise that the NRL could review the penalty and increase it.
NQ Cowboy
Guest
I'm not sure how those comments make Greenberg a hypocrite. The punishment doesn't seem fair to me after what happened to the Bulldogs and Storm. The Storm played the full season without points and were forced to let go of Greg Inglis after they had developed him into one of the greatest players in the game. The Eels breached the cap by cherry picking players from rival teams like Watmough, Foran and Jennings when they had no right to sign them in the 1st place. It's fortunate for Parramatta that they have an injured player in Watmough to purge from their salary cap to give them a chance of making the NRL finals this year despite being caught for cheating. That punishment is not a deterrent. The Eels should have no glimmer of hope this season.
Womblat
Guest
Greenberg is being hypocritical. First he says Parra gave the NRL no assistance at all with their investigation. Then he says that all officials in the NRL are obliged to tell the truth about rorting, which no-one at Parra have ever done. Then the NRL catches them out anyway, but gets rolled at the first hurdle trying to do something to fix it. Now it's "If Parramatta wins every game, I'll be happy". You can't please everyone all the time Todd. Just be a man, make decisions, and stand by them. Lead. That's what you are paid half a million dollars a year to do.
81paling
Roar Rookie
Reality is that Storm lawyers are joining in on this too. At the time the Storm's independent directors launched legal action and then were all immediately fired as a result. It looks like they are going to launch a similar action again and this time NEWS can't fire them. Therefore whilst that happens the Eels will be doing the same to simply say you can't fire members of our Leagues club. Just because our team plays in the competition that we appointed you to govern does not mean you can say who runs the venue that I take my family for dinner at, my parents enjoy bingo at and I put $20 into a pockie at when the wife is not looking. Go away NRL I will vote for whatever incompetent fool I want to. We had Dennis Fitzgeralf for 30 years, he ran the place into the ground, then we had Spagnolo who had to be removed by the NSW government but, you stood by and did nothing. Now for some reason the morning after the AGM you step in to intimidate everyone and show who is the competent boss. Well it is not you NRL otherwise you would have prevented Jenko's contract from being registered as a part of investigations that were ongoing since July 2015. Eels real hope is in the courts telling the NRL that they do not own our clubs.