Payne Haas can win titles or get paid $1.2 million a year – but he can't do both

And so, once again, we return to the subject of Payne Haas.

It’d be nice to talk about how he’s been named to play in his eighth State of Origin match and dissect whether he’ll start or come off the bench.

But instead, he and his new management decided that mid-contract and mid-season, with the Broncos playing their best footy in Haas’ entire tenure at the club, was the time to ask for an immediate release.

It was a staggering act of selfishness, perhaps matched only by the naivety Haas showed when he said he had been “rattled” at being booed by Brisbane fans in their game against the Titans on Friday night.

What did he honestly expect would happen? That there would be sympathy and understanding from fans that a guy earning a reported $750,000 this season, $800,000 next and $850,000 in 2024 is being so underpaid he is within his rights to pull up stumps on a deal he himself signed?

Now I’ve pulled this apart previously, because poor Payne and the money he thinks he deserves has been doing the rounds for ages now.

(Matt King/Getty Images)

But as a quick refresher, Haas’ current, six-year deal with the Broncos was registered in 2018, is reported to be worth a total of $3.64 million (initially $3 million but the Broncos apparently showed the decency to upgrade him without asking anything in return since ’18), and was signed at a time when he was – as I pointed out last August – “an injured teenager who hadn’t even played 40 minutes of first-grade football”.

It was a huge show of faith from Red Hill and they’ve continued to support Haas in the subsequent years, notably backing him when he has acted like a dickhead – and even a criminal – off the field.

So how does he repay their faith and support? By demanding an immediate release from his deal because the club didn’t bow to his demands.

As for what those demands are, according to Danny Weidler on the weekend, “Haas wants to extend his deal for three more years, not six. He wants $1 million for next year and 2024, and he’s asking for $1.2 million for 2025.”

First off, Danny, he’s not extending his deal for three more years if he’s already signed for two of them. That’s an extension of one year.

So according to Weidler’s previously reported numbers, Haas wants a $350,000 upgrade of his current deal and, in return, he’s willing to offer one more year.

In effect, Haas is asking for a $350,000 signing bonus for a commitment on his part of one extra year – oh, and he’ll get another fat pay rise for that one year, with reported demands of $1.2 million for the 2025 season.

Unsurprisingly, the Broncos aren’t keen on this new contract. That’s because, as you’ll have noticed, it’s a crap deal for them. So they’re looking to engage in “ongoing dialogue about an extension to his current contract”.

But Haas? He just wants to walk away now, because he thinks his current deal – which, again, he signed at 18 and before he had even run for 100 metres in first grade, but is still worth more than most will earn in their entire lifetime – is too unfair for him to continue under.

Weidler also reported that what caused Haas to want to walk wasn’t really the money but his wish to have performance clauses in his deal.

“Haas wants to be able to get out of his deal if they don’t make the top eight in year one of his new deal, or in year two if they don’t make the top six, and in year three if they don’t make the top four,” Weidler wrote.

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Let’s say we take Haas at his word – that it’s not about the money, even though he wants these clauses and a lot more money.

Does he not get that the two are virtually mutually exclusive?

If a prop, even the best prop in the game, takes up $1.2 million of a club’s salary cap, the chance of that club making the top four are severely hampered – arguably to the point of it being an impossibility.

Weidler’s belief that “the best forwards in the game get seven-figure deals” is not true. It has only happened at two clubs – the Titans paying David Fifita $1.2 million and the Cowboys paying Jason Taumalolo $1 million.

The best forwards at the clubs that consistently make the top four – the Storm, Roosters and Panthers – are nowhere near a mill a year, let alone $1.2 million. Those clubs spend the big money on their spine because said players ultimately determine the outcome of the game on a far more consistent basis than the big units in the middle.

For Haas to take an extra $400,000 out of the salary cap would severely hamper the Broncos’ ability to contend with the aforementioned clubs.

So his salary stops the Broncos from making the four, allowing him to walk away because the team doesn’t perform as well as he’d like.

Again, you can see why Dave Donaghy and Co. aren’t ready to fold.

As for a resolution, maybe a little creativity on the Broncos’ part might help to sort this issue out.

If Haas is so keen on these performance clauses, how about they cut both ways? The club allows him to walk if they don’t make the eight, six and four over the coming three years.

But he’s only allowed to go to a club that made the eight, six or four.

If Haas is so keen on success rather than money, then he can go earn unders at a title contender – because the only place he’s going to get the kind of money he thinks he’s worth is at a struggling club. If he’s serious about winning grand finals now as a gun for hire, rather than building to them with his current teammates, then he’ll need to take unders to be coached by Craig Bellamy, Trent Robinson or Ivan Cleary.

(Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)

Of course, the real solution is for the NRL to finally step in and end this ‘I want more’ fiasco once and for all.

Each off-season, we fans are told the thing we hate the most in the NRL is the way players can sign for another club almost 18 months in advance, leaving, for example, Parramatta fans to feel a bit melancholy about how well Reed Mahoney is playing this year because he’ll be at the Bulldogs in 2024.

But you know what I think fans really hate most? Players deciding mid-contract that they want more than they signed for, so demanding a release – and pretty well always getting it.

The whole idea that loyalty is dead in the NRL and that it’s a two-way street is bulldust. If a player is underperforming, they don’t get moved on without pay – their club either keeps them on the books or ships them off but has to top up their salary to ensure said player is no worse off than the terms they signed.

But if a player wants more money, the club pretty much always releases them.

The NRL needs to stop this – and it’s easy to do so. They simply make a rule that the most recent contract you’ve signed travels with you. So if Haas were to gain a release, he would only be allowed to sign with another club on the same deal he currently has with the Broncos.

It would put a stop to 99 per cent of mid-contract player movement with the stroke of a pen.

As for the Rugby League Players’ Association making a stand against this because it’s not in the players’ interests, the frustrating thing is that it is in the players’ interests.

The vast majority of players are never going to find themselves in this situation. Yet they are all tarred with the same brush of being ‘greedy footballers’ whenever the likes of Haas pulls a stunt like this.

Stamping out the money-motivated mid-contract move would improve every player’s standing, except the select few who cite ‘personal reasons’ to make heaps more money for departing the club they pledged their allegiance to by signing a legally binding deal.

The flow-on effect will be more fans watching the game and, ultimately, more money in more players’ pockets, rather than just the greedy few who perpetuate the death of loyalty myth.