How Ryan Matterson keeping his $4000 could change the whole NRL

It’s a shame that Ryan Matterson has been the first prominent player to decide he would rather sit out a few games than pay a financial penalty after being cited by the NRL judiciary.

Matterson performed a crusher tackle on Panthers fullback Dylan Edwards in the Eels’ grand final loss to Penrith and opted to take a three-week ban rather than pay $4000 for his offence.

Having left Wests Tigers in a cloud of controversy at the end of 2019, reportedly because he wanted to be paid more, this latest action from the rep backrower has simply fed the theory that he’s a tight-arse and a bad teammate.

Which is pretty much all we got as far as discussion of the matter went, with the usual talking heads telling us how selfish Matterson is, that it showed a lack of leadership, and that money is fleeting but the first three rounds of an NRL season are sacred.

Few were willing to discuss the possibility that Matterson showed leadership for the entire league, taking a hit for, in particular, those players who are at the bottom of the salary scale.

I’ve previously written about how the NRL’s fines are a joke, so it was disappointing that when a player faced with paying one of these fines finally confirmed their joke status by making the choice to keep his hard-earned – using the imperfect but not ridiculous logic that no one else’s job makes them pay money for making mistakes – all we heard was that this player is off with the fairies.

How about we give Ryan Matterson a bit of credit?

(Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

You reckon he wouldn’t have anticipated this kind of fallout? Or at worst, that when he told his manager and club, no one would have advised him that he was facing a grilling in the court of public opinion?

Yet he still made this decision.

Maybe his motives were purely selfish but this was still a player finally taking a stand against a critically flawed system.

Previous players have definitely wanted to take the weeks out and keep their dosh, especially the blokes for whom a few grand represents a significant proportion of their take home.

There are players who can barely afford to cop an NRL fine, because they are set figures rather than percentages of wages. But a lowly salary is also indicative of a tenuous status on a top-30 list, meaning a lesser-valued player keeping their coin would be a pyrrhic victory as it would all but ensure they would be out of a job altogether next season.

When I’ve previously discussed fines, some Roarers have taken to the comments to say players are paid less when on the sidelines because they get match payments.

That may be the case for the aforementioned blokes who are at the bottom of the 30-man roster, but there is no way Nathan Cleary got a cent less in his pay packet while he sat out for five weeks for a spear tackle.

The best players have a guaranteed salary. It may be moderately docked if they are, say, late to training, or more heavily garnished if they make the kind of off-field mistake that draws the interest of the constabulary.

But no manager worth their salt is negotiating a multi-year contract totalling millions that includes a clause allowing the club to pay their player less for falling foul of the decapitated-chook-on-a-wheel-of-possibilities that is the NRL judiciary.

You want evidence? Matterson just provided it. No way he’d sit out games instead of paying $4000 if the former was going to cost him money anyway.

But, as mentioned, these assured salaries are for genuine first graders. Guys who are a lock to be paid hundreds of thousands for this year and years to come. Guys like Ryan Matterson.

Matterson signed a fat, four-year deal only months ago. So sure, he can probably afford to pay the $4000, but it also means he has contractual security in making the decision to cool his heels until Round 4 of 2023.

His club is probably fuming behind the scenes, but there’s precisely nothing they can do about it until the end of 2026.

Which is why it was incumbent on someone like Matterson to finally take a stand against the NRL’s fines.

Said to be on $600,000 a year, the Origin forward was unlikely to end up in arrears on his mortgage by paying the fine. But the next player who decides that they’d rather keep their money will get a little less heat because of Matterson’s actions.

(Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)

It’ll be easier again for the player after that. And the next.

I hope Matterson’s actions start a genuine movement of players giving the NRL the finger and keeping their money.

Firstly, because that may get us to the point where a guy on minimum wage can decide to keep his much-needed coin for making a bad read in defence, and his club won’t hold it against him come contract time.

But more importantly, players eschewing the NRL’s fines is the only way the current system is going to change.

The NRL had hoped – and until now been proven correct to do so – that the fines system would allow them to argue that they weren’t soft on foul play, because punishments are doled out for high hits and crusher tackles, it’s just that the punitive action doesn’t hurt the fans.

Never mind how tired I am of being used as an excuse for every terrible decision HQ makes, how about in this instance, fans have nothing to do with it. Because we’re not the ones endangered by the people paying these fines.

The fine system has become a way of allowing thugs to pay to break the rules (and teeth and bones), particularly those thugs on really good coin.

Acts of foul play have become easier for better-paid players to commit, because they are punished more lightly. In theory, players are in twice as much danger coming up against the likes of James Tedesco or Nathan Cleary compared to Matterson because, being on double his salary, they will feel half the financial sting for an act of foul play.

(Photo by Joshua Davis/Getty Images)

Compare that to the punishment of matches missed, which hits far more evenly across the board.

And, for that matter, missing games is a punishment more fitting of the crime of foul play. If you commit a dangerous act, you should miss matches both to deter you and to keep your fellow professionals safe. These are basic tenets of crime and punishment.

Nevertheless, the NRL has had no appetite to stop the likes of Nelson Asofa-Solomona from being fined for continually committing the same cheap acts, because he keeps paying, so they keep saying that the system works. And Einstein’s definition of insanity remains undefeated.

Matterson’s action upsets the apple cart. If others do the same, which they are more likely to do now that someone else has broken the seal, the NRL will be faced with evidence that their crap system is, in fact, crap.

But, then again, it was Ryan Matterson who made this stand. And when he left Concord he totally dogged the boys.

Yeah. Things will probably stay the same, hey?