Sea Eagles ponder five years of pain

MANLY coach Trent Barrett says the salary cap deductions handed down for significant breaches have the potential to hurt the Sea Eagles for up to five years.

Manly will have $330,000 wiped from both its 2018 and 2019 salary caps if it doesn’t successfully appeal the findings of a breach notice handed down by the NRL on Monday.

The club is seeking legal advice, but denies illegally promising 13 players a combined $1.5 million in additional payments not declared under the cap during negotiations in the past five years.

The sanction also includes a $750,000 fine – including $250,000 suspended – but Barrett believes the club’s decreased cap could be felt for a very long time.

“Things like this will take years to recover from. It’s not something we’re going to be able to click our fingers and fix,” Barrett said.

“The repercussions for this aren’t going to be fixed in one or two weeks. This is a big deal if we’ve got to deal with it.

“Your roster management and salary cap is a huge part of professional sport. You get it wrong, it doesn’t just hurt you for six or 12 months, it hurts you for five years.”

Barrett said he’d already thought about how he could manage the club’s cap over the next two years, as reports emerged earlier this week forward Darcy Lussick could be free to leave.

The NRL’s punishment virtually allows the Sea Eagles only enough room in 2018 to sign two base-salary players to fill their 30-man squad unless players are released.

But Barrett said the solution wouldn’t be as simple as just having one less player next year, given it also hurt the club’s ability to move cap money around from year to year.

“It’s more from a planning point of view. We allocate notional value for players we want to retain or re-sign in next year’s cap. We haven’t been able to do any of that,” he said.

“There is an opportunity you have to pay money you have spare in next year’s cap this year into next year to be able to strengthen certain positions in your roster.”

Instead, Barrett said the club would have to put a stronger reliance on its youth, who won last year’s National Youth Cup.

It also means Manly will play with a virtual reduced salary cap for three years straight, after failing to get the injured and retired Brett Stewart and Steve Matai struck from their books in 2017.

“The thing that worries me is being able to retain the good kids we have unearthed over the past two years through circumstances,” Barrett said.

“We’ve got some guys there not on a heap of money we would like to look after.”