Devil in the detail as NRL, players and
NEGOTIATIONS involving the NRL, players’ union and clubs are expected to settle on a salary cap of $A9.5 million ($9.9 million) for next year, but the devil will be in the detail.
A player payment budget of $A9.4 million plus a motor vehicle allowance of $A100,000 will satisfy most clubs, but prompt panic selling by those who have gambled on the cap being $A10 million.
The big question, however, is what the NRL will demand be included in the cap, such as players’ hospital and medical annual subscriptions, fees paid to the union, the Rugby League Players’ Association, and the cost of wellbeing and education staff at a club, deemed benefits to players.
These were previously commitments met by the players or clubs and outside the salary cap.
Some clubs speculate that if the NRL loads up the cap with previously excluded items, players may actually receive less than the $A9 million offer currently on the table.
For the first time in the 110-year history of bargaining between clubs and players over playing contracts, it’s in the interests of both for a club’s wage bill to rise.
This is because the NRL is committed to paying 130 per cent of the salary cap to clubs, an additional 30 per cent above the salary ceiling to fund clubs’ administrative and football operations.
Therefore, if the salary cap rises, so does the additional grant to the clubs.
When a $A9 million cap for the top 30 players was proposed during a phone hook-up of club chief executives late last week, some noticed a sudden intake of breath from those clubs which have already committed to near $A10 million in player payments for next year.
These clubs anticipated the cap would be $A10 million because it was the standard example offered when explaining the 130 per cent outlay by the NRL in the negotiations with ARLC chairman John Grant.
Player managers, who are paid a proportion of a client’s salary,