Clubs settle on salary ceiling

also fuelled the $A10 million myth.

Some clubs have suggested to the NRL’s chief operating officer, Nick Weeks, who is leading the NRL in negotiations, that he should allow a little wriggle room, given the protracted delay in the collective bargaining agreement negotiations.

Weeks responded with words to the effect: ‘‘You may well have committed $A10 million, but the NRL will only register $A9 million worth of contracts for next season.’’

Clubs are confident negotiations will finalise the cap at $A9.5 million, which will satisfy most of them.

However, the clubs believed to be already over – the Bulldogs, Cowboys and Roosters – may be forced into a fire sale of players.

This would further accelerate the already embarrassing situation of clubs funding the contracts of players in rival teams.

Will clubs, who attempt to renege on the deals, be sued for breach of contract? If they honour the deals, or are forced to absorb most of the salary of those they on-sell, they will cop heavy fines from the NRL for exceeding the cap.

Wests Tigers, who lost three of their best four players during a saga that brought credit to noone, are now inadvertently in a position of having salary cap space.

Apart from the 30 per cent payment to clubs, it’s also in the NRL’s interest to keep the salary cap down because of its need to sell two clubs, the Knights and the Titans. Any prospective buyer will want to take over a wages bill as low as possible.

Another contentious point is third party agreements, with some clubs estimating the Broncos have $A2 million in deals with players. Third party agreements are outside the cap and therefore are an obstacle in creating a level playing field.

Whatever the final outcome of deliberations over the salary cap for the next five years, players will be receiving nearly 50 per cent more than previously, unless the NRL successfully loads the cap with previously excluded items. The Sun-Herald