Your ideas for Fixing the Cap...

[supermario]

I was thinking.......yes, the mouse is still alive up there and the wheel is still spinning........about ways the cap can be fixed, amended, etc etc.....

and 2 ideas sprang to mind.

1) Rep Contracts separate to Club contracts. Take the onus on paying rep bonuses away from the clubs and let the NRL/ARL pay for reps players services. We see alot of players who have clauses in their contracts that if they make the Rep sides, their contracts will increase or they will get bonuses.

Alot of them use their rep status to bump up their price.

I was thinking that if the NRL/ARL actually paid rep player payments, this could see a reduction in contract sizes.

Lets take shillo as an example. the raiders would have signed him for $x amount and he may have a clause in his contract that his Contract raises to $xx for making rep sides.

Canberra now have a larger contract to deal with, which, they may have planned for or hoped that he did not make it as that may take them close to the cap.

Now, if shillo was to make one or 2 rep sides, and not play in a rep side for the rest of his contract with the raiders.....he will still get paid the higher amount.

If the NRL/ARL paid Rep player payments, the clubs can get rid of these bonus clauses and have a barganing chip at the table "if you make the rep sides you will get your rep payments, we will only pay this amount"

While it sounds naieve, it seems to work in cricket with Cricket Australia having specific contracts for rep selection and the state sides paying lower payments because the govening body is subsidising rep players.

If you are good enough to get selected......you are good enough for the extra payments.

It may even promote some competition for the rep sides.

Part 2 to come soon

[supermario]

Part 2

2) my other suggestion is something that comes from the NFL.

Yes, i know that they deal with bigger money than the NRL, but the principle will be the same.

The NRL are worried about clubs going broke if they raise the cap.....well, why don't the NRL increase the Grant they provide to equal the Salary cap. Effectivley the money for the salaries will come from the NRL, this will provide the clubs with extra money which will reduce costs and hopefully be put back into junior league and possibly cheaper tickets.

this way, the clubs that manage their money correctly, will survive.

This will work only if the NRL media rights costs are increased significantly.

[Guest]

good suggestions muzz. i have always liked the idea of having player salaries or a percentage of them excluded from the cap entirely if they have played x amount of games/spent x amount of years with a certain club or are a local junior. This will help to keep the more experienced players in the game instead of them taking up pensions o/s (fitzy) which will boost the standard and it will also reward loyalty which is starting to escape the game as well as acting as a perrogative for clubs to invest in their youth development programs so as to reward clubs who are capable of nurturing their talent all the way through the grades. Something like this may have been proposed in a paper recently (not sure but its likely) but i have had this opinion for a little while - im not a papers preacher

[stsae]

Good points Muzz, agree with both.

IMO, an external draft is needed to partner the Cap. The governing body must fund and run the whole of the juniors, no more squabbling about locals etc, its so 1950s. Like whats done in most other sports worldwide, set up an academy, several actually we have school aligned. Get the kids living like pros from a young age. Have draft camps, like NFL, make the draft a TV event, it would pull plenty of interest IMO.

Re-instate 3 grades for ALL teams. Fund the comps properly, by the governing body, use Pay TV/sponsors for funds etc, like now with the 20s.

Definatley increase the cap, definatley make the governing body provide the whole cap ammount. Allow unlimirted 3rd party $$$. The more $$$ in the game the better IMO.

Oh and FARK NEWS OFF. Thats the 1st thing to do. Settle a REAL deal with sponsors, free to air, Pay etc. Make sure the GAME gets what the GAME generates.

[Guest]

1 - The NRL pays the players directly. Take the clubs out of the equation with regards to rorting the cap. The clubs negotiate the deals but the NRL pays the players.

2 - Cap concessions for 5 years and beyond for any player your club has developed.

Chook.

[stephenj]

its critical that a reserve grade be reintroduced, under 20s can become under 23 and play in place of the old 3rd grade!

[Guest]

In the famous words of Monty Burns.....release the hounds....open slather...time to stop worrying about the clubs that might perish...time to move on with the times...they always make comparisons with how the EPL has only 3 or 4 teams able to win the comp every year like the Man U's & Chelsea's or Liverpool & Arsenal teams...yet the EPL attracts top dollar from tv rights & the corporate sector & if anything all the other clubs are vying to get to their level...

This argument that some clubs will go broke is bullshit...so farken what...the ridiculous thing is if a club's got a good team together they could get sponsors and backers to back them to keep a side together and reap the rewards down track by keeping a gun side together...look at Canberra for an example...they bring some juniors through and they form into a formidable NRL side...all of a sudden they get backing from private sponsors as they know they will get a heap of exposure as they will be on the telly and the news all the time and the Canberra side with smart marketing and managers can get the dollars to get a top shelf product on the market...aka the gun side they had when they won 3 comps...the salary cap killed that team in the end...and that was wrong...

I look at Brian Waldron as a ballsy **** that had the fore sight to keep a gun side together regardless of the negative NRL rules that would see him breaking up a side they had built from scratch with some gun young players...

[BUDDY]

The first thing that needs to happen is for News to piss off and get the independant commission off the ground. Until that happens nothing will happen. The NRL are just not innovative enough. They have the attitude of "if it ain't broken then don't fix it". The problem is that they look through rosey coloured glasses and can't see how broken it actually is.

As for the cap, take a leaf out of AFL and soccer.

- Allow two marquee players not included in the cap. That should have a better spread of the stars and the likes of Issy will earn what he will be getting in yawnion. If a particular club can't line up third party payments to pay $800K for a couple marquees then they don't have to. They can still nominate their two highest earners.

- increase players to 30 and increase cap to say $5M to allow for the extra 5 players. But reserve grade needs to come back.

- concessions for long term team players.

I like the idea of the NRL paying for rep games but it can get difficult. They currently pay $12K per State Of Origin and $6K per test. That alone is so piddly considering how many games they actually play. But even if they double that, say a certainty like Cam Smith is injured for all three games. That is money he would probably be banking on which he will miss out on but a contract would guarantee that money. A contract system like Cricket Australia pay is also very subjective in picking a certain number of players. Why did Tait and Lee get one but Bracken didn't?

Although there is no guarantee, you can probably assume that the new TV deal will provide a bonanza for the NRL. If they are pulling in $150M a year now, how much could they get with the new deal? Some have suggested over $300M per year. So go to a freaken bank and say lend us $20M for the next couple of years and give that to the clubs to top up their grants. They can probably pay that back after a couple of years of the new TV deal; maybe even in the first year. Waiting 2.5 years for this TV deal is not smart business and is just going to make things worse. How many more stars will we lose in this time? Would Issy decide to stay if they change it for next year? Who knows, we may also be able to snare a couple high profile yawnion players.

[stsae]

The first thing that needs to happen is for News to piss off and get the independant commission off the ground. Until that happens nothing will happen. The NRL are just not innovative enough. They have the attitude of "if it ain't broken then don't fix it". The problem is that they look through rosey coloured glasses and can't see how broken it actually is.

As for the cap, take a leaf out of AFL and soccer.

- Allow two marquee players not included in the cap. That should have a better spread of the stars and the likes of Issy will earn what he will be getting in yawnion. If a particular club can't line up third party payments to pay $800K for a couple marquees then they don't have to. They can still nominate their two highest earners.

- increase players to 30 and increase cap to say $5M to allow for the extra 5 players. But reserve grade needs to come back.

- concessions for long term team players.

I like the idea of the NRL paying for rep games but it can get difficult. They currently pay $12K per State Of Origin and $6K per test. That alone is so piddly considering how many games they actually play. But even if they double that, say a certainty like Cam Smith is injured for all three games. That is money he would probably be banking on which he will miss out on but a contract would guarantee that money. A contract system like Cricket Australia pay is also very subjective in picking a certain number of players. Why did Tait and Lee get one but Bracken didn't?

Although there is no guarantee, you can probably assume that the new TV deal will provide a bonanza for the NRL. If they are pulling in $150M a year now, how much could they get with the new deal? Some have suggested over $300M per year. So go to a freaken bank and say lend us $20M for the next couple of years and give that to the clubs to top up their grants. They can probably pay that back after a couple of years of the new TV deal; maybe even in the first year. Waiting 2.5 years for this TV deal is not smart business and is just going to make things worse. How many more stars will we lose in this time? Would Issy decide to stay if they change it for next year? Who knows, we may also be able to snare a couple high profile yawnion players.

Good post mate.

I dont believe NewsRL are incompetent or lack innovation. I believe they keep the game down because the game is theirs. They own it, some clubs, the Pay TV arm, the major sponsor and they use the controversy (which im sure is created often) to sell their newspapers.

Its win, win, win, win for News. Its the "game" that misses out unfortunately.

Gallop himself said 140 mill + comes into the game a year, including TV rights and sponsor $$$$. He gives the clubs 3 mill each.

Where is the missing 90 mill going???

Why did we sign long contracts with sponsors and Pay TV???

Wasnt that News' reasoning for starting SL, ch9s stranglehold on the ARL??? So of course they re-sign with ch9, for 10 + yrs.

Its all a money making game for these News carnts. They are at the stupid RL fan. They use their paper and Pay TV to sell us ANYTHING they can make more $$$ from. Its farked when you really look at the situation the games in.

Its News LTDs job to make $$$, I dig that. Its the way theyve "used" RL to achieve that. Sponsor and TV deals done with their own companies, it just means they always win. And the games undervalued. Then they keep most of the undervalued funds they attract for the game and refuse to tell the clubs what they do with the millions.

The games in a worse position than it was b4 they took over. Their false promises of everyone getting fat was a lie. Theyre the only fat cats allowed to wet their lips.

Sick joke, bunch of farkers.

[Kingbilly]

Lower the cap, make the players get real jobs !!!

[stsae]

Lower the cap, make the players get real jobs !!!

Not when the NewsRL brings in 140 mill + a season mate. And thats with undervalued TV, Pay TV and sponsorship deals.

The clubs should get at minimum the cap ammount from News as a grant.

Id be all for lowering the cap if there wasnt enough $$$$$ available. But NewsRL themselves have admitted to the ammount they rake in each season, they just wont admit what they do with the missing 90 mill +.

Its the News way, let their media arms tell people the info they want them to believe is true. Their constant bleeting by News journos about poor NewsRLs money troubles are pure lies and deflection from the real problem.

[Headless Chook]

I like the idea of an independent panel made up of ex players/coaches deciding on the points value of a player than allowing the clubs to pay them what they want. Once their contract is renewed expires, the player can be re-rated by the panel. Clubs are only allowed a certain number of player points. The better the player the higher his points rating, discounts applied for local juniors developed by the club. This way guys like Hayne and JT can paid what they want, but no club will be able to accumulate all the talent or they will exceed their points limit.

[Guest]

I like the idea of an independent panel made up of ex players/coaches deciding on the points value of a player than allowing the clubs to pay them what they want. Once their contract is renewed expires, the player can be re-rated by the panel. Clubs are only allowed a certain number of player points. The better the player the higher his points rating, discounts applied for local juniors developed by the club. This way guys like Hayne and JT can paid what they want, but no club will be able to accumulate all the talent or they will exceed their points limit.

ridiculous and will never happen

[Headless Chook]

ridiculous and will never happen

Thanks champ!

[Guest]

1 - The NRL pays the players directly. Take the clubs out of the equation with regards to rorting the cap. The clubs negotiate the deals but the NRL pays the players.

2 - Cap concessions for 5 years and beyond for any player your club has developed.

Chook.

Agree in principle chook.

My idea is for the Cap to work, the NRL needs to foot the entire Cap to the clubs, if its 4.5 million so be it.


On top of this an extra 1 million is available at the clubs own expense to do 1 of 2 things.

1/ Clubs like Canberra who have guys like Campese, crocker, dugan, vidot etc

They can choose 3 local juniors that they have produced, up to the total value of the 1 million to be cap exempt.

or

2/ They can choose to buy in 2 players ( elite rep players) and their combined income cannot exceed the 1 million cap exempt amount.

Therefore clubs who can afford to spend more are not penalised, clubs who do produce junior talent are not robbed of players, clubs with small junior leagues can still purchase top rate players, the players can earn more.

Juniors would be classed as SG Ball onwards, otherwisekids from the bigger areas like the riff, bris would be disadvantaged by missing selection in their respective districts.

Any player with 10 consecutive years of service is also exempt.

In short.

NRL foots the entire cap to clubs.
clubs can additionally spend up to 1million of their own money on either
3 junior players
2 elite players

these amounts would be cap exempt.

All finalising of contracts are to be registered and signed by an NRL representative who is present at time of signature.

Players then know that this is the binding contract, any player who accepts any additional payments are immediately suspended / sacked.