Rugby league's dirty secret: confessions of an NRL bagman
May 9, 2016 - 12:02AM
Kate McClymont
They are known as "the money men" and they are rugby league's dirty secret.
Every club has them, said one businessman, and he should know because over the years he has both collected "the folding stuff" and put in his own money to try to buy an advantage for his team.
The money men are club diehards whose loyalty to their team is being exploited by club officials who are organising for cash payments to be made directly to players or their managers.
The know they are part of an underhand scheme to deliberately subvert the salary cap. But the money men don't care. Every club does it, they say – especially the wealthier clubs.
"The stronger clubs have got more hangers-on willing to pay. People with clout tend to hang round people with clout," the bagman said.
Clubs like Parramatta, which are run by non-businessmen, are at a disadvantage, he said. "The smart clubs, which are run by professionals, they are the ones who don't get caught."
"If you honestly believe the [names successful club] players fit under the salary cap, you need rocks in your head," the bagman said.
"The top 17 players at the [names club] – every one of those players gets a brown paper bag full of the folding stuff," he said.
He goes on to name a prominent official at this club who collects hundreds of thousands of dollars a year by "putting the squeeze on business people who want to be part of the inner sanctum".
In 2010 the self-confessed bagman was called upon to pay almost $100,000 in cash to a one-time Queensland State of Origin star to sweeten the deal for the famous player to sign with a new club.
Such was the interest in the player, his signing delivered more than 10,000 "bums on seats" at the home games, the bagman told Fairfax Media.
The bagman said some clubs didn't want to know how it was done. They just say that player X needs a certain amount of money, can you sort it out?
At other clubs the bagman said the first thing a coach wanted to know when he came to a club was: Who are the money men?
"They [club officials] organise a dinner, a barbecue or a cruise and they invite all the people who "help out". The coach meets people and then with the CEO they work out a plan of attack, who can do what, who they want to buy and then they approach the money men to see if they can help out
After the "plan of attack" is worked out, sometimes the money men are dispatched to collect payments from the "so-called third party sponsor".
"We are told: 'Go and see Joe Blow at SpareParts.com.
"I say, 'I am here to see you about your player, can you help out?'
"He's already been told, so he says, 'Yeah mate'. And then he goes to the safe and hands over the money. I say, 'If you want the player to come and do some promo work, just let us know'."
In return, the "donors" are given access to the dressing rooms, they and their mates are given tickets, they go on trips with players, their kids get to be ball boys, and they feel part of the inner sanctum.
"Anyone who helps out 'in folding' [money] gets access to anywhere they like. They get looked after," the bagman said.
At the heart of the scheme are the player managers, some of whom siphon off a cut of the money, he said. One player manager lost several high-profile clients after he was caught pocketing cash payments that were meant for his players.
"The player managers orchestrate it. They don't care if the payments to their players are on the books, legitimate TPAs [third party agreements] or a brown paper bag," he said.
He said in the past players were paid outside the salary cap through cars or apartments. The apartments were commonly in brand new developments. The player sold the apartment upon completion but before the land title was officially registered.
That way, it was difficult to trace that they had ever had an interest in the building in question.
The bagman named a club official saying, he is "far too clever to do cars or units or anything like that. [The club official] says it is all in brown paper bags and it gets left on a table for the player manager to pick it up."
Peter Grimshaw, the media spokesman for the NRL, said he would wait to see the allegations before making any comment.
