Reni Maitua, Cheyse Blair and Daniel Harrison received illegal Parramatta Eels payments
Date
May 10, 2016 - 10:00PM
Adrian Proszenko
Chief Rugby League Reporter
EXCLUSIVE
Reni Maitua, Cheyse Blair and Daniel Harrison are among the former Parramatta players alleged to have received extra payments above those disclosed to the NRL.
The trio are mentioned in the breach notice that the governing body has handed to the Eels as part of its investigations into salary cap rorts. The development marks the first time the names of players mentioned in the breach notice have been published. There is no suggestion the trio were complicit in cheating the system.
Maitua, Blair and Harrison were among about a dozen players deemed surplus to requirements by then-coach Ricky Stuart in 2013. It was one of the biggest cleanouts in the history of the blue and golds and the names of those deemed not part of the club's future were displayed to the playing group via an overhead projector.
Well-placed sources have told Fairfax Media the extra payments may have been provided as an inducement for some contracted players to leave.
The mass cleanout is viewed internally as the catalyst for the salary cap debacle the club currently finds itself in. Given the players were publicly labelled not up to first-grade standard, they were always going to be a hard sell to rival clubs.
The situation effectively left the Eels at the mercy of their player managers and the flow-on effects are viewed as one of the reasons Parramatta overspent the salary cap for five of their past six seasons. In 2014, the Eels had to shell out more than $750,000 to players no longer at the club as a result, with some of them playing against them at rival teams.
Following its probe, the NRL alleges the Eels have overspent by $3 million since 2012 via a number of illegal methods, including fictitious and inflated invoices, undisclosed third-party agreements and cash handouts.
Fairfax Media revealed in March that clothing provider Zibara was paid at least $80,000 for goods the club has no record of receiving, raising questions over whether players illegally benefited from the arrangement.
Zibara was one of the companies mentioned in an email from former Eels CFO Ed Farish to club officials which has been described as "the smoking gun" in the cap probe. That correspondence, along with damning audio recordings of board meetings, are among the key pieces of evidence that have brought the club undone.
Maitua, Harrison and Blair attempted to continue their footballing careers after leaving Parramatta with varying success. Maitua, a former NSW and Australian forward, was the highest profile of the so-called "dirty dozen" who were asked to move on.
The former Eels co-captain returned to former club Canterbury, where he was in and out of first grade before heading overseas. Harrison also returned to his former club, Manly, but made just one additional NRL appearance before also continuing his career in England.
Blair enjoyed a more fruitful stint at the Sea Eagles before he switched to Melbourne at the start of this season.
The Eels are now left with the challenge of becoming salary cap compliant before Friday's clash with South Sydney, with hooker Nathan Peats the man most likely to be squeezed out. They will then need to win 12 of their remaining games to have any chance of playing in the finals.
"I'm not going to lie, it's been tough after everything with the salary cap come out," said Eels backrower Tepai Moeroa. "It's been a real kick in the guts, but hopefully we can get under the cap and play for points this week."
Asked if the players were angry at the board for putting them into this situation, he said: "No, I don't think so. We've just got to worry about what we need to do as a team to go out there as a team and win our next 12 of 15. Yeah, the board made mistakes but there's nothing we can do."
