TENSIONS are expected to boil over at the NRL’s chief executive meeting this week with a fired up Canberra boss Don Furner set to demand an explanation as to why Kieran Foran’s severance package was not included in the salary cap.
Furner has hit out at the NRL’s decision to allow Parramatta not to include Foran’s $150,000 release in the salary cap.
His frustrations come as the Sunday Telegraph revealed last week that Parramatta became the first club to take advantage of a new rule, which NRL club’s approved, to allow the integrity unit to exclude payouts from the salary cap where for conduct and behaviour issues it is in the best interests of the game for a player to leave a club.
Raiders boss Don Furner wants a better explanation about the Foran deal.
Furner will raise his concerns with the NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg on Thursday.
“I’ll be taking it up with the NRL,” Furner said. “I don’t think it is right. It seems to be very selective. If someone seeks a release they get a release. You don’t need to pay them for that release.”
The Raiders have had hundreds of thousands of dollars included in their salary cap in recent years for payments made to players who have been released, largely for poor off-field behaviour. Canberra had a spate of superstars including Josh Dugan, Blake Ferguson and Todd Carney moved on in recent years.
The NRL excluded Foran’s payout from the salary cap because it felt he needed time out of the game to sort out his conduct issues which occurred in the final months before his departure last month.
Instead of terminating Foran for breaching his contract, the Eels decided to pay him a portion of the deal to ensure their troubled ex-skipper would move on.
Furner also expressed concerns regarding the NRL’s decision to allow Anthony Watmough’s injury payment to also not be included in the salary cap, despite Parramatta’s $1.2 million dollar claim rejected by its insurance company.
“They’ve had a bit of help with (Foran) and a lot of help with the Watmough payout,” Furner said.
“From the outside looking in, if someone asks for a release then you shouldn’t have to pay to let him go.”
Other items on the agenda for Thursday’s meeting include updates on the collective bargaining agreement, pathways, third party agreements, digital strategy and football operations.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...t/news-story/c195eadad231e0e3de2aa6f453ad64ee
