. Parramatta are shelling out more than $750,000 this season to players that are no longer at the club, contributing to a salary cap nightmare they admit leaves their hands tied when attracting big-name recruits to Pirtek Stadium.
While coach Brad Arthur has restored confidence following consecutive wooden spoons by piloting the Eels to the fringe of the top eight leading into Friday night's meeting with South Sydney, the situation on the club's books is grim and with no overnight fix.
As a result of bogus recruitment and retention decisions and back-ending of contracts, the Eels have only 21 players in their top-25 NRL roster and have no room to move under the $6.3 million salary cap.
The depth of the problem is outlined by the fact they are paying upwards of $750,000 this season to eight players – Reni Maitua (Canterbury), Jacob Loko (Canterbury) Daniel Harrison (Manly), Jordan Latham (Manly), Cheyse Blair (Manly), Jake Mullaney (Salford), Matt Ryan (Wakefield Trinity) and Brayden Wiliame (Newcastle) – who have left Parramatta.
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The scenario is no brighter for next year, with the Eels already projected to be over the increased $6.55 million top-tier cap, a position which left them unable to re-sign veteran centre Willie Tonga and with no option but to offload Loko, who has been injury ravaged and had off-field issues.
Loko, 21, was to receive a huge pay rise from $130,000 this season to $440,000 in 2015 under his Parramatta contract, and the Eels will continue to contribute a significant portion to his salary at the Bulldogs next year.
A frustrated Parramatta chief executive Scott Seward said the cap dilemma would not be easily fixed.
''It highlights what a great job Brad has actually done with an absolutely compromised list. He doesn't have a top 25 to choose from, he only has a top 21, and that's not of his making,'' Seward said. ''He can't do much more than what he's doing.
''We're not in the position where we can go out and recruit much for next year either. That said, we've got a lot of faith in what wev'e got and what's coming through but we're going to be compromised again because of decisions made in the past.''
Parramatta's troubles extend to the $440,000 second-tier cap, under which they are still paying Blair and Wiliame and which counts registration termination payments for England-based Mullaney and Ryan.
With only 19 fit first-graders to pick from last weekend against the Warriors, who thrashed them 48-0, and NSW Origin fullback Jarryd Hayne rested, they had to ask the NRL for permission to play teenage debutant Tepai Moeroa because of their breach of the second-tier cap.
The Eels' predicament means veterans Fuifui Moimoi and Ben Smith won't be with them next season, and others such as winger Ken Sio will likely be on the way out.
The dire scenario will leave fans searching for culprits, and revisiting the notorious ''cleanout'' announcement by former head coach Ricky Stuart last year.
Seward, however, believes the seeds of Parramatta's botched roster were planted well before Stuart listed 10 unwanted names on an overhead projector 13 months ago, finding it mind-boggling the club was not able to cash in on cap space created by the retirements of legends Nathan Cayless (in 2010) and Nathan Hindmarsh and Luke Burt (in 2012).
''I think from an outside perspective you would have to question how the club could not have recruited players when they lost three high-profile club legends,'' Seward said. ''You take Hindmarsh, Cayless and Burt out of any salary cap list, you would have to presume there was a substantial amount of money that could have been spent on new talent. But there is not. That defies logic for me.
''We're probably still compromised in 2015 and we're only really coming out of it in 2016. That's not to say we're not going to be in the market but there's going to be some hard decisions that have to be made and you won't see the Eels out there having major splashes for marquee players because we just can't fit them in. And that's no one's fault but the club's. We're frustrated we can't take those big steps forward because we've got to fix the issues.''
Read more:
http://www.smh.com.au/sport/the-cap-doesnt-fit-for-parramatta-20140717-zu4q4.html#ixzz37iuEmSOH
