Salary Cap

[lingard]

The 2nd tier cap is a joke every year some club suffers looks like its our turn. Kelly is off contract hard to impress when you can't play. Not sure how other sports handle this but I'm sure the NRL are the worse and its only early in the season.

Yep. Just imagine you're Luke Kelly. This is the last year of your contract. Through no fault of your own (but, rather, through the ridiculous mismanagement of previous administrations) you cannot show your wares to this or any other club - and you may be without a job next year. Now, when he last agreed to terms with this club, he would have known nothing about the 2nd tier cap problems we had. He knew we had Norman and Sandow, so must have realised there was a fair chance he'd be playing some reserve grade. Would he have any legal rights to sue the club for misleading him or not giving him all the information regarding his employment? Same goes for Ben Crooks. He came here to test himself in the NRL. He must have been of the impression that if he was good enough he'd get a go. But it turns out that - no matter how well he might happen to play - he'll never get a go in first grade because we f**ked up the cap.

 

[Barry O'Speedwagon]

An interim (though imperfect) solution to the 2nd tier problem might be to allow any 2nd tier player to appear in up to 2 games per year without affecting the cap. This would avert a bunch of noise in the system arising from short-term crap, and would avert the need for special dispensation at Origin time. Allowing players to play 2 games would not provide an incentive for clubs to stock-pile backups.

Eventually, more significant changes to the whole system would help

 

[lingard]

I have to say it's pretty hard to understand the policy reasons behind it.

It's almost a penalty for having depth.

It also seems to penalise teams not playing well if it can't be used to replace players out of form. That's hardly an equalising measure.

The cap doesn't 'equalise' anything. It just keeps the rich and well-connected clubs up the top and the others down the bottom. The NRL (and some forumites) argue that because we have a different premiership winner every year, then it must be working. But, by my calculations, over the last ten years The Tigers, The Sharks, The Raiders, the Titans, Parramatta, The Warriors, The Knights and the Panthers have been mostly uncompetitive when it comes to seriously challenging for the title. I know there have been a couple of aberrations, but for the most part this has been true. On the other hand, we have the usual suspects - Manly, Melbourne, Canterbury, Easts and, latterly, Souths who are always in the running. It seems that the salary cap favours clubs who are very good at cheating the cap and going undetected, or who are able to organise big third-party deals for their players.

 

[lingard]

You guys better not be saying anything negative.

So what if we can't choose who plays for us each week?

Well, another way of looking at it is that the coach doesn't have to worry about selections anymore - the NRL will do that for him. It frees him up to just concentrate on coaching. I see it as a good thing.

 

[lingard]

Things are just peachy, just imagine if we won the last two games we would almost be in the imaginary top 8.


Bit hard to be critical on the coach when he can't even choose the team he wants. This second tier cap is rubbish it really is. Don't the NRL want the best teams on the park each week???

You should live in my head. Parramatta is leading my imaginery competition. I forget why, but they are. Haven't lost a game. It's great!

 

[Joshuatheeel]

Considering Paulo had a long term suspension, Darcy is suspended again. Along with long term injures to Peni, Toutai, Edwards, Pritchard, Issac, Champion, Semi. And additionally issues which Richie being registered and now injured - how was the club meant to know all this was going to occur? That's why we had used our 2nd tier cap.

If semi / champion / Toutai / Mr T don't get injured we don't need to use Bureto / Falou. If Peni / Richie / Gower / Issac / Edwards / Lussick weren't out this weekend we wouldn't have to use Álvaro. Just two examples why we have had to use our second tier contract which is totally outside the control of the club.

 

[eel01s]

Considering Paulo had a long term suspension, Darcy is suspended again. Along with long term injures to Peni, Toutai, Edwards, Pritchard, Issac, Champion, Semi. And additionally issues which Richie being registered and now injured - how was the club meant to know all this was going to occur? That's why we had used our 2nd tier cap.

If semi / champion / Toutai / Mr T don't get injured we don't need to use Bureto / Falou. If Peni / Richie / Gower / Issac / Edwards / Lussick weren't out this weekend we wouldn't have to use Álvaro. Just two examples why we have had to use our second tier contract which is totally outside the control of the club.

100%. But my understanding is that the NRL will allow for long term injuries in terms of cap relief, and will allow 2nd tier exemptions if there are no eligible top 25 replacements.

As this seems to happen to at least one club per season, should the NRL look at implementing a better system?

 

[lingard]

Considering Paulo had a long term suspension, Darcy is suspended again. Along with long term injures to Peni, Toutai, Edwards, Pritchard, Issac, Champion, Semi. And additionally issues which Richie being registered and now injured - how was the club meant to know all this was going to occur? That's why we had used our 2nd tier cap.

If semi / champion / Toutai / Mr T don't get injured we don't need to use Bureto / Falou. If Peni / Richie / Gower / Issac / Edwards / Lussick weren't out this weekend we wouldn't have to use Álvaro. Just two examples why we have had to use our second tier contract which is totally outside the control of the club.

Fair enough. I take your point that some of this (even a lot of this?) might not be the club's fault. It still seems that the structure of the salary cap can be terribly unfair on some reserve grade players and on the club as a whole. I guess the NRL called it "mismanagement by previous administrations" (at this club) - but maybe the NRL has a vested interest in saying this.

 

[Chipmunk]

KP....I'm not sure Kevin Peitersen is the right fit for Parra.

 

[Joshuatheeel]

Fair enough. I take your point that some of this (even a lot of this?) might not be the club's fault. It still seems that the structure of the salary cap can be terribly unfair on some reserve grade players and on the club as a whole. I guess the NRL called it "mismanagement by previous administrations" (at this club) - but maybe the NRL has a vested interest in saying this.

For sure, I would be pretty pissed off if I was Kelly and Bureto, it's not like they are young either.

 

[Joshuatheeel]

KP....I'm not sure Kevin Peitersen is the right fit for Parra.

Can be play fullback ?

 

[Barry O'Speedwagon]

Can be play fullback ?

He's a fair size, and I suspect he'd have played quite a bit of Union back in Yarpie land.

Has he ever visited Westfield Parra? If so, he's a dead cert.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Wouldn't surprise me. He was re-signed in July 2013, before Peats was secured, MK was on way out and you'd think there'd be at least a moderate degree of back-ending for a developing player. So a 2015 salary at the bottom of the Top 25 is plausible (given information available to to RS, Bentley and Sharpie at the time the decision was made.

Pritchard was signed in 2012 when he turned 18, along with Pauli, Tanginoa and Frazer Masinamua. They were all given deals until the end of 2015, and any of them could have been top 25 in the final year. That would explain why Tanginoa was duck shoved before this year.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Doesn't all this "back ending" just create further problems down the track?
If we can't afford him now, or we have to "lower his salary" to keep him now, what makes them think we can afford him on a higher salary two years down the track? Honest question.

Suity

Players have an expectation of rising salary though, especially young blokes on peanuts. Also, if a player is being signed past his NYC eligibility, then his earlier years will have to be cheap so that he complies with the NYC cap (while eligible). The year he turns 21 he will only need to comply with one of the NRL caps, and most second tier players will be on something close to the top 25 minimum (e.g. Lasalo's reported $60k last year).

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Yep. Just imagine you're Luke Kelly. This is the last year of your contract. Through no fault of your own (but, rather, through the ridiculous mismanagement of previous administrations) you cannot show your wares to this or any other club - and you may be without a job next year. Now, when he last agreed to terms with this club, he would have known nothing about the 2nd tier cap problems we had. He knew we had Norman and Sandow, so must have realised there was a fair chance he'd be playing some reserve grade. Would he have any legal rights to sue the club for misleading him or not giving him all the information regarding his employment? Same goes for Ben Crooks. He came here to test himself in the NRL. He must have been of the impression that if he was good enough he'd get a go. But it turns out that - no matter how well he might happen to play - he'll never get a go in first grade because we f**ked up the cap.

He re-signed over the off season for one year (presumably because nobody would offer top 25, which is what he would have been on during 2013 and 2014). He would have known he was a chance of playing zero first grade, and would also know that his best chance of impressing other clubs was by playing well in the NSW Cup.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Don't worry, apparently my post was too controversial to be backed up by a link to a publicly available website, which internally referenced the Eels site.

Try this extremely different source for the same non-controversial crap:

"While this season has fallen short of expectation, circumstances have opened the door for a special group of young players to be elevated into the top grade. Today we are pleased to announce the re-signing of a number of our 2013 debutants: Kelepi Tanginoa, Kaysa Pritchard and Peni Terepo through till 2015 and Junior Paulo till 2016. They join a list of other key players we have re-signed this season in Jarryd Hayne, Jacob Loko, Mitchell Allgood and Ryan Morgan all through till at least the end of 2015."

http://www.parraeels.com.au/news/2013/07/05/recruitment-and-retention-update.html

Would have been upgrades. I remember it was officially announced long after it was unofficially reported on TheFilthySpammers. Understandable since most fans become irate hearing about contracts signed by SG Ball players.

 

[Barry O'Speedwagon]

Don't worry, apparently my post was too controversial to be backed up by a link to a publicly available website, which internally referenced the Eels site.

Try this extremely different source for the same non-controversial crap:

"While this season has fallen short of expectation, circumstances have opened the door for a special group of young players to be elevated into the top grade. Today we are pleased to announce the re-signing of a number of our 2013 debutants: Kelepi Tanginoa, Kaysa Pritchard and Peni Terepo through till 2015 and Junior Paulo till 2016. They join a list of other key players we have re-signed this season in Jarryd Hayne, Jacob Loko, Mitchell Allgood and Ryan Morgan all through till at least the end of 2015."

http://www.parraeels.com.au/news/2013/07/05/recruitment-and-retention-update.html

 

[Barry O'Speedwagon]

Yep, we're the poor victims again.

 

[lingard]

He re-signed over the off season for one year (presumably because nobody would offer top 25, which is what he would have been on during 2013 and 2014). He would have known he was a chance of playing zero first grade, and would also know that his best chance of impressing other clubs was by playing well in the NSW Cup.

Rubbish. Given the fact that Arthur dropped Sandow at the beginning of last year and had given Kelly every encouragement, he would have been quite right to believe that he was a reasonable chance of playing first grade this year - and it may well have influenced his decision to re-sign with us. The salary cap structure has prevented him from having that opportunity to maximise his career prospects. I reckon it sucks.

 

[Barry O'Speedwagon]

Rubbish. Given the fact that Arthur dropped Sandow at the beginning of last year and had given Kelly every encouragement, he would have been quite right to believe that he was a reasonable chance of playing first grade this year - and it may well have influenced his decision to re-sign with us. The salary cap structure has prevented him from having that opportunity to maximise his career prospects. I reckon it sucks.

It does suck. But we did know what the rules were when we made our decisions.