Unless supporters of almost every team want their records and premierships wiped, we need to understand that Every Team CHEATS. There is plenty of precedent to inform us of the relative severity of breaches and appropriate punishments.
Here is a table of all known salary cap breaches and these are only the ones who have fessed up (usually because a change in administration) or some third party deal has become a snag and bit the respective team in the backside.
Here they are ranked as a percentage of the salary cap at the time, for instances where the value of the breach is public
1 Canterbury 28% 2002
2 Canterbury 22% 2001
3 New Zealand 27% 2004
4 New Zealand 16% 2005
5 Canterbury 16% 2000
6 Penrith 16% 2000
7 Cronulla 16% 2015, 2016, 2017 TBD
8 Melbourne 15% 2009
9 Melbourne 15% 2008
10 Manly 15% 2013
11 Roosters 15% 2002
12 Manly 15% 2015
13 Roosters 15% 2003
14 Newcastle 15% 2002
15 Canterbury 15% 2004
16 Melbourne 14% 2007
17 Brisbane 14% 2002
19 Brisbane 12% 2007
20 Wests 9% 2010
21 Canberra 9% 2005
22 Parramatta 9% 2014
23 Parramatta 8% 2015
24 Brisbane 8% 2006
25 Parramatta 7% 2016
26 Parramatta 7% 2017
27 Newcastle 7% 1998
28 Newcastle 7% 1999
29 North Queensland 6% 2000
30 Manly 6% 2012
Interesting to note that Newcastle was 7% over the cap in 1998 and 1999, and 5% over in 2002. A total of $725,000. No competition points deducted, no premiership vacated and total fines of $244,000. Maybe in light of your feelings on the topic, the 2001 premiership should be reviewed? Or more particularly the Melbourne Storm premierships should be reinstated as they clearly were no worse or no better than other teams who have cheated the salary cap and won premierships.
Most recently Manly exceeded the cap by $1.5m over 5 years, and Parramatta by $3m over 4 years.
