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The height of arrogance
Comment by Paul Kent
December 21, 2003
THE Sydney Roosters are making this legal challenge to the NRL's salary cap for one simple reason: they are currently top of the heap.
They have the best depth and arguably the strongest squad in the NRL, and want to keep it that way.
Nobody heard a word from Bondi a few years back when they were trying to assemble a contending team and the stronger players were still at Brisbane and Parramatta - and the Roosters needed to poach them.
The Roosters were happy for a salary cap to exist because they needed financial pressure on those clubs so they could come in, pay overs, and start to assemble a squad capable of winning a premiership.
If you don't believe it, ask yourself how they got hold of Justin Hodges from Brisbane.
Yet now that the Roosters are at the top of the heap, they want a lift in the salary cap.
Like bully boys, they are threatening a restraint of trade case against the NRL, when even the NRL has conceded it has received previous legal advice saying the salary cap would not hold up in court.
The arrogance is frightening. For years the Roosters have twisted the rules to get their own way.
Many clubs in the NRL - Parramatta and the Bulldogs are among the best - spend heavily to turn juniors into first-grade footballers.
That wasn't good enough for the Roosters.
They figured it out early that if they bring 100 young players into their junior league, maybe only three or four will make it through to first grade, which percentage-wise was bad odds, as well as costly.
So they cut back the money on recruiting kids and re-directed the cash elsewhere.
Where it went was in the bank for a few years until Parramatta and the Bulldogs had developed their juniors. The Roosters then came in and paid over the odds again to convince kids to switch. They can do it because at that age kids don't factor into the big salary cap.
But when you're 18, the difference between a $20,000 contract and a $40,000 contract is the difference between part-time and full-time footballer, and, many believe, success. So they go.
If you don't believe they did that, have a look through the club's Premier League team and look who has played elsewhere.
In their legal threat to the NRL, the Roosters argue that "in order for the business of the Sydney Roosters to grow, the club must be successful in the NRL competition. By remaining successfully competitive, this allows the club to encourage far greater sponsorship opportunities."
Arrogance again. It says nothing of the success of the NRL competition - which many argue is a bigger determiner of the Roosters' success.
All they care about is themselves. And the unfortunate thing is that unless they realise it, they will win this case and clubs will have to undergo massive changes to stay in a salary cap-free competition.
You can just see it. In the first round of the post-salary cap NRL the Roosters will play the St George Illawarra Stormraiders, while across the city the North Newcastle Sea Eagles, who play out of Townsville, will play the West Parramatta Big Cats, a suitable compromise between the Panthers and Tigers.
Brisbane will have the bye. The opening round should be a doozy.
The Sunday Telegraph
Comment by Paul Kent
December 21, 2003
THE Sydney Roosters are making this legal challenge to the NRL's salary cap for one simple reason: they are currently top of the heap.
They have the best depth and arguably the strongest squad in the NRL, and want to keep it that way.
Nobody heard a word from Bondi a few years back when they were trying to assemble a contending team and the stronger players were still at Brisbane and Parramatta - and the Roosters needed to poach them.
The Roosters were happy for a salary cap to exist because they needed financial pressure on those clubs so they could come in, pay overs, and start to assemble a squad capable of winning a premiership.
If you don't believe it, ask yourself how they got hold of Justin Hodges from Brisbane.
Yet now that the Roosters are at the top of the heap, they want a lift in the salary cap.
Like bully boys, they are threatening a restraint of trade case against the NRL, when even the NRL has conceded it has received previous legal advice saying the salary cap would not hold up in court.
The arrogance is frightening. For years the Roosters have twisted the rules to get their own way.
Many clubs in the NRL - Parramatta and the Bulldogs are among the best - spend heavily to turn juniors into first-grade footballers.
That wasn't good enough for the Roosters.
They figured it out early that if they bring 100 young players into their junior league, maybe only three or four will make it through to first grade, which percentage-wise was bad odds, as well as costly.
So they cut back the money on recruiting kids and re-directed the cash elsewhere.
Where it went was in the bank for a few years until Parramatta and the Bulldogs had developed their juniors. The Roosters then came in and paid over the odds again to convince kids to switch. They can do it because at that age kids don't factor into the big salary cap.
But when you're 18, the difference between a $20,000 contract and a $40,000 contract is the difference between part-time and full-time footballer, and, many believe, success. So they go.
If you don't believe they did that, have a look through the club's Premier League team and look who has played elsewhere.
In their legal threat to the NRL, the Roosters argue that "in order for the business of the Sydney Roosters to grow, the club must be successful in the NRL competition. By remaining successfully competitive, this allows the club to encourage far greater sponsorship opportunities."
Arrogance again. It says nothing of the success of the NRL competition - which many argue is a bigger determiner of the Roosters' success.
All they care about is themselves. And the unfortunate thing is that unless they realise it, they will win this case and clubs will have to undergo massive changes to stay in a salary cap-free competition.
You can just see it. In the first round of the post-salary cap NRL the Roosters will play the St George Illawarra Stormraiders, while across the city the North Newcastle Sea Eagles, who play out of Townsville, will play the West Parramatta Big Cats, a suitable compromise between the Panthers and Tigers.
Brisbane will have the bye. The opening round should be a doozy.
The Sunday Telegraph
