Press conference at 12 midday. No loss of points because cheating occurred in the past and they are now compliant; tell the clubs that lost to them in those years and the fact that it cost them points and positions on the ladder as to how fair that is. The rorting allowed the Eagles to sign and also retain players that they may have not been able to do so had they conducted business in the correct manner. Also LOL at the Roosters wanting to lodge a legal challenge over the sentence given to Kelly.
SYDNEY Roosters CEO Joe Kelly has been suspended from working in rugby league for nine months for his role in the Manly Sea Eagles salary cap rort.
Kelly was the CEO at the Sea Eagles when the club was found to have breached the NRL’s salary cap in relation to third-party payments.
The Manly Sea Eagles are also expected to be hit with a fine of around
$700,000 for the club deliberately breaching the third party payment rules.
NRL CEO Todd Greenberg will make the punishments official at a midday press conference at NRL headquarters in Moore Park.
The Sea Eagles are expected to avoid being stripped of premiership points.
Sea Eagles chief operating officer Neil Bare is also expected to be suspended from working in rugby league.
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Joe Kelly suspended for nine months over Manly cap rorts
Phil Rothfield, The Daily Telegraph
37 minutes ago
R
OOSTERS CEO Joe Kelly has been suspended for nine months for his role in the Manly Sea Eagles salary cap scandal.
NRL boss Todd Greenberg broke the news to Kelly this morning as he prepared for a press conference to reveal the full punishment from the Sea Eagles cap rorting.
BLOG WITH BUZZ! Chat with Phil Rothfield after 1pm on the Sea Eagles salary cap punishment and all things NRL. Ask your questions below.
The Daily Telegraph understands the NRL has uncovered serious breaches after being tipped off by the police strike force that investigated match-fixing for 18 months.
They found no betting rorts but suspicious payments to players going back three years.
Kelly was chief executive at Manly for three years before joining the Roosters in April 2017.
Former Manly CEO Joe Kelly has been banned for nine months. Picture: Gary Ramage
The Roosters are considering a legal challenge.
Rumours out of NRL headquarters this morning suggest Manly is facing a fine of up towards the $1 million mark.
They will not lose competition points because the cheating occurred in previous years and they are now salary cap compliant.
BLOG WITH BUZZ! Chat with Phil Rothfield after 1pm on the Sea Eagles salary cap punishment and all things NRL. Ask your questions below.
The Manly case is not as bad as the Parramatta Eels, Melbourne Storm, Canterbury Bulldogs but at the very next level down.
The NRL will hold a press conference at midday Monday to announce their verdict after months of deliberations.
Pretty sure I read somewhere that recruitment on hold due to direction from the NRL until matter sorted.Manly only have twenty eight players listed on their web site in their top squad and it was a requirement to have thirty registered by a specific date.
https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/nr...ill-hunting-for-recruits-20180207-h0v5xv.html
Manly coach Trent Barrett hopes to have the salary cap situation at the club resolved before the start of the NRL season and with time to add players to their squad.
The Sea Eagles were on Monday granted a third extension, until the end of this week, to offer their response to the NRL's December 11 breach notice, which surrounded alleged third-party breaches over the past five seasons and threatened a reduced salary cap for 2018.
Since then they have largely missed out on the recruitment merry-go-round, with an experienced replacement for departed five-eighth Blake Green yet to arrive at the club.
They were, this week, unable to land Cronulla Sharks-bound playmaker Trent Hodkinson, while it's also understood the ongoing investigation played some role in Mitchell Pearce's decision to head to the Newcastle Knights over the Sea Eagles.
"We're still stuck with this salary cap stuff," Barrett said.
"We can't do anything until that's resolved and I'm hoping that will be in the next few weeks and put to bed before the competition starts.
"It's pretty well documented that we have got space in our cap and spots in our top 30, but until this is resolved we can't fill them."
The club have denied any wrongdoing, with chairman Scott Penn claiming last week the matters were "really technicality issues".
Barrett has left much of the issue with Penn and new chief executive Lyall Gorman, as he puts his energy towards trying to qualify the Sea Eagles for a second-straight finals series.
While he is happy with his playing group, he still has ambitions on adding more talent given this year's increased $9.4 million salary cap and the official retirements of Brett Stewart and Steve Matai.
"There's always movement right up until June 30," Barrett said.
"Something always happens, and there will be injuries during a trial or there will be a disgruntled player whose not getting a run that wants to leave.
"I'm really happy with what we've got here at the moment but if the cap situation does get resolved and it's favourable to us, then we will have money to spend hypothetically."
Manly's most obvious target remains in the halves with someone to partner Daly Cherry-Evans, but Barrett has thrown his support behind 21-year-old recruit Lachlan Croker.
Croker played one game for the Canberra Raiders in 2016 and is expected to wear Manly's No.6 jersey for their opening-round trip to Newcastle on March 9.
"Everyone's got to start somewhere. He was a Junior Kangaroo and Australian schoolboys captain," Barrett said.