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NRL’s salary cap offer leaves clubs and players underwhelmed
The frustration of the players union at the NRL’s initial salary cap offer for next season has been mirrored at some clubs as they digest a proposal that falls some distance short of the estimates they have used to sign players for 2018.
Clubs have been guessing over next year’s salary cap all season, signing players on what they expected to be the spending limits under the new agreement between the Rugby League Players Association and the game’s governing body.
The most conservative have operated around the $9 million mark. The more ambitious have signed players on the belief that the cap would be closer to $10m.
There was a sense of shock at some clubs when the NRL effectively tabled a salary cap offer of $8.84m to the RLPA on Thursday. That amount set aside for an expanded first-grade squad of 30 players.
The figure included an allowance of $140,000 for vehicles and a further $400,000 for long-serving players. In total, it was well short of what many in the game had anticipated.
The RLPA will come back with a counter-offer after Easter but its operatives spent yesterday locked in meetings with a subcommittee of player agents as they pondered an initial offer which left all parties disappointed.
RLPA chief executive Ian Prendergast confirmed the union’s disappointment with the NRL’s offer, an indication that talks are expected to be protracted and likely painful.
“It was certainly below what the players were expecting based on the discussions we have had up until this point in the process,” Prendergast said. “From that point of view, it was disappointing but we will go away now and consider that information in detail. We just don’t think what is currently on the table will allow us to take the game forward to the extent we need to.
“It is fair to say the NRL is not as aligned in its thinking with the players as we understood them to be at this stage, so we’ve got some work to do. Having said that, this is the first formal proposal we have received from the NRL in what has been a productive process. We will go away and develop our response which will address all of the key areas that the parties have committed to working together on.
“From the players’ point of view we have made it very clear that we expect a genuine partnership which is linked to a guaranteed share of game’s revenue that reflects their contribution and value to the game.
“Despite some of the talk, this is about so much more than the salary cap. Player wellbeing and education, transition support, and injury cover and insurance are among the other areas we need to improve.”
Cronulla five-eighth James Maloney, who sat in on the meeting with the NRL, added: “The NRL proposal was underwhelming and it’s disappointing that they seem to be resisting a genuine partnership with the playing group.
“We see this approach as the best way to ensure players are incentivised to work with the NRL to grow the game. The playing group is 100 per cent united behind our association.
“We now look forward to delivering our proposal to the NRL and reaching a fair outcome for all parties.”
The total player payment figure was $9.59m, once $300,000 was included for development contracts outside the top 30, $200,000 for insurance, $100,000 for RLPA fees and $150,000 for player wellbeing, an amount which the NRL wants to use to finance welfare and education officers at each club.
That fee had always been external to the salary cap but the NRL has opted to include them in the total player payment figure, prompting one club official to quip: “Is a welfare officer going to cart the ball up? Is he going to hit it one-up off the tap?”
Source: The Australian
The frustration of the players union at the NRL’s initial salary cap offer for next season has been mirrored at some clubs as they digest a proposal that falls some distance short of the estimates they have used to sign players for 2018.
Clubs have been guessing over next year’s salary cap all season, signing players on what they expected to be the spending limits under the new agreement between the Rugby League Players Association and the game’s governing body.
The most conservative have operated around the $9 million mark. The more ambitious have signed players on the belief that the cap would be closer to $10m.
There was a sense of shock at some clubs when the NRL effectively tabled a salary cap offer of $8.84m to the RLPA on Thursday. That amount set aside for an expanded first-grade squad of 30 players.
The figure included an allowance of $140,000 for vehicles and a further $400,000 for long-serving players. In total, it was well short of what many in the game had anticipated.
The RLPA will come back with a counter-offer after Easter but its operatives spent yesterday locked in meetings with a subcommittee of player agents as they pondered an initial offer which left all parties disappointed.
RLPA chief executive Ian Prendergast confirmed the union’s disappointment with the NRL’s offer, an indication that talks are expected to be protracted and likely painful.
“It was certainly below what the players were expecting based on the discussions we have had up until this point in the process,” Prendergast said. “From that point of view, it was disappointing but we will go away now and consider that information in detail. We just don’t think what is currently on the table will allow us to take the game forward to the extent we need to.
“It is fair to say the NRL is not as aligned in its thinking with the players as we understood them to be at this stage, so we’ve got some work to do. Having said that, this is the first formal proposal we have received from the NRL in what has been a productive process. We will go away and develop our response which will address all of the key areas that the parties have committed to working together on.
“From the players’ point of view we have made it very clear that we expect a genuine partnership which is linked to a guaranteed share of game’s revenue that reflects their contribution and value to the game.
“Despite some of the talk, this is about so much more than the salary cap. Player wellbeing and education, transition support, and injury cover and insurance are among the other areas we need to improve.”
Cronulla five-eighth James Maloney, who sat in on the meeting with the NRL, added: “The NRL proposal was underwhelming and it’s disappointing that they seem to be resisting a genuine partnership with the playing group.
“We see this approach as the best way to ensure players are incentivised to work with the NRL to grow the game. The playing group is 100 per cent united behind our association.
“We now look forward to delivering our proposal to the NRL and reaching a fair outcome for all parties.”
The total player payment figure was $9.59m, once $300,000 was included for development contracts outside the top 30, $200,000 for insurance, $100,000 for RLPA fees and $150,000 for player wellbeing, an amount which the NRL wants to use to finance welfare and education officers at each club.
That fee had always been external to the salary cap but the NRL has opted to include them in the total player payment figure, prompting one club official to quip: “Is a welfare officer going to cart the ball up? Is he going to hit it one-up off the tap?”
Source: The Australian
