NRL crackdown leads to dramatic drop in third-party deals

2144superman

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The NRL's crackdown on third-party agreements has led to a drop of almost $2 million over the past year in outside-the-cap payments, with premiers Sydney Roosters one of the lowest and Melbourne the highest.

In a bid to provide clarity around one of the game's taboo topics, the NRL last year decided to make third-party agreements public and followed through again on Friday to highlight the improvement in transparency and integrity of the code's contract process.


It is deemed to be a contributing factor that led to a reduction from $7.8 million of totals TPAs in 2018 to just $6m this year.

While there are a range of contributing factors, including the retirements of some of the game's superstars like Johnathan Thurston and Billy Slater, the NRL believes clubs are beginning to understand the repercussions of breaking the rules.

There are a range of different TPAs – which include motor vehicles, whole of game sponsorship and community and contra deals – however the private sector arm's length agreements are what have traditionally been most questioned by fans.


Of the $6m of TPAs in 2019, only $2.7m came from private sector arm's length agreements, significantly less than the $4.7m 12 months earlier.

The club with the highest amount of private sector TPAs in 2019 was once again the Melbourne Storm, however the retirement of Slater is understood to have contributed heavily to the drop from just over $1m last year to $810,000 this year.

The next highest clubs included the Broncos (down from $780,000 to $350,000), Panthers ($233,000), Sharks ($212,000) and Rabbitohs ($199,000).


The Roosters had just $69,000 worth of private sector TPAs, however the likes of Cooper Cronk and James Tedesco benefited from additional whole of game sponsorship which wasn't included in the team-by-team breakdown.

The team with the lowest amount of private sector TPAs was the Cowboys, dropping from the third most in 2018 with $350,000 to just $16,000 following the retirement of Thurston.



Other teams with a small amount of TPAs included the Titans ($18,000) and the Warriors ($28,000).

Twelve clubs experienced a decrease in private sector TPAs from 2018 to 2019, with only the Bulldogs, Eels, Knights and Tigers registering minimal growth.

"These figures show a significant decline in the amount of third-party agreements across the game," NRL chief operating officer Nick Weeks said.

"The reduction reflects the retirement of some of the game's elite players and the effectiveness of additional checks and balances we have put in place to identify noncompliance with the rules are working. We recognised the genuine concerns our clubs and fans had about third-party agreements.


"That's why we introduced more strenuous measures to ensure these arrangements are genuine arms-length deals. We are confident that this level of transparency about third-party agreements will improve confidence in the effective operation of the salary cap and reduce the amount of speculation and guess work about this part of the game."

The top five players who benefit from TPAs make up 48% of the total amount, with the number of players with agreements dropping from 94 to 81 in the past 12 months.

The number of total agreements has also dropped from 205 to 172.

In 2019, total TPA market was the equivalent of 3.9% of the total salary cap (10 per cent in 2016) and less than 2% for private sector arms-length agreements (five per cent in 2016).

https://www.nrl.com/news/2019/12/13/nrl-crackdown-leads-to-dramatic-drop-in-third-party-deals/
 

Spoonman84

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Haha why do they bother putting this rubbish out every year? It’s just taking the piss.
 

bradyk

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TPAs shouldn't exist. It's counter productive to why the salary cap was introduced. Increase the salary cap for everyone if you want players to earn more.
 

Alan79

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It's quite clear that the salary cap hasn't been useful in balancing out talent across the NRL. At the end of the day it's just created a situation where as soon as a player has a good season they're likely to be a target for poaching. It seems like it makes less people find an emotional attachment for their club.

And it seems like the administration doesn't have the strength of conviction. If you can believe the articles in the media about players who accept massive unders to remain at a club verse the NRL admins claims that they were going to ensure that the best offers would be counted as a players value on the salary cap.

As far as this article goes, it just seems like hot air. It's not like we as fans can check up on it. And it hasn't noticeably changed the fact that certain clubs are stacked with talent and seem to still be after every big name on the market.
 

Bozzo

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Wtf does this mean? We just removed 2 mil worth to make Roosters not stand out??
"The Roosters had just $69,000 worth of private sectorTPAs, however the likes of Cooper Cronk and James Tedesco benefited from additional whole of game sponsorship which wasn't included in the team-by-team breakdown."
 

Alan79

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Wtf does this mean? We just removed 2 mil worth to make Roosters not stand out??
"The Roosters had just $69,000 worth of private sectorTPAs, however the likes of Cooper Cronk and James Tedesco benefited from additional whole of game sponsorship which wasn't included in the team-by-team breakdown."
To me that just reads as "We've excluded information to make what we're saying more palatable to fans. Our concern is not that teams are cheating, but that we can hide the fact from the average fan"
 

Howard Moon

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To me that just reads as "We've excluded information to make what we're saying more palatable to fans. Our concern is not that teams are cheating, but that we can hide the fact from the average fan"

that's it.. they could at least put them a bit closer to Brisbane and the Storm just to soften the blow..... but no, they have to put them to closer to teams like us.... not that ours is accurate anyway, they just couldn't find a kebab icon to fit the spot
 

CrittaMagic69

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The Roosters don't even care, they didn't even try and use a semi realistic figure lol.
 

doggieaaron

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Ive heard that managers just get paid a high “consultant fee”
 

Riggs80

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I think the figures are accurate. The roosters only have 69k legit tpa. Legit taps should’ve low, as I see genuine taps being ones that would follow a player wherever they played ( ie genuine stars ) . The concern all fans have is the no - genuine tpas or payments that would not be disclosed. ‘I would love to see whole of game sponsorship , how much nrl and its partners are propping up certain clubs .. wonder how the tigers would feel if Tedesco was being a motza from whole of game sponsorship , especially if not made available when he was with them
 

Mr Invisible

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*that moment when you realise your Rolex watch gifted to you is worth as much as the claimed TPAs from your club*
 

Scoooby

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Money talks..!!! Which ever way you look at it, no opinion will be right or in this thread :tearsofjoy:
 

Alan79

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The big question I have now is what's this whole of game sponsorship deal that removes virtually all of the Roosters TPA's?

Whole of game implies that it should be equally paid out to the top 30 players at every club. Seems odd that it's being talked about here as being a reason why the Roosters supposedly have nothing to hide.
 

finchie

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Haha why do they bother putting this rubbish out every year? It’s just taking the piss.
The roosters don’t need a “third” party
They only need “one” party and that parties name is Nick politis
The nrl can go Fcuk itself if it thinks the salary cap is working or that it’s not getting raped by shrewd clubs.
 

finchie

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The roosters are using and perfected the model Wayne bennet had at the broncos when 11 out of his 17 players were representatives at country and state level.
The one where Darren Lockyer was on a 250k contract but yet was in the top 3 players in the world. Go figure.
 

bowleggedwog

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TPAs shouldn't exist. It's counter productive to why the salary cap was introduced. Increase the salary cap for everyone if you want players to earn more.
Correct, the nrl just makes decisions on the run with out stopping to think of consequences. Maybe this will stop teams throwing 800 to million on forwards and 1.2 million on shut halves. No mentioning name . Hunt - foran taylor.
 

B-Train

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How dumb do they think we are? What a blatant example of propaganda written exclusively to defend the Roosters.

Those figures are as accurate as Christopher Skase's tax returns.
 
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