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Thursday’s Australian Rugby League Commission meeting is shaping to be a watershed moment for the NRL.
ARLC chairman Peter Beattie and NRL boss Todd Greenberg will meet with the seven other commissioners to thrash out a range of issues and make decisions which will affect every club in the competition as well as the futures of several high-profile people from players to coaches to administrators.
Player misbehaviour and how the game handles criminal issues will headline the meeting, the immediate futures of Jack de Belin and Dylan Walker are set to be decided as they await court dates, the Sharks salary cap investigation is expected to be resolved, and ex-Cronulla coach Shane Flanagan and suspended Tigers CEO Justin Pascoe’s futures are also on the table.
Decisions made around these issues on Thursday have the potential to send the NRL player market back into overdrive just two weeks out from the start of the 2019 season.
We look at each issue and what the ARLC’s rulings could mean for the players.
DE BELIN, WALKER AND PLAYER SANCTIONS
Greenberg has been under immense pressure to stand down Dragons star Jack de Belin while he awaits his day in court on rape charges.
Current NRL policy states players may continue taking the field for their respective clubs while the court process plays out in a bid to offer stars the presumption of innocence until proven guilty.
The severity of charges levelled at de Belin, however, has prompted calls from fans, sponsors, commentators and some club officials to stand him down.
Sea Eagles centre Dylan Walker, who faces court this week over charges of domestic violence, is also under scrutiny as the NRL grapples with a way to better deal with players on serious criminal charges and stop the wave of sponsors quitting the code.
The ARLC is set to bring all of this to a head on Thursday when it is believed Greenberg will unveil a new plan that will see the NRL take control of all player sanctions due to misbehaviour. Under the existing system, clubs dole out their own player punishments with approval from the NRL Integrity Unit.
The new system would mean clubs are removed from the punishment process and the integrity unit would handle all player indiscretions.
Greenberg is also expected to update the policy that allows players to remain active while on serious criminal charges. Players like de Belin would be stood down under the revamp, but the intricacies of that new policy — and whether clubs would be given special salary cap dispensation to replace elite talent — remain to be seen.
SHARKS SALARY CAP INVESTIGATION
Cronulla came under NRL scrutiny in August after self-reporting potential third party breaches uncovered during a club-initiated governance review.
The NRL’s investigation into the Sharks heated up in October when salary cap auditors began confiscating phones from club directors for further analysis.
Investigators scanned computer hard drives and seized five years of emails from the club’s internet server in addition to the phones of officials and staff.
The breaches are believed to have dated back to the 2015 season although Greenberg has stated the club’s 2016 premiership-winning season was not under review.
The Sharks are sure they are cap-compliant for the 2019 season but if the NRL finalises its investigation and hands down its findings on Thursday as expected, the Sharks could be hit with a reduced cap as punishment.
In March last year the Sea Eagles were fined $750,000 and had $700,000 removed from their salary cap for two seasons after being found to have breached the cap.
If dealt a similar blow the Sharks will need to offload a player to get back under the cap. Further, the club will be unable to use star recruit Shaun Johnson until they are cap-compliant due to the NRL’s ‘first in, first out’ rule which states a club can’t use the most recent player signed until they are back under the cap.
The findings could also have ramifications for Sea Eagles CEO Lyall Gorman who was Sharks CEO at the time.
SHANE FLANAGAN’S FUTURE
Sharks CEO Barry Russell must have been questioning his decision to report the potential salary cap breaches after Flanagan got dragged into the mess.
The Cronulla coach was eventually stood down and deregistered by the NRL after email evidence uncovered in the course of the NRL’s salary cap investigation showed Flanagan had breached a suspension he served in 2014.
Integrity unit investigators questioned Flanagan about emails scanned from the club’s internet server showing he was communicating with officials during his 12-month ban over the infamous peptide scandal which engulfed the club back in 2013.
There was an edict, under the terms of his suspension, that the coach was to have no direct or indirect contact with players or officials.
However emails and phone messages reveal he conversed with senior staff while banned on issues relating to the 2015 season when he was free to return as head coach.
The NRL gave Flanagan until the end of January to respond to his deregistration notice and is set to decide whether he can ever return to the game.
JUSTIN PASCOE’S FUTURE
The Tigers CEO copped deregistration on the same day Flanagan did. Greenberg revealed the Tigers had breached the salary cap in relation to an undisclosed agreement made in 2016 to pay Robbie Farah as an ambassador of the club when he finishes his career.
The Tigers have told the NRL at no stage was the role designed to cheat the salary cap but the NRL claims the agreement was made before Farah left to play for South Sydney and that it should have been disclosed and included in the salary cap.
The club had $639,000 — the amount of the agreement with Farah — stripped from its 2019 cap as punishment, was fined $750,000 and lost its CEO.
The Tigers also had until the end of January to respond to the NRL’s punishments and made a submission calling for Pascoe’s reinstatement.
Greenberg is expected to finalise this issue after Thursday’s ARLC meeting as well.
NAPA SEX TAPE SCANDAL
There has been plenty of commentary around the Dylan Napa sex tape scandal and whether the new Bulldogs recruit should be banned over the two lewd clips which surfaced last month.
The clips, both filmed during Napa’s time with the Roosters, showed the NRL enforcer having sex with a woman in one video as well as performing a sex act on himself in the other.
Greenberg is set to decide whether Napa faces fines and/or suspension over the videos.
Commentators have been vocal in saying any potential suspension would be too harsh as it unfairly penalises the Bulldogs for actions which took place when Napa wasn’t even contracted the club.
Regardless, Napa and the Bulldogs learn their fate this week
ARLC chairman Peter Beattie and NRL boss Todd Greenberg will meet with the seven other commissioners to thrash out a range of issues and make decisions which will affect every club in the competition as well as the futures of several high-profile people from players to coaches to administrators.
Player misbehaviour and how the game handles criminal issues will headline the meeting, the immediate futures of Jack de Belin and Dylan Walker are set to be decided as they await court dates, the Sharks salary cap investigation is expected to be resolved, and ex-Cronulla coach Shane Flanagan and suspended Tigers CEO Justin Pascoe’s futures are also on the table.
Decisions made around these issues on Thursday have the potential to send the NRL player market back into overdrive just two weeks out from the start of the 2019 season.
We look at each issue and what the ARLC’s rulings could mean for the players.
DE BELIN, WALKER AND PLAYER SANCTIONS
Greenberg has been under immense pressure to stand down Dragons star Jack de Belin while he awaits his day in court on rape charges.
Current NRL policy states players may continue taking the field for their respective clubs while the court process plays out in a bid to offer stars the presumption of innocence until proven guilty.
The severity of charges levelled at de Belin, however, has prompted calls from fans, sponsors, commentators and some club officials to stand him down.
Sea Eagles centre Dylan Walker, who faces court this week over charges of domestic violence, is also under scrutiny as the NRL grapples with a way to better deal with players on serious criminal charges and stop the wave of sponsors quitting the code.
The ARLC is set to bring all of this to a head on Thursday when it is believed Greenberg will unveil a new plan that will see the NRL take control of all player sanctions due to misbehaviour. Under the existing system, clubs dole out their own player punishments with approval from the NRL Integrity Unit.
The new system would mean clubs are removed from the punishment process and the integrity unit would handle all player indiscretions.
Greenberg is also expected to update the policy that allows players to remain active while on serious criminal charges. Players like de Belin would be stood down under the revamp, but the intricacies of that new policy — and whether clubs would be given special salary cap dispensation to replace elite talent — remain to be seen.
SHARKS SALARY CAP INVESTIGATION
Cronulla came under NRL scrutiny in August after self-reporting potential third party breaches uncovered during a club-initiated governance review.
The NRL’s investigation into the Sharks heated up in October when salary cap auditors began confiscating phones from club directors for further analysis.
Investigators scanned computer hard drives and seized five years of emails from the club’s internet server in addition to the phones of officials and staff.
The breaches are believed to have dated back to the 2015 season although Greenberg has stated the club’s 2016 premiership-winning season was not under review.
The Sharks are sure they are cap-compliant for the 2019 season but if the NRL finalises its investigation and hands down its findings on Thursday as expected, the Sharks could be hit with a reduced cap as punishment.
In March last year the Sea Eagles were fined $750,000 and had $700,000 removed from their salary cap for two seasons after being found to have breached the cap.
If dealt a similar blow the Sharks will need to offload a player to get back under the cap. Further, the club will be unable to use star recruit Shaun Johnson until they are cap-compliant due to the NRL’s ‘first in, first out’ rule which states a club can’t use the most recent player signed until they are back under the cap.
The findings could also have ramifications for Sea Eagles CEO Lyall Gorman who was Sharks CEO at the time.
SHANE FLANAGAN’S FUTURE
Sharks CEO Barry Russell must have been questioning his decision to report the potential salary cap breaches after Flanagan got dragged into the mess.
The Cronulla coach was eventually stood down and deregistered by the NRL after email evidence uncovered in the course of the NRL’s salary cap investigation showed Flanagan had breached a suspension he served in 2014.
Integrity unit investigators questioned Flanagan about emails scanned from the club’s internet server showing he was communicating with officials during his 12-month ban over the infamous peptide scandal which engulfed the club back in 2013.
There was an edict, under the terms of his suspension, that the coach was to have no direct or indirect contact with players or officials.
However emails and phone messages reveal he conversed with senior staff while banned on issues relating to the 2015 season when he was free to return as head coach.
The NRL gave Flanagan until the end of January to respond to his deregistration notice and is set to decide whether he can ever return to the game.
JUSTIN PASCOE’S FUTURE
The Tigers CEO copped deregistration on the same day Flanagan did. Greenberg revealed the Tigers had breached the salary cap in relation to an undisclosed agreement made in 2016 to pay Robbie Farah as an ambassador of the club when he finishes his career.
The Tigers have told the NRL at no stage was the role designed to cheat the salary cap but the NRL claims the agreement was made before Farah left to play for South Sydney and that it should have been disclosed and included in the salary cap.
The club had $639,000 — the amount of the agreement with Farah — stripped from its 2019 cap as punishment, was fined $750,000 and lost its CEO.
The Tigers also had until the end of January to respond to the NRL’s punishments and made a submission calling for Pascoe’s reinstatement.
Greenberg is expected to finalise this issue after Thursday’s ARLC meeting as well.
NAPA SEX TAPE SCANDAL
There has been plenty of commentary around the Dylan Napa sex tape scandal and whether the new Bulldogs recruit should be banned over the two lewd clips which surfaced last month.
The clips, both filmed during Napa’s time with the Roosters, showed the NRL enforcer having sex with a woman in one video as well as performing a sex act on himself in the other.
Greenberg is set to decide whether Napa faces fines and/or suspension over the videos.
Commentators have been vocal in saying any potential suspension would be too harsh as it unfairly penalises the Bulldogs for actions which took place when Napa wasn’t even contracted the club.
Regardless, Napa and the Bulldogs learn their fate this week