The man who spent three months reviewing the NRL’s system for third-party agreements says while it needs to be simplified and made more transparent, it is far from broken.
Mark Evans, Melbourne’s chief executive from 2013-15, looked at all TPAs lodged with the NRL over the past two years. He finished his review last November.
“It is too complicated for a start because there are five types of TPAs. I couldn’t find anyone in the game that could name all five. That tells you something,” Evans said.
“So there are too many. The system needs to be simplified, needs to be transparent. There needs to be education for everyone because even the fans don’t understand them.
“So do I think TPAs need reforming? Yes, I do,” he added. “Do I think the whole system is bust? Far from it. It’s not perfect but this sport hasn’t had back-to-back premiers since 1992-93.”
So what is a TPA? Players are allowed to receive money, goods and services outside the salary cap via a legal TPA. TPAs cannot be sourced from clubs or their sponsors, but clubs can introduce prospective TPA providers to player managers.
“In relation to TPAs, the managers do all the work and sign the agreement. We (the club) are just the conduit that makes introductions,” one club chief executive told The Australian.
A deal is struck which then goes back to the club to be signed off and lodged with the NRL.
It seems a simple process but the Parramatta salary cap saga has shown there is a possibility to subvert the rules.
The two most common ways of doing have been keeping payments/services secret, or overinflating invoices from a club supplier so an amount is shaved off and paid to the player.
So who is at fault? The player? The club? The manager?
When the Parramatta sanctions were announced last week, and the Storm’s penalties back in 2010, players repeatedly said they had no idea what their TPAs were worth as they left all that “in the hands of my manager”.
One club chairman said players needed to start taking more responsibility. “Everyone, particularly players, needs more education. The jury is out on whether the players know, or don’t know about these things,” the chairman said. “But if you’re expecting another source of revenue, then you should know about it.”
One manager, added: “Players know what’s going on, or should do. Player contracts have clauses that say they will be punished for anything they do outside the contract without approval.
“If you sign a TPA that is not lodged for approval then you’re a dead duck. The NRL is looking for those payments that aren’t lodged.”
A second player agent said managers constantly felt squeezed. He agreed there were “shonky” managers doing under-the-table deals. “A club would offer a player $400,000 but then the contract comes back and it’s for $275,000 or $300,000 and the club says, ‘We’re going to get you TPAs for the rest’.
“But they are not supposed to guarantee them. Managers are between a rock and a hard place.
“You don’t want to say no because you’ve done a good deal and you’ve chased them for some time to get the contract.
“But it’s not what was originally agreed to. But clubs say, ‘Well he’s still getting the money’.”
Clubs want and need TPAs. They are a means of keeping high-profile players at a club to help win a premiership without weighing on the salary cap.
“If you think about it more along the lines of the players using their profile to grow their income, then that’s a logical and legitimate thing to do,” one club chief executive said.
But CEOs and managers interviewed claimed so-called “bag men” handing out cash in brown paper bags was not the way it was done, as the Australian Taxation Office was far too good at keeping track of deposits, withdrawals and transfers.
“People saying cash is left lying around, that’s Women’s Weekly stuff,” one manager said. “Fantasy quotes from a fantasy source.”
Evans said high-profile players should be able to earn extra from their image and help grow the game at the same time. It just needed to be declared.
“For example, say someone like Paul Gallen can have a contract with Woolworths to do some work for them and get paid ‘X’ amount,” Evans said. “Nobody wants to stop that. Woolworths have no connection with Cronulla Sharks.
“Billy Slater had a lot of TPAs in Melbourne — some were companies not even in Victoria — but his manager did a really good job of marketing his client. Good on them,” he added. “All I had to do was check off that it wasn’t with a Storm sponsor.”
The Australian was told by another manager of a former Origin player currently in the NRL who has around 20 TPAs — many he found for himself through his own contacts. But that number is very rare. It is more common for a player to have just two or three.
But there is no limit to how many a player can have, as long as they are lodged with the NRL. Evans said Gallen, Slater and players of that ilk should have TPAs. But it was the 18th-ranked player on a club’s elite-25 roster, earning about $180,000, who hasn’t got that big an image, who would stuggle to attract sponsors.
“But he might have a small (football) boot deal and maybe a spot on a radio show. That all has to be declared at the moment,” Evans said. “The vast majority of TPAs are for around $2000. No one is worried about those.
“So I’m arguing we need to delineate between different types of players. The principle is right. But it’s got too complicated, with too much red tape.”
One manager said a “forest needs to be felled” for every TPA — even the small ones.
“We need a clear system which delineates between very small deals, which are technically TPAs but no one needs to worry about those. Just declare it because it’s good governance,” Evans said.
He said the 16 NRL club chief executives were briefed on his review and recommendations last December. RLPA general president Clint Newton said the union wanted the system overhauled and simplified in tandem with the next collective bargaining agreement.
One manager wants everyone at the table for TPA talks: the RLPA, NRL, players, salary cap auditor, sponsors, club CEOs “to thrash this one out”. He said Parramatta would be the catalyst for finding solutions to stop the rorting of TPAs and simplifying the system once and for all.
Replies
It's funny the term Third party, i wonder how many players have left one club to join another and kept the same TPA?
Very good point, Parody. At a guess I would say uhmmm arhhhh hmmmmm ZERO do!
TPA's are the best way for players to earn additional income, no doubt about it - and they should remain I reckon. THe problem is that it is a fantasy to suggest that the providers of TPA's, any TPA, is "at arms length" from the club. EVERY single TPA held by a Bronco player is provided by a person or entity who supports the Broncos. It's the same at every club.
The problem is that the salary cap is inadequate, enabling some clubs to load up on players with a massive amount of TPAs (Billy Slater has TWENTY??? - f**k me!). They have to come up with a points or player value system otherwise we are going to end up with 90% of the internationals at a couple of clubs (oh wait - that's already happening!)
It's interesting that the article doesn't suggest that Parramatta has done anything particularly wrong or unusual.
It's very hard for me (and I assume everyone else) to get my head around the fact that our TOTAL player payments, including every TPA we have, are well and truly dwarfed by the TOTAL player payments at some other clubs and yet we are facing massive sanctions.
No one seriously believes that we are on our lonesome here.
I've come to the conclusion that we should have copped a massive fine, been made to become cap compliant immediately (which we have) but that points shouldn't have been lost.
The NRL has a huge problem on their hands here - what's the bet they plan on doing absolutely f all about it :)
So, here is a person who has investigated things, he says quote """ TPAs cannot be sourced from clubs or their sponsors, but clubs can introduce prospective TPA providers to player managers""" So the club can introduce sponsors to agents????
If so, the clubs need a list of sponsors willing to provide TPA's, But! if I read things with the eels situation where discussion through emails have been used to hit us up in the drama, implication is that the NRL sees that as being wrong as the board & Head of football saying we are short with TPA's, that is wrong but is there proof the board did any more than contact sponsors & then pointed the Managers to them? Is that legal or not?
NEXT “If you sign a TPA that is not lodged for approval then you’re a dead duck. The NRL is looking for those payments that aren’t lodged.”
Who is supposed to register the TPA for approval? the club cannot, the TPA is not valid without the player signing it????? if so, no point in the player signing if his signature is not needed, nor the manager to submit it without the players signature as it is for Johny appleseed. or Foo Man Choo
It's funny how players have no idea and leave it up to their manager's yet are the first ones to threaten to leave if money is not in their account. How do they know how much should be in their account if they have no idea and their manager handled it all?
It's a murky situation Col :)
Exactly - if a TPA hasn't been lodged, or it is "illegal" - wouldn't that be the responsibility of the player and his manager?
They may have a case to answer for...
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