Eels Blogs

Fans lovingly refer to current reigning premiers as the "Rorters". Is it really the Roosters' fault?

Image: Politis celebrating the 2018 Premiership, his third, with the Roosters and NSW Origin Captain Cordner and Jack Friend.

Seeing the Roosters dominate the NRL with their star-studded lineup with origin and test players and us punching above our weight playing with spirit and courage, in our new cauldron, and a roster littered with a lack of current origin or tier 1 test players - made me realise something. Both worlds are necessary in the world we have built.

The world of business; and the world of passion. Players, coaches, and the fans. And even the businessmen behind clubs are driven by their passion, but we all need money too. And it is all glued together by the relationships. And the NRL heads need to see all that, too, in its entirety using their big heads.

The Roosters formed 6 of last year's World XIII: The worlds best players, including origin and test stars Tedesco, Mitchell, Manu, Cronk, Keary and Coydner. And that doesn't include Origin star Angus Crichton, NZ Test star JWH, or budding origin hopeful Victor Radley. All those would command big pay day.

There is no doubt, except for the most naive, red-rosed spectacled soul, that the Roosters' roster, compared to other clubs say like ours, is worth far more, perhaps a few million more, and much more than the salary cap + 200K of bona-fide TPAs. They have the most expensive roster in the NRL.

And apparantly they still have room in the cap?

Clearly, there is something happening outside the jurisdiction of the rules of the cap: A loophole.

But how is the mystery; whether it involves property,  investments or other incentives? One-day it will be revealed. Yes it may be breaking the "spirit" or intention of the cap, but it's almost definately legal. Politis and Bouris are too smart for it to be a two-bob clandestine operation seen before by the Dogs, Eels, Cronulla and even the Storm.

Is it fair? No. Not really. But neither is life, arguably. 

And there's not too many Politises in our game. Unfortunately, there is "dumb" money and "smart" money: Legal versus borderline fraud. Many call either way cheating. I've come to realise it's human nature to want to dominate, and not be dominated, and Eels fans are no different. It's sport. We all want to win. And Politis is winning big time.

Images: QLD property tycoon Lancini with Paul Green. There's nothing the NRL can do about legal investments.

The Cowboys property schemes, used to keep their 2015 premiership roster intact, via wealthy QLD business tycoon Lancini, that weren't just gifts, gave the NRL world a glimpse how to do it. Legally. The smart way. Pity Lancini's efforts didn't work on the roster on-field as they failed to live up to its potential. It might help the roster off-field at least. Perhaps a bitter sweet result for Lancini.

Sometimes, all the money in the world can't buy passion and desire. Nor everyone.

And maybe the reason fans aren't attacking the Cowboys as much as the Roosters is because they haven't been as successful.

The clubs that are controlled by the richest, most successful and best connected businessmen and businesses tend to succeed. Roosters, Storm, Broncos and now the rise of Souths, who have been resurrected from the dead, have a clear advantage. If you were a blind man, you could be forgiven for denying this.

As such is it no surprise, the Storm and Roosters have been the most dominant teams of the last 20 years. 15 of the last 20 grand finals have involved either teams.

The idea of the NRL's salary cap promoting a level playing field is illusionary nonsense.

Politis' epic club build of the Roosters, is not unlike Sir Alex Ferguson club-building of United. He deserves his AM, Order of Australia medal. Ironically, the Eels "Emperor" AM received one, too.

From 1981 - 1999, for almost 20 years, the Roosters didn't reach a grand final, even though Politis become chairman in the early 90s. That's worse than the Eels current lean record over the last 20 years.

They started getting stronger after Fittler and Gus Gould were poached by Uncle Nick from the Panthers. It might have taken Nick a few years to work it out how to build teams. It's a story not unlike Ferguson's but with one difference: the cap. The Premier League doesn't have one. Nick had to find a way to be creative and succeed as he had done most of the time. The Storm meanwhile, then owned by the News hit the ground running being born in 1998.

We shouldn't be penalising or critising Politis or Bouris; Russell Crowe and James Packer; the Holding Group owners; Lancini one of Queensland’s richest men; or even News for their involvement in the game. We should be applauding it. The game would die without them. They bring their business experience, nous and connections into the game because of their passion for the game.

Not fight with them: Work with them.

They're here because of their passion in the game too. Nick, Bouris, Packer, Crowe, Holdings Group, could have happily continued on their way without investing in the NRL and made as much or more money.

Imagine the game with more of them, or if business small or large, were given a freerer rein.

If they ran the Eels, we might have a different perspective on their influence.

Imagine if we were able to add 6-7 origin and test class players to our roster, and we kept playing with desire and courage we've shown. Even Brad Arthur would win us a premiership.

The game is a business. It needs money to survive. It needs it for expansion. It also keeps our stars with us. To build teams and attract the best. If it weren't for Uncle Nick SBW would never have came back.

Politis with Gygnell and SBW whom says: "I consider Nick family."

And they pose another question: why with the business experience of Bernie Gurr, Shane McElduff or Max Donnelly rising over the last few years post salary cap saga, aren't we benefitting more, and acquiring a roster more like the Roosters?

Image: Bernie Gurr with the new 2019 jerseys.

I think one reason is they are highly professional, employee like, but perhaps not as  personally invested in the club, like Politis. It's also called passion. Politis is known as the "Godfather" (despite being of Greek heritage like Bouris), more authoritarian, and less detemined by board voting and politics in determing the final decisions. Storm have cluey business owners and a trusting relationship with super-coach Bellamy in a epic era. We don't have a heavyweight king-pin hitter.

Image: The Emperor with Gibson, during the Eels' glory years.

It's sad to say, but we were more consistently competitive when "The Emperor" and Overton were in charge, despite the Emperor's ultimate ugly downfall. Due to wanting too much. Greed. There is a fine line to success.

As such, I have come to the conclusion the problem is not clubs like the Roosters or the Storm. They are part of the solution. Take away the Storm and Roosters and you take away the most professionally run clubs with hard-core business heads.

The problem is NRL's "hard" cap, which they attempt to police with hard-line approach.

Really, the NRL's cap has never worked well.

Since 1990, in its 29 years, it's only ever had one completed year that has passed without a salary cap breach (2013). Some years it's half a dozen teams or more in a year.

It's inadvertedly created an ugly "cheating" brand for the NRL. Because face it pretty much all clubs have broken the cap, and tried to cheat.

Image: The media out for blood. And they got it. And how proud they were.

The scandals have been an ugly look for the game. It has tarnished the game and polarised fans.

The other issue is the inconsistency in punishment.

Cronulla have been found to breach the cap by $707,000 in order to keep their 2016 squad together. Their were clandestine TPAs set up through former commercial manager Luke Edmonds. And there was also the countless Shane Flannagan emails saga, and his TPA spread sheets. Sound familiar?

But no loss of points or stripped 2016 title.

Image; Bellamy with Brian Waldon, dubbed "The Rat" by the media has called for a reinvestigation claiming the alleged breaches were over-exaggerated and the Storm's 2 titles need to be restored.

The Eels also had clandestine TPA attempts; and yet we lost 12 points and were fined $1m for being $570,000 over the cap for season 2016 and stripped of the Auckland Nines title. Sure there was previous years of transgression, but still Cronulla haven't lost points or had any titles taken away - for a larger season's breach. And how was what they were doing all that different?

The then premiership winners Raiders who started it all off by substantially breaching the $1.5m cap in 1990-91 - with no penalty or loss of points, despite the outrage at the time.

The players and coaches have been the biggest losers. As well as the game's image. Club's images. And the fans. 

The media and lawyers have been the biggest winners.

Images: Steve Sharp played 164 games with the Eels during their glory premiership years retiring in 1990.

And why did Steve Sharp a premiership winner with the Eels in their most treasured glory years cheat?Because they were personally invested in the club's success. Their heart and emotions drove them, even if they didn't take their brains with them. Their brains would tell it's a bad idea. Risky. Dumb. 

Steve sharp isn't worth Lancini's $200m or Politis' $750m. He's a plumber. A working class bloke. Not even an academic. Not the sharpest tool in the shed. And he's forever been stained.

With all that in mind, how anyone can suggest the cap is working?

There are clubs on the verge of going broke and it's not a level playing. Not at all. Also that salary cap "breaching" hasn't stopped in 29 years shows that clubs that could possibly pay more have tried to.

If it's broke fix it. And it's broke. The NRL's hard cap is a failure. It's anti-realism. 

The solution is to, for the NRL to stop acting like a bullying parent, and wanna-be-politican, and let the money that wants to come in, for the clubs' advantage, in. So more clubs can benefit. Encourage business. Don't make it against the rules. Because if you do you'll only allow the biggest, smartest and most ruthless of business men to take advantage of it - as is happening.

If the NRL didn't have their hard-line hard cap, we would have been able to build a better team, even under Steve Sharp, who had Eels in his blood; and not resort to use a dumb and dumber 2-bob operation to hide the money. There would be no need to. 

Let the money in. And other sports, even bigger sports with bigger fish, already have a solution. At least the idea.

A non hard-line cap. A soft cap with a luxury tax, or even just a luxury tax. With or without a floor. With this there are no rules being broken if a club and its supporting businessmen could afford to pay more for players. This means more money, that could pour into the NRL for players, will be able to; without concern for "cheating" and scandals.

It also gives us the best shot at keeping more stars and quality players in the NRL system.

Dumb money no longer needs to be dumb. Smart money is still smart, but dodgy TPAs and all its nonsense is no longer part of the game. Business has a free shot at what it's good at.

A "monetery" soft cap would still be vulnetable to being loop-holed by the more powerful business heads that wanted to avoid the club paying luxury taxes. Taxes that could go back into the game.

If you truly want a level playing field that taxed the wealthier clubs you'd need a soft cap "points" system.

It should be based on current origin and test class and experience. With much more concessions for club loyalty and juniors coming through. The current cap is lacking on that front too. With that type of points system, you can't hide that team value, or even manipulate it, even if you were Sheikh Mansour, Mancester City's owner, who's worth $1 trillion: Two thousand Uncle Nicks. The luxury tax benefit would go back into the game.

And if a club goes broke because it overspends beyond its means, sadly, it deserves to; as is the case in the real world. If the NRL doesn't want to save it, it needs to be bought and re-built. If no businesses see its value, or has the desire to revive it, then maybe that's a reality that must be accepted.

And if we're worried about the wealthier or superior business connected clubs dominating, it's already happening in the NRL as previously stated. It also happens in some of the world's biggest and most successful sports such as Premier League (no cap), baseball (luxury tax) and basketball (soft cap).

Those professional sports aren't dying without a hard cap. Ours is being undermined by one. By its rigidity.

Even hard caps like NFL's has much more club-building flexibility (can cut players before season starts to get under the cap) and through its drafts.

Stop the need for cheating. And dodgy TPAs. Stop the inconsistency of punishments. Stop damaging the brand. Stop the ugliness. Stop the political parenting. Stop the illusion it's working. Help reduce restraint of trade.  Let big and small, smart and dumb business help build the game. Help keep players in our game. It definately will help us.

Let the money in.