The Daily Telegraph has published the NRL's top 100 highest paid players, with Parramatta's top earner being Mitchell Moses, placing him in 20th position with a salary of $830,000 this season.
Next on the list for the Eels is Reagan Campbell-Gillard on $800,000 per year, sitting him at 24. Although the Panthers are picking up a large chunk of his contract so Parramatta's contribution is only around $500-550,000.
Rounding out Parramatta's top three is captain Clint Gutherson who last year negotiated a new contract, putting him at $750,000 and 34th position.
Junior Paulo comes in at 64th, on a salary of $650,000, while Waqa Blake is 83rd on $550,000 (like RCG Penrith are paying part of his contract), Maika Sivo is 86th at $550,000 as well.
Rookie half Dylan Brown is on $520,000 putting him at 89th with backrower Ryan Matterson netting himself $500,000 in 91st position.
Rounding the Eels list out are veterans Blake Ferguson and Michael Jennings who are both on $500,000 and fill positions 98 and 97 respectively.
It's rare these days to see a team in the top four with only one player in the top 20 highest paid players list, although who you spend your money on isn't exactly indicative of ladder position.
The top five highest paid players all play in sides outside the top four, with only one of those teams actually in the top eight. In fact you have to drop to position six with Penrith's Nathan Cleary to actually find a team that is a premiership threat.
When you look at the list, there are only two players inside the top 10 that are part of teams who would be challenging for the premiership this season. That's Cleary at six and Tedesco at 10.
The further into the list you get you realise that the secret to having a competitive side is not in how much you pay individual players. Brisbane, Cronulla and the Dragons have all spent extravagantly yet none of them are premiership threats this season. Manly would be the closest however without Tom Trbojevic they struggle to string together consistent performances, which should be a concern given they have the highest paid player in the game in Daly Cherry-Evans.
For Parramatta though, they've come a long way from throwing ridiculous money at a broken Anthony Watmough. Their approach has been frugal where it's needed while they've been prepared to invest in players they see as having a large amount of upside.
Moses, since signing with the Eels has become one of the premier halfbacks in the competition, collecting the 2019 Dally M Halfback of the Year award, while Clint Gutherson is one of the form fullbacks of the competition and currently sits equal second on the Dally M leaderboard.
Perhaps two of the best pieces of business were RCG and Waqa Blake. Both immensley talented players unwanted at Penrith. The Panthers may be rid of them but they're paying them to play for the Eels.
It's reassuring to see that the Eels are technically only playing three players more than $550,000 a year and the players on the big money are playing like they're worth those dollars.
Eels management should be congratulated on their management of the salary cap and how they've managed to compile a squad that is competitive at the pointy end of the competition while still being able to upgrade and recruit players the team needs.
Replies
agree, well done eels admin!
I'd be throwing 1m at Hayne and 1.2m for Hunt when he is off contract.
That's just my opinion.
That's cause you're a fcuken idiot!
LOL. And 1.5m for Hock. He's still coming right?
Mitch Moses - 830k
RCG - 800k (300k against the cap)
Gutho - 750k
Junior - 650k
Waqa - 550k (let's say 400k on the cap)
Sivo - 550k
D.Brown - 520k
Fergo - 500k
Jenko - 500k
Matto - 500k
That's about 5m for our top 10.
Then we have ...
Evans - 450k
N.Brown - would have to be 400k you would think
Lane - 400k
Niukore - 350k
Taka - 250k
That's about 6.75m for the top 15. That still leaves about 2.5m for the bottom 15 @ about 170k on average.
Reed Mahoney, Oregon Kaufusi, Ray Stone, Jaemon Salmon would all be on relatively cheap contracts this year, although new deals for Mahoney & Kaufusi will kick in next year so that will change.
Mark O'Neill is doing a fantastic job. The challenge will be when RCG's full contract kicks in, that will be basically like signing another starter. Fortunately he's pulling his full weight anyway.
The trick will be to manage player exits or contract downgrades as the younger players ask for better contracts. With Jennings signing another 2 seasons, the club must be happy with where their cap is headed over the next 2 years. I'd say that by the time RCG needs a new contract, his value might diminish somewhat. A tricky balance, but the club is handling it very well. It would still be good to have TPAs though.
Nrown signed on for a fair bit more so it will be interesting over the coming years how we keep the nucleus of this side together
I might be wrong but I think I've read that Penrith are paying a portion for the entirety of the deal.
Earl, i love it when you are calm and post, great poster when youre chilled.
Peace.
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