They are known as "the money men" and they are rugby league's dirty secret.
"The stronger clubs have got more hangers-on willing to pay." Photo: Tim Clayton
Every club has them, said one businessman, and he should know because over the years he has both collected "the folding stuff" and put in his own money to try to buy an advantage for his team.
The money men are club diehards whose loyalty to their team is being exploited by club officials who are organising for cash payments to be made directly to players or their managers.
The know they are part of an underhand scheme to deliberately subvert the salary cap. But the money men don't care. Every club does it, they say – especially the wealthier clubs.
Clubs like Parramatta, which are run by non-businessmen, are at a disadvantage. Photo: Michele Mossop
"The stronger clubs have got more hangers-on willing to pay. People with clout tend to hang round people with clout," the bagman said.
Clubs like Parramatta, which are run by non-businessmen, are at a disadvantage, he said. "The smart clubs, which are run by professionals, they are the ones who don't get caught."
"If you honestly believe the [names successful club] players fit under the salary cap, you need rocks in your head," the bagman said.
"The top 17 players at the [names club] – every one of those players gets a brown paper bag full of the folding stuff," he said.
He goes on to name a prominent official at this club who collects hundreds of thousands of dollars a year by "putting the squeeze on business people who want to be part of the inner sanctum".
In 2010 the self-confessed bagman was called upon to pay almost $100,000 in cash to a one-time Queensland State of Origin star to sweeten the deal for the famous player to sign with a new club.
Such was the interest in the player, his signing delivered more than 10,000 "bums on seats" at the home games, the bagman told Fairfax Media.
The bagman said some clubs didn't want to know how it was done. They just say that player X needs a certain amount of money, can you sort it out?
At other clubs the bagman said the first thing a coach wanted to know when he came to a club was: Who are the money men?
"They [club officials] organise a dinner, a barbecue or a cruise and they invite all the people who "help out". The coach meets people and then with the CEO they work out a plan of attack, who can do what, who they want to buy and then they approach the money men to see if they can help out
After the "plan of attack" is worked out, sometimes the money men are dispatched to collect payments from the "so-called third party sponsor".
"We are told: 'Go and see Joe Blow at SpareParts.com.
"I say, 'I am here to see you about your player, can you help out?'
"He's already been told, so he says, 'Yeah mate'. And then he goes to the safe and hands over the money. I say, 'If you want the player to come and do some promo work, just let us know'."
In return, the "donors" are given access to the dressing rooms, they and their mates are given tickets, they go on trips with players, their kids get to be ball boys, and they feel part of the inner sanctum.
"Anyone who helps out 'in folding' [money] gets access to anywhere they like. They get looked after," the bagman said.
At the heart of the scheme are the player managers, some of whom siphon off a cut of the money, he said. One player manager lost several high-profile clients after he was caught pocketing cash payments that were meant for his players.
"The player managers orchestrate it. They don't care if the payments to their players are on the books, legitimate TPAs [third party agreements] or a brown paper bag," he said.
He said in the past players were paid outside the salary cap through cars or apartments. The apartments were commonly in brand new developments. The player sold the apartment upon completion but before the land title was officially registered.
That way, it was difficult to trace that they had ever had an interest in the building in question.
The bagman named a club official saying, he is "far too clever to do cars or units or anything like that. [The club official] says it is all in brown paper bags and it gets left on a table for the player manager to pick it up."
Peter Grimshaw, the media spokesman for the NRL, said he would wait to see the allegations before making any comment.
Replies
Yep Salary Cap works Todd, keep telling yourself that.
Stunning. This is by Kate McClymont, apparently the only journalist who wants to look beyond the Eels and recognises the very serious problem that is widespread in the NRL. You want to know why Greenburg has his head in the sand? Because he was at the Dogs and if they get exposed for any cap rorting his career in rugby league is finished. The NRL as a whole doesn't want to address it because it faces humiliation if it's found out that all the clubs cheat. McClymont could expose the club she's talking about. Why doesn't she? To protect her source? She could finally force salary cap reform if she reveals what she knows and turn the game on its head. You can tell she's begging someone to investigate by giving so many clues regarding the Queensland player in 2010. Who wants to do some digging?
Theres a lot of journos out there who could learn a lot from Kate, she leaves most of the others for dead with her content and research.
Only former qld origin player to switch clubs/code
Would put bums on seat at that stage
Best article of the year to date from any journo, this is what everybody knows is happening in the media but wont speak about it.
We need to get some big dollars in this 'bagmans' hand to get him to name names and expose what he knows, thats the best thing that could happen for us, take some of the heat off and make the NRL look like fools.
Id say the 'bagman' is an ex player manager here.
Its interesting the talk regarding hangers on in the sheds after games, in the spags days our shed was full of 4'5 ft 150kg blokes of middle eastern appearance mingling with players and clogging the shed up, all spags TPA sponsors who were meant to be at arms length.
Player managers seem to get away with anything, nobody polices them, one has to ask why?
Are those in charge getting kickbacks from certain player managers? it stinks to high hell.
If youve got houses next to a police station selling smack every day for years with a steady stream of clients and the police havnt acted for 30+ years you can only assume they are on the take, and thats sort of like this player manager situation, why are they never held accountable for anything? its so obvious they are the core of the issue or right in the middle of it.
The NRL is a fekking joke and Greenburg should not have been given the job
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