Marty Taupau has become the highest-profile casualty of the drawn-out rugby league pay talks, and knows he is likely to enter the new year without a playing contract.
Nearly half a dozen NRL clubs have expressed interest in signing the veteran front-rower for the 2023 season, but none can make Taupau a concrete offer until the NRL and Rugby League Players’ Association sign off on a new collective bargaining agreement.
Marty Taupau remains without a deal because of the uncertainty over the 2023 salary cap.Credit:Rhett Wyman/SMH
Until the CBA is rubber-stamped, clubs do not know exactly how much they can spend in the salary cap.
Taupau has not been paid since November 1, when his Manly contract expired, and was forced to fund his own insurance playing for Samoa through the second half of the World Cup.
Now 32, Taupau told the Herald he was not upset with the NRL or the RLPA, whose frustrations have spilled into the public domain, but nor did he envisage talks dragging this deep into the new year.
“It’s been a really frustrating and stressful time,” Taupau said on Monday. “It’s now a waiting game, not at our end, but with all the negotiations happening with the NRL and RLPA.
The powerhouse front-rower has continued training on his own at his Sydney home.
“Doing what we did with Toa Samoa at the World Cup and the success we had, it really lit a fire in me, and it got me excited for the coming season.
“I’ve been training three to four times a week, and I’m preparing physically and mentally for the 2023 season. I’m backing my ability to get a new deal. There are a number of clubs interested. But it comes back to the cap and how much clubs can spend.
“I don’t know when it will be time to start panicking. I genuinely believe I’ll end up at an NRL club, and I know I do have a number of good years left in the NRL.”
Taupau and his wife Michelle made some smart financial investments while he was receiving a premium contract for a front-rower at the Sea Eagles.
It is easy to forget Taupau could have been at Parramatta next year had a mid-season move not been blocked by sacked Sea Eagles coach Des Hasler. Taupau was so convinced he was about to join Parramatta, he started mentally preparing for what would have been an Eels debut against Manly.
Parramatta and Newcastle were two of clubs reportedly interested in signing Taupau before the World Cup. The Knights have lost David Klemmer to the Wests Tigers since then, while Eels coach Brad Arthur spoke glowingly of Taupau and how he would suit the club’s front-row rotation when first linked to the grand finalists in July.
Taupau turns 33 in February, but has 14 years of big-game and NRL experience, and is still one of the most professional trainers in the game.
The cap is expected to rise from $9.3m to $10.5m in 2023, but a large portion of the extra money made available will need to cover players on the minimum wage, whose salaries will rise from $80,000 to $150,000, as well as players on ratchet clauses whose deals increase in accordance with any increase in the cap.
Sims going down a Storm in Melbourne
Evergreen forward Tariq Sims is already showing signs he will be an early contender for NRL buy of the year after winning over the Melbourne Storm faithful.
The former St George Illawarra forward reported for day one of training down south and proved a handy addition with so many World Cup stars missing from the start of pre-season, not to mention the heavy exodus of experienced Storm forwards.
Fellow representative forward Christian Welch was certainly glad he no longer had to play against Sims, at least at club level.
“He’s been awesome, I’ve known Tariq a few years, I never liked playing against him because he was such an aggressive guy who goes really hard,” Welch said.
Tariq Sims at Storm training last month.Credit:Getty
“We’re pretty ecstatic to have signed him. He started day one down here, and with all the World Cup and older boys away, he was there, working hard, and he’s just a really good character to have around the club.”
Departing Storm coach Craig Bellamy will need to work out whether to start Sims in the middle or on an edge, with starting back-rowers Kenny Bromwich and Felise Kaufusi now at the Dolphins, along with prop Jesse Bromwich.
If Sims has turned heads, Welch said teammate Trent Loiero, who can also plug a middle role or play back row, another set for a breakout season.
“I’m not sure if it’s possible to have two breakout years in a row, but Trent is set for a big year the way he has applied himself,” Welch said.
The loss of Kaufusi and Bromwich brothers, as well as Sydney Roosters-bound Brandon Smith, will raise questions about the depth of the Melbourne pack, but Welch, who returns from an Achilles injury, was not bothered. Along with Sims and the unheralded Loiero, there was still Nelson Asofa-Solomona, Tui Kamikamica, and another under-rated forward, Josh King.
Welch, who helped launch the Storm Academy aimed at growing the Generation Next Melbourne players, said Bellamy’s final year would not be a motivating factor, and “if you’re not motivated by last year’s result and the way it ended, you will struggle; the boys are fired up, regardless”.
