When the NRL resolved to assemble a taskforce to conduct an overdue review of its salary cap, one of the first invitations was sent to Phil Gould.
There are half a dozen committees that have been, or are about to be, formed to review everything in the game – from development pathways to agent accreditation, all the way through to the NRLW structure. It is not unusual for senior club officials to be appointed to them, to ensure the expertise of Penrith’s Matt Cameron, Melbourne’s Frank Ponissi and the Warriors’ Dan Floyd is utilised.
However, the decision to pick Gould’s brain about the salary cap is significant because few people in the history of the game have been more critical of it.
Canterbury general manager of football Gould, Cronulla coach Craig Fitzgibbon, Broncos chief executive Dave Donaghy, Rabbitohs CEO Blake Solly, veteran player manager David Riolo and Dragons chairman Andrew Lancaster – the latter appointed as committee chairman – will ensure the issue is explored by a diverse cross-section of the game’s participants.
“It’s useful to get the views of people that have different roles from different clubs that have been in the game for a significant period of time,” said NRL chief Andrew Abdo at the launch of the NRL’s Beanie for Brain Cancer round at Allianz Stadium on Wednesday.
“The salary cap hasn’t been reviewed for at least a decade and the game has changed quite significantly over that period of time.
Bulldogs general manager Phil Gould.Credit: Nick Moir
“So this is a check in to find ways to make sure that it’s still contemporary, it’s still fit for purpose, and if there are ways we can modernise it and come up with some innovations.”
On the one occasion the committee has met, Gould did not attend, leaving the NRL unsure whether the outspoken administrator will be involved in the process.
What he missed was a discussion about how the NRL could potentially incorporate the best models from other sporting leagues throughout the world. For instance, the NBA has a “stretch provision” that allows a team to spread a player’s remaining salary over a longer period of time when waiving them. So if a player – one usually not performing up to their pay cheque – moves on to another club with a year to go on their contract, instead of suffering all the salary cap pain in one season, a club can spread it out over twice the number of remaining years on their deal, plus one.
To put it into rugby league terms, if, say, Dylan Brown was moved on from the last two years of his $1.3 million-a-season deal with Newcastle, the playmaker still gets all his money, but it is spread over five years of the Knights’ salary cap (2 x 2 + 1).
Does the salary cap still work if the Panthers have won four straight grand finals?Credit: Getty Images
The NBA brought in the rule to provide more flexibility for franchises to manage their rosters, to ensure that one bad deal doesn’t render a club uncompetitive for years.
While there’s an acceptance the NRL requires a salary cap, to keep the competition even and prevent clubs from spending themselves into oblivion, an overhaul is long overdue. There hasn’t been a proper review since the NSWRL introduced it way back in 1990, and the argument that teams don’t stay at the top or bottom for long no longer rings true. The Panthers have won four consecutive grand finals, while Wests Tigers are attempting to avoid a fourth straight wooden spoon.
With the introduction of two new teams, coupled with a new broadcast deal and a fresh collective bargaining agreement in coming seasons, it was deemed time to have a close look at the salary cap.
Concessions for loyal and long-serving players, reducing squad sizes to better distribute talent, introducing trade windows, injury replacements, third-party agreements, publishing player salaries – everything is on the table.
This should be music to the ears of Gould, who declined to comment when contacted. For years, through his various media platforms, “Gus” has been providing the NRL with unsolicited advice when it comes to the salary cap.
“It is an absolute waste of time talking about the salary cap because the NRL is not listening,” Gould wrote in his Sun-Herald column in August 2003.
“The salary cap in its current form punishes success. It provides no incentive for development of junior talent. It does not reward those clubs with the ability to develop representative-class players. It gives no compensation to clubs with representative players who have to do without them during the rep season, or even if they lose them to injuries sustained in rep games.”
In May of the following season, Gould wrote: “I have had a gutful of these archaic and ridiculous NRL salary cap restrictions,” in reference to the prospect of Luke Ricketson finishing his career at a club other than the Roosters.
Midway through 2007, he wrote: “I’ve been slamming the salary cap for years and warning of its detrimental effect on the player depth in clubs and the quality of football, and its contribution to the constant drain of players into retirement, overseas, or to rugby.
“None of the half-baked cliches I get from people at head office even comes close to satisfactory.”
More recently, Gould has used his Six Tackles with Gus podcast to warn about the perils of blooding young players too early, or paying them too much in their formative years.
For decades, the premiership-winning coach has complained that head office won’t listen. Now he has the chance to help make the cap fit.
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