Contracts...Whats a contract??

[maxta]

Whats the go with players being approached while under contract, its supposed to be highly unethical & clubs caught cop a massive fine??
Recently have had this Watmough/Eels saga which corrupted our season & theres been any number of players including Snake, Foran, DCE, Matai & more!!
This has created plenty of drama as the players are offered ridiculous overs by clubs who
A - Obviously dont get audited or have a salary cap...
B - Have to pay overs because they are crap
After getting these offers they come back feeling they are getting almost ripped off at the Seaeagles who made them the profile player they are, then start bickering about what the bloke next to them earns causing huge internal dramas.
What really kills me on this is the fact the NRL are not clamping down on these vulture clubs & in the media its "Manly player leaving to go to ??" validating it though its the done thing!!
Should be "Club breaks anti tampering contract rules"
Media call it as though its sweet....Well its freaking NOT!!
Yes there may be the odd player asking for a release to leave for personal reasons or offered to look elsewhere by the club (Like with Choc but truth is he was approached first) but besides these factors the contract is null & void due to the lackluster lack of care by the NRL allowing it to become open slather....well at Manly anyway.
If Manly start contacting Matt Scott or George Burgess managers to try break their contracts, they would cop a media blast for approaching these star players & no doubt it would hit the fan!!

 

[Budgie]

I think the missing ingredient here is the player managers. There are a handful of them who control the majority of the players. It's in their best interest, because of percentages, for their clients who have a very short career (by normal standards) to earn as much as they can every single year they play.

They are also front and centre when it comes to the wording of a contract.

Problem? You betcha!

 

[MissKate]

How does it work for the player managers, do they get their percentage cut of a players whole contract at the time of signing or do they get their cut each year of the contract. If it is an upfront payment on signing the contract it would benefit the agent for the player to break the contract early for a bigger contract. I am sure they would not be handing back their cut for say the last 1-2 years of the broken contract. If this is the case they get double dippings should a player break a contract. If the nrl insisted on the agent getting their cut annually, it may deter them encouraging players to break contracts

 

[COMMANDER]

Brisbane is the worst exponent of this, they are desperate cheating bastards.

 

[mickqld]

It is a massive blight on the game and it annoys the crap out of all supporters. So what are these assclowns doing about it....NOTHING. Grant, Smith and Greenturd are the biggest negatives on the game. They are incompetent fools totally out of touch with the grass roots supporters of the game. Rules,refs and player contracts are simply a mess and they have no ideas how to fix it or even think that any of these issues are a problem.

 

[tookey]

The NRL has no idea.

Rich clubs are rorting the salary cap in ways that are impossible to detect by the NRL auditor. The rich clubs will continue to get stronger while the poor clubs like Manly will struggle.

I am surprised that the NRL has stopped us form buying any new established players for the next couple of years like the AFL has done with the swans.

 

[Killer03]

The lack of leadership coming out of the NRL at the moment is beyond pathetic. And the whole thing seems to be 'Manly is getting screwed, so it's all fine'.

 

[Snake]

When Phil Gould moans about the current administration of the game, I wonder why he won't put his hat in the ring and have a go at running the game? I am not implying that he is obligated to, simply for having an opinion, but I think he would do a great job.

 

[Killer03]

When Phil Gould moans about the current administration of the game, I wonder why he won't put his hat in the ring and have a go at running the game? I am not implying that he is obligated to, simply for having an opinion, but I think he would do a great job.

It's funny you mention that Snake because for some reason last night I was watching on youtube when the Storm salary cap scandal happened, and Gould was giving it deluxe to Gallop. The unfortunate thing about it was he was just ripping into Gallop and Newslimited to 'fix it' and offering no solutions, but just pointing out their flaws.

Gus is one of the smartest minds in rugby league, but I think he's also smart enough to know that he cannot fix rugby league. He can go into a club (like he has with Penrith) and make a massive difference, but to do the same as the Head of the NRL would be a terrible job which would open him up to terrible criticism (much like he heaps on the administration past and present).

 

[manlyfan76]

Gus admits many times in commentary that the game is too far gone in the wrong direction to be turned around.

 

[sheridanstand78]

How do you expect the clubs to be ethical over contracts when the CEO of the game openly lured a premiership winning coach to breach his contract when he was the CEO at a certain club.

Contracts are not worth the paper they are written on it seems.

There needs to be a proper transfer system in place so that clubs are not disadvantaged. We have a situation where there it is open slather and clubs sign juniors from each others clubs.

 

[Loyal Eagle]

Easy enough to fix the contract/ poaching dramas..

Premier league, for example has a player fee + transfer fee to the club..
- player x gets $650k (lets call him 'knows-whats-best-for-me') Great.. sign your life away..

Poaching club, lets call them 'slimy worms' pays player + acceptable transfer fee.. formula might be $x per year of service + representative bonus fee due to quality of player developed.

Beauty of this system is that the clubs who develop talent, would create a new profit centre and could fund the football operations if they sold a player.. (Raiders would benefit by growing talent who then decide to jump ship..) Alternatively, you could invest less and just grow your own.. see Jake and Tom Turbo as a case in point.. Makes it a negative to buy talent from other clubs.. (poor old roosters/ broncos)

Personally I'd prefer a transfer fee whether the player in under contract or even if the contract has expired..

 

[Eagleheart]

Easy enough to fix the contract/ poaching dramas..

Premier league, for example has a player fee + transfer fee to the club..
- player x gets $650k (lets call him 'knows-whats-best-for-me') Great.. sign your life away..

Poaching club, lets call them 'slimy worms' pays player + acceptable transfer fee.. formula might be $x per year of service + representative bonus fee due to quality of player developed.

Beauty of this system is that the clubs who develop talent, would create a new profit centre and could fund the football operations if they sold a player.. (Raiders would benefit by growing talent who then decide to jump ship..) Alternatively, you could invest less and just grow your own.. see Jake and Tom Turbo as a case in point.. Makes it a negative to buy talent from other clubs.. (poor old roosters/ broncos)

Personally I'd prefer a transfer fee whether the player in under contract or even if the contract has expired..

Sounds interesting Loyal Eagle, this might actually work.

I for one definitely think things should change in relation to contracts and poaching. As it stands the process is clearly being abused and there have been far too many cases of questionable conduct from a number of parties involved players, managers, clubs etc. The NRL however, frustratingly refuses to intervene, which is a worry in itself. Why have they not acted and how big is their carpet and brush? It is not enough IMO that some contract agreements are amicable and smooth when others are simply not. There needs to be a standard and severe penalties applied for those breaking the law or rules for that matter.

Anyway how do we even begin to get the NRL to acknowledge this obvious problem and then, to actually do something about it? When the NRL could very well be a massive part of the problem.......!

 

[eagle66]

There should only be one year contracts.
I know that this itself will have many flaws but if a player plays like crap, it's not because he is trying to get out of a contract, it's because he is playing like crap!
Each season is full of rumors regardless. Each club can have a "window" to resign their players.
And while we are at it, every time the salary cap is increased, the increase should be shared by the squad, ie increasing the base salary. No more of the top players automatically getting a % increase on top of getting the most money or clubs being in the position to inflate offers to new signings. I'm all for players getting the rewards but we only see the elite rewarded at times not the lower end of the squad.

 

[manlyfan76]

Contracts are not the problem. Managers are.

 

[robbiea]

Players & managers are not the problem .Its our weak as piss politically correct judicial system.

 

[Daddycool08]

I feel that the NRL should monitor the player managers as well. For example Manly had to substantially upgrade DCE's and other contracts due to media pressure. There is no such media pressure when it comes to the Rooters. I wonder why?

The NRL should embrace a points system and make sure the top 25 players add up to 25,000 points regardless of how much they are paid.

Further, a transfer fee should be introduced to make locally developed talent less favourable to poaching clubs.

Therefore we have a four-pronged control.

Salary cap.

Points system.

Manager's contracts.

Transfer payments.

At the moment we only have one - a salary cap that seems to be able to be rorted or changed at will to overcome perceived inequities.

But we all know the chook-raffle mentality of the NRL well meaning amateurs who run a multi-million dollar organisation.

 

[simon64]

The problem is that there are no consequences for not honouring your contract.

If Choc was going to forfeit the 300K owed to him for walking out on the last year of his contract, there never would have been any thought of him leaving. If his manager was going to lose his commission because the deal was not fulfilled, same result.

If the player gets a 20% per year bonus because the club cuts him loose one or two years early, you'd find this would never happen.

I've said in other threads. Accountability. It's a contract. It's a legally binding agreement. Not a "if I feel like it" type deal.

Seems pretty cut and dried to me.