They shed Foran, Peats and Paulo and were over the cap by 500,000 so it's pretty straight forward mathematics.
Look I hate the Eels as much the next person but expecting them to remain completely absent from the player market forever because they were over by 500,000 last year is a bit of a stretch.
Can't claim that snake. Salaries aren't all straight lined. They have breached the cap 5 of the last 6 years. Therefore their total cap manipulation could be much, much more. Also, it was $570k in 2016.
They could have potentially had almost 3 free players at that rate. You're also not taking into consideration the dispensation benefits within that. What happens if Tim Mannah's payments are part of that stretch (meaning that gains the club part of the $300k in long serving player allowances).
THEN, what is the monetary affect that had on other clubs. Example. Manly weren't able to match Kieran Foran's offer. Therefore, Manly had to make higher allowances to other players to remain. If Parramatta were off the table in negotiating Foz contract, maybe he signs back for much less than they offered?
Basically, the monetary amount was $570k for ONE season, but the real dollar amount was Millions, not including all the benefits the club would have received for long serving player allowances, vehicle allowances, media allowances, study allowances etc.
They basically unhinged almost every rule, and the NRL are placating them.