THE sad irony is you know the salary cap is “working” when Glenn and Brett Stewart get pushed apart.
Only 13 months separates these brothers, who grew up as best mates — but after vowing thei
r entire lives they would never play rugby league against each other, this week they had to accept the modern game no longer accommodates loyalty.
Not if you want to stay winning.
Despite desperately wanting to stay with his brother and his great mates at Manly, where he had played his entire career, Glenn was forced to take up a two-year deal at Souths after it was revealed Manly failed to come up with an official offer because of salary cap pressures.
This is despite the fact that, even at 30, the ball-playing backrower is still one of the NRL’s outstanding forwards.
Incredibly, his club couldn’t make him an offer that would not have been “insulting”.
If this is the way of the future for rugby league, I reckon every Manly fan would join North Queensland Cowboys coach Paul Green on his nude march down Pitt Street.
I have heard people say this week Glenn Stewart had a choice and he could have stayed for less money.
Perhaps.
But he should not be forced to take a pay cut just because he has been loyal.
And while he might not have his best days ahead of him, he is certainly still at the top of his game.
That’s why Souths wanted him.
The NRL can’t be held accountable for the back-ended deals that forced Manly to not even be in a position to make Glenn Stewart a fair and reasonable offer to stay, but surely the game could come up with a better way of helping clubs encourage, and reward, player loyalty.
Especially to a man who had given 12 years of service to one club.
As it stands, the NRL’s veteran player policy allows up to $200,000 a season off the salary cap at each club.
But that $200,000 is for all players with more than eight years of service. At some clubs $200,000 would be more than enough but at Manly, with so many senior and long-serving players, $200,000 would run thin.
Unfortunately, the salary cap directly penalises success; that is how it is structured to be, to create a level playing field.
Manly are being disadvantaged simply because of their ability to sustain a place near the top of the NRL ladder for most of the last decade, while at the same time consistently churning out unknown teenagers and turning them into NRL superstars.
In fact, if you go over the Sea Eagles’ top 17 that will run out against the Raiders this Sunday at Brookvale, only Jamie Lyon came to the club as an established representative player, way back in 2007.
The rest of the side either started their NRL careers at Manly or they arrived as unwanted rejects or unknowns.
On the “no previous club list” at Manly this weekend are the Stewart brothers, wingers Jorge Taufua and David Williams, centres Steve Matai and Peta Hiku, halfback Daly Cherry-Evans, and starting forwards Anthony Watmough and Matt Ballin.
On the interchange bench James Hasson, Jamie Buhrer and Jason King all started their careers at Manly (or in King’s case the Northern Eagles in 2001).
And don’t forget the injured Kieran Foran who debuted as an 18-year-old.
That’s 13 of the top 18 who started at Manly.
And of the others Lyon finished at Parramatta in 2004, Justin Horo wasn’t wanted by the Eels, Josh Starling played seven games for Souths, Brenton Lawrence was pretty much a no name at Canberra and the Gold Coast, and Dunamis Lui had four years at Brisbane but was a long way off a household name.
In the AFL the veteran player allowance rule allows $112,320 to go off the cap for each individual with 10 years or more service at a club.
That seems a lot more reasonable than the $200,000 the NRL offers, to be shared by all players.
But it’s still probably not enough to encourage the type of loyalty that made many of us fans growing up.
Think back to the one-club stars that made you support your club.
Sterlo and Kenny at Parra, ‘Turvey’ Mortimer at Canterbury, ET at Cronulla, the likes of Wayne Pearce, Blocker, Sirro, Benny and Garry Jack at the Tigers.
Locky at the Broncos. Hindy at the Eels.
Remember Fatty in a Roosters jumper? It just didn’t work.
Same with Mario at the Crushers and Bears.
I remember standing at Manly training in the lead up to last year’s grand final with club legend Peter Peters who described these Stewart brothers “as the magnet that pulled this Manly team together”.
“I have never known a closer bond and I am from a close knit family and family means everything to me,’’ Peters said of the brothers.
Now that bond is broken.
Which makes this week’s events even more disappointing because the camaraderie within this Manly group, for so long, has been the great quality all their rivals most admired.
COMPO? TELL ‘EM THEY’RE DREAMING
The Wests Tigers are kidding themselves if they think they deserve compensation from another NRL club willing to give Benji Marshall a shot.
Correct me if I’m wrong but didn’t the trouble between Benji and the Tigers start when the new management reneged on the deal that was originally offered to Marshall by the club’s former boss Stephen Humphreys?
In the end they offered Marshall a revised deal that some say was more than fair, but the fact is it was less than they originally agreed on.
Even if it wasn’t in writing, Marshall had reason to be upset.
The Tigers made the right move by moving him on, but to come back now asking for compensation would be the height of rudeness.
BELLYACHING WITH GOOD REASON
It was interesting to watch referees boss Tony Archer explain why Sisa Waqa’s “no try” ruling was the right call on NRL 360 on Wednesday night.
Good on Archer for sticking up for his men, but I’d still love to hear his response to one thing Craig Bellamy brought up last Sunday.
While they won’t convince me the ball didn’t touch the line before Jarrod Croker bundled Waqa into touch, one of the points Bellamy made after the game was that the interpretation of the rule is a big part of the problem.
What Bellamy said, and what many agree with, is that it is no use having a referee send a decision up to the video referee as a “no try” or “try if he is not 100 per cent certain he is making the right call.
The video referees last Sunday had their hands tied because there was no sufficient evidence to overturn to the onfield “no try” decision from referee Gerard Sutton.
But what still confuses me, and it did Bellamy too, was that Sutton sent it up as a “no try” on the advice of a touch judge who was standing behind Waqa when the Storm winger dived over the tryline.
How could that touch judge be sure the ball hadn’t touched the line when he was standing behind Waqa, and wouldn’t the video referee be better off being allowed to make the call without being restricted to having to find sufficient evidence to overturn a decision?
WOODS’S BIG TEST
AARON Woods goes up against the tough Titans pack on Sunday, and you’d have to think another big game in front of his Leichhardt home crowd will be enough for the young front-rower to push his way onto the Test bench.
Woods was again the man of the match in Monday’s thrilling comeback win over Parramatta, taking the three Dally M points. Like Blocker Roach said a few weeks backs, it’s not a case of if Woods plays for Australia, but when.
HOMELESS DRAGONS
NO wonder Dragons fans are confused about what ground to call home. Friday will be St George Illawarra’s fifth “home” game this year and incredibly all those matches have been played at different venues. The Dragons have already used ANZ, Wollongong, SCG and Kogarah. This time it’s Allianz.
STATS SAY STORM
The Warriors have a good record against the Storm but it would be tough to go against Melbourne. Fox Sports Stats show in the 170 games Cameron Smith, Cooper Cronk and Billy Slater have played together since 2006, Melbourne has only lost two or more consecutive matches on just seven occasions.
FARAH ADAMANT
Interesting to see the injured Robbie Farah all but ended speculation about who will replace him in the Blues No. 9 jumper for the State of Origin opener on May 28.
With all the talk about whether it will be Michael Ennis or Nathan Peats, Farah declared on NRL 360 he would be fit to take on Queensland no matter what. Still with his elbow in a brace, the Tigers hooker said he’s getting physio around the clock to speed up his recovery.
WHAT THEY SAID
“If that is not an obstruction I will walk nude through Pitt Street,” Paul Green after Kieran Foran’s controversial try.
“That try. I’m not sure how they’re interpreting the obstruction rule. I don’t usually say anything about the referees, but if John Sutton doesn’t get impeded he probably stops it.” Michael Maguire questions a crucial try that was awarded to the Bulldogs.
“I gave rugby a go and it didn’t work out. However I feel like through being at the Blues I was able to find myself again, find some hunger, get fit and on top of that and more importantly I feel like I’ve become a better person,” Benji Marshall on his pending NRL return.
“I’m extremely disappointed. There were circumstances where I have been unable to stay. I was pretty open about wanting to stay.” Glenn Stewart on leaving Manly.
“Sometimes talking to the media it’s a difficult thing, but that’s what pays the bills. That’s business, mate. If you think it’s not a business, you can’t really put your hand out for the fruits of our labour.” Tim Grant after signing his new four-year deal with Souths.
Paul Crawley
The Daily Telegraph
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/crawley-files-stewarts-and-sea-eagles-find-the-price-for-loyalty-is-too-high/story-e6freuy9-1226895268470
