An incredible 70 per cent of NRL bosses believe clubs are rorting the salary cap through unreported third-party deals.
Of the 23 club CEOs and chairmen that responded to The Sydney Morning Herald’s anonymous poll, 16 said clubs are cheating the system.
More than $4 million in third party deals were registered in 2021, although that’s down from $8.2 million in 2017. While COVID-19 could account for some of the drop, rules around those deals were tightened after Parramatta was punished in 2016 for floating the salary cap.
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“The NRL have done a good job cleaning up a lot of the confusion and irregularities around third-party agreements,” one club boss said, speaking anonymously.
“But many clubs believe that there are still instances where a club will operate outside the TPA rules to secure income for a player. That sort of assistance can make a big difference in signing or keeping a player.”
Asked to rate the performance of NRL boss Andrew Abdo on a scale of 1-5, those surveyed returned a score of 4.4, up from 4.3 last year, and significantly ahead of the 3.2 score former boss Todd Greenberg received in 2020.
As the Dolphins prepare to become the 17th team in the competition in 2023, 61 per cent of club bosses think the NRL should look at admitting an 18th side sometime between 2025-2027.
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