Reports today in the Sydney Morning Herald and Daily Telegraph have linked a number of high profile managers with the Melbourne Storm salary cap scandal. It has been alleged that managers signed off on two different documents, an official NRL contract, and a second contract that gave their clients, the players, the added extras that ultimately put the Storm over the salary cap.
The player agents in question face having their NRL Player Agent Accreditation being revoked….meaning they would not be able to represent NRL players.
Now, far be it for me to stand up for player agents. They are greasy, slimy, low life scum who will do anything for an extra dollar. They have no loyalty, they could not care less about the game. They will lie, cheat and steal to get their client the most money they can, and then take a percentage of that cut.
However…
It is not up to a player agent to police the salary cap! It is not up to a player to police the salary cap. That job is all on the shoulders of clubs, and the NRL itself.
I personally think the Rugby League Accredited Player Agent Scheme is a load of shit. The NRL brought it in to try and regulate player agents and basically stop young players being taken for a ride by manipulative people who would get them a bad deal and take a much bigger cut of their salary than they should.
The thing is, the Rugby League Accredited Player Agent Scheme at its core is just another form of control the NRL is trying to have over players. It forces a player to use only accredited managers, and who is the NRL to tell players how they should manage their careers!
When a player sits down with his manager to talk contracts, they don’t talk about whats best for the membership drive, how much fans will love them if they go here or there, they talk about two things; money and where they are willing to live.
With all things being equal, if Club A offers a player $200,000 and Club B offers a player $200,000 and a free Big Mac meal…the player agent will tell his client to go with Club B every single time. Its about getting the most they can get for players, because the more money the player gets, the more money the agent gets.
This fanciful idea that player agents should have a moral compass is laughable!
Can you imagine if Billy Slaters agent said to him “I got you $500,000 a year Billy. They also wanted to throw in a new boat, a free BMW to use, $50,000 in cash and $50,000 in Harvey Normal vouchers, but I didn’t want to do anything naughty so I turned all of that down”?
Slater would go apeshit!
So as the media types and the NRL start to wind up their false outrage over the next few weeks about these people, take a deep breathe and keep one thing in mind.
Players agents don’t answer to you, me, the NRL, clubs, the Sydney Morning Herald, the Daily Telegraph, God, Jooolya or even Robbie Farahs Mrs. They answer to the player they are representing, no one else.
