After coaching the St George/Illawarra Dragons to a 60-18 loss against the Sydney Roosters on ANZAC Day, Shane Flanagan was asked about the Dragons next game against the Cronulla Sharks. Things got weird… According to News.com.au Flanagan told reporters. “That’s been marked in the calendar for a while.” Fair enough. It isn’t a surprised that…
So you want to know how many Grand Finals the Melbourne Storm have REALLY won during their history in the NRL. Since entering the NRL in 1998, the Melbourne Storm have officially won 4 Grand Finals. 1999 – Melbourne Storm defeated the St George/Illawarra Dragons 20-18 2012 – Melbourne Storm defeated the Canterbury Bulldogs 14-4…
Earlier this week news emerged that the Sydney Roosters were looking to make an offer to Australian rugby union player Mark Nawaqanitawase. This caused a bit of a stir in the media, and a lot of shrugged shoulders among Rugby League supporters. Still, if the Roosters feel thats the best place to spend their salary…
The NRL and its clubs are all flushed with cash. With ticket sales, merchandise, deals with local governments and the broadcasting deal all bringing hundreds of millions of dollars into the sport every single year. The NRL grant to clubs covers all players payments and then some, so don’t think this is about the business…
Note: This article has been updated in 2024 to show players that have continued to be lost by the Penrith Panthers. I always find it funny when you hear people whinging that “The salary cap isn’t working” as we watch one of the closest seasons in Australian Rugby League history. You can turn into the…
In this episode League Freak chats with Elliott Richardson of Rugby League Monthly. Elliott put a post up on Twitter last week asking for the most contraversial Rugby League opinions people had, and his tweet went off! There were so many great talking points and opinions that we had to have a discussion about them….
There is nothing worse in sport than being mediocre. Great teams win games and titles. Terrible teams have a licence to clear the decks and make huge changes to their team. When a team is mediocre, they just stuck going no where. Not a title contender, but not bad enough that they have the incentive…
Since the introduction of a salary cap first first grade clubs was introduced by the then NSWRL there have been instances of clubs cheating the salary cap. Despite countless penalties, fines, sanctions and even some clubs having premierships taken away from there, there is always an NRL clubs that thinks it can get away with…
When you look back over the last 15 years of the Cronulla Sharks the club has offered up a bit of a mixed bag of results. Going from a team everyone would like to see win its first NRL title, to being one of the most disliked clubs across the game due to the ASADA…
On this episode we look at the long and varied history of repetitive and systematic cheating of the salary cap rules in the NRL. From the very first season of its existence to the 2019 season. Did your team break the cap? Listen to find out! If you enjoy this episode make sure you subscribe…
When Greg Inglis announced his immediate retirement from the NRL and the South Sydney Rabbitohs questions were raised about the affect on the Rabbitohs salary cap. Inglis made it clear he would not be receiving the remainder of his salary for the remainder of the 2019 NRL season. This gives the Rabbitohs over a million…
The NRL has made the following press release regarding the Parramatta Eels: The NRL said on Thursday that, based on information currently available, the Parramatta Eels are now salary cap compliant for the remainder of the 2016 season. The club may now submit, as part of its response to the Breach Notice, that it should…
What is the first thing you do when you have been caught systematically cheating? Launch legal action to protect your job of course! Supporters of the game have ZERO sympathy for administrators who take it upon themselves to risk any success their clubs has by cheating the salary cap. Lets not forget, the only reason…
Fox Sports journalist James Hooper is reporting that the Parramatta Eels could offload winger Semi Radradra in an effort to get themselves back under the 2016 salary cap. The Eels will not play for any competition points until they can prove they are under this years cap. It would be a shock if the Eels…
Now that we know the Parramatta Eels salary cap penalty, I want to know what you think of it. Did the NRL come down too hard on the club, was the penalty about right, or was it too lenient? Click on the following poll and cast your vote:
News Limited is reporting that the Parramatta Eels will be fined $1 million, lose 12 competition points, will be forced to move players on to other clubs before they are eligible to earn any more competition points, and that front office staff will have to leave the club. This is a huge blow to the…
The Parramatta Eels have found themselves in a new round of salary cap drama after revelations that the Eels board allegedly rewarded third party sponsors of their own players with free corporate hospitality. This was discussed at board level and is completely against the NRL’s salary cap rules which state that third party sponsors for…
Are you a Rugby League fan, or are you just a fan of your club? Do you want to see the best talent in the world on show every weekend in the NRL, or do you only care that your team wins and very little else matters to you? Personally, I’m a Rugby League fan…
Another end-of-season, another round of clubs fines for breaching the salary cap. This time it was Sea Eagles, Knights, Roosters, Tiger and Tigers named as offenders. The breaches date back to the 2013 season, and the Titans aside, seem like minor offenses at worst. For instance the Tigers over spent on their Holden Cup cap,…
I can’t think of too many other sports in the entire world that sees top of the line players depart at the peak of their careers to pursue “dreams” of doing other things. Rugby League should be very proud of the fact that it produces world class athletes that can even consider switching to other…
News Limited is reporting that Newcastle Knights back Dane Gagai wants to follow Wayne Bennett to the Brisbane Broncos, even though they sacked him two years ago for disciplinary reasons. Gagai’s move follows a trend of players that want to “head home”, and its is something I have no problem with. If that is what…
Over the last few weeks I’ve been shocked by the way some Brisbane Broncos supporters and sections of the Brisbane media have talked about the days when players all wanted to play for the Brisbane Broncos. You would think that the Broncos were the team everyone had to play for. That players were climbing over…
The long awaited (by hard core Raiders fans) first grade debut of Jeremy Hawkins will sadly not come this season after the NRL ruled Hawkins out on the basis of the 2nd tier salary cap. Whilst it is disappointing for Hawkins, Raiders fans should not be so quick to blame the hated 2nd tier cap…
The salary cap investigation involving the Brisbane Broncos has extended to the Broncos Leagues club. The licensed club, for which Andrew Gee was a director until he resigned from his post there recently, will be looked over as part of a forensic investigation into the salary cap irregularities the Broncos Football club recently alerted the…
In what has to be the most petty, pathetic response to losing a player they had every chance to hold onto to another club, the Wests Tigers have threatened to stop spending money developing players unless then NRL steps in and starts paying clubs money when they lose players. One half of this Wests Tigers…
The Daily Telegraph is reporting that the Brisbane Broncos are under investigation for possible salary cap irregularities after the resignation of the head of football operations Andrew Gee. The Broncos have alerted the NRL to issues regarding the recent recruitment of players. The resignation of Andrew Gee suggests that something very serious is about to…
It is pretty clear that Karmichael Hunt is looking to return to the NRL in 2015 and right now it looks like the Gold Coast Titans are favoured to sign him just ahead of the Brisbane Broncos. Hunt’s manager took less than 48 hours to toss his clients name up in the media after the…
The National Rugby League has released details about the long overdue salary cap overhaul that will bring the salary cap rules up to speed with the current pressures that clubs and players all face today. A lot of the changes that are being made are really just to clear up some grey areas of the…
It takes a big person to admit they got something wrong, and finally, after a number of years, Brian Waldron has apologized for the long term, systematic abuse of the NRL salary cap that led to the Melbourne Storm being stripped of two NRL titles. Geez, thanks Brian. You’re a real sport! It is interesting…
I am not a Sydney Roosters supporter by any stretch of the imagination, but I enjoy watching their games when I can tune in and see stars like Sonny Bill Williams, Anthony Minichiello, Michael Jennings and James Maloney playing for them. I’m not a North Queensland supporter but I love watching Johnathan Thurston, James Tamou…