English forward James Graham has signed a contract extension with the Canterbury Bulldogs worth $2.8 million over four years. Graham is a key signing for the Bulldogs who earlier this week signed Cronulla Sharks test star Andrew Fifita on a rich deal worth $3.4 million over four years. There has been a lot of speculation…
Australian test captain Cameron Smith has signed a 4 year contract extension with the Melbourne Storm, ensuring he remains a one club player. The deal which is set to be one of the richest in the games history will be the final one of Smiths playing career. Smith had been at the center of a…
I am sick to death of hearing people within Rugby League saying what a great player and person Sonny Bill Williams is. I am sick of hearing them talk about the way he has boosted the crowds at Sydney Roosters games, how he has helped the club sell more season tickets and merchandise. I’m sick…
The absurdity of the second tier salary cap has reared its head quite emphatically in the past week due to the circumstances that have prevented talented Penrith rookie Fullback Matt Moylan not being allowed to play because his match payments would exceed the club’s second tier salary cap and thus, put the Panthers over the…
The Australian is reporting that NRL clubs are digging their heels in over a fight for increased funding from the NRL. Clubs want the NRL and ARL Board to boost their funding with money that would be drawn from the games “Future Fund”, and it is expected to end in a showdown between the clubs…
The New Zealand Herald is reporting that the NZRU has tabled a three year offer to Sonny Bill Williams and that they are quietly confident of securing his services for the 2014 season. The NZ Herald states that Williams has privately told those close to him that he is leaning towards a move away from…
There is no questioning the investment and support the Canterbury Bulldogs have put into Ben Barba. The 2012 Dally M player of the year has been treated very well by the Bulldogs. After months of speculation that Ben Barba could leave the club and head back to Queensland to follow his partner, who wants to…
The idea of each club being able to sign one player outside of the salary cap sounds like a great idea. Anything to keep the best players in the world sounds fantastic. I’m the first to say that the NRL needs to do something to make sure our elite players remain in Rugby League….but the…
The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that the Canterbury Bulldogs are keen to extend the contract of English forward James Graham, and that the Warrington Wolves are keen to lure the former England captain back to Super League. I’ve been told that if Graham was to return to Super League, it would be to his…
He was a star athlete that people would watch play any sport. He was a player that the founding fathers of Rugby League knew was a key to getting punters in through the turnstiles. We name an award after him, and over a century after his first Rugby League game his name still carries so…
After being hit with a fine for breaching the 2012 salary cap the Manly Sea Eagles have made a statement on their web site. It reads: The Sea Eagles today received a fine notice from the NRL in regards to alleged salary cap breaches in 2012. The $85,000 penalty was the result of an alleged…
After The Super League War the newly formed National Rugby League had a problem on it’s hands. It had more clubs than it wanted and all of them were spending more money than they had. Players salaries were completely out of control and the NRL knew it had to get spending on player salaries back…
There are no excuses any more… With the NRL raking in around $300 million per season, and putting $40 million in the bank for future projects every year, there are no excuses for Rugby League to lose a single player to any other sporting code. Likewise, there is no reason why the NRL should have…
Going into the 2013 NRL season, every team knew what the salary cap rules were. I therefore find it hard to feel any sympathy for any club that only gets to round 13 and starts to have issues with who it can and can not bring into first grade due to salary cap constraints. That…
This was always going to happen… Last year at an NRL CEO’s meeting concerns were raised that the upcoming dramatic rise that was about to occur in the salary cap would see the player market skewed and teams mismanaging their salary cap. There wasn’t much the NRL could do about this although they did look…
The Sydney Daily Telegraph is reporting that the Cronulla Sharks may be hit with a salary cap breach for undeclared sponsorship payments made to players by the clubs former security provider in 2011 and 2012. The breach may be as high as $200,000 and would be a huge blow for the club as it struggles…
At some point we could see NRL clubs heading into the 2014 season with a heap of salary cap space to spare and no one to spend that money on. When clubs get to that point they have two options. They can use that spare salary cap space to give advance payments future signings, or,…
When an NRL club signs a highly paid player to a long term contract, they are taking a risk. It doesn’t matter who that player is or what they have done in the past, committing so much money to one player and hoping that he is still performing at a high level at the end of that deal is…
With NRL clubs now turning their attention to Super League players in an effort to boost depth in their squads, many within Super League had the same reaction. Raise the salary cap. Forgetting that a handful of clubs have gone belly up in Super League over the last few years with the salary cap set…
There is a stark reality that Super League fans and clubs need to accept. The days of buying decent players from the NRL are over. The days of picking and choosing who they would like to have in their sides are long gone. The days of big name imports have gone the way of the…
For over a decade Rugby League in Australia found itself living on a tight budget. The aftermath of the Super League War actually saw salaries shrink considerably. This was followed up by under funding after the game signed off on poor broadcasting deals, and it created a situation in which teams were spending the least amount of…
The Daily Telegraph is reporting today that the Penrith Panthers inquired about the availability of Wigan fullback Sam Tomkins and were blown away by the price demanded for the youngsters services. After chasing Johnathan Thurston, and missing out, the Panthers now find themselves with over $1 million to spend under the salary cap and yet with no…
If you’re a winger in Rugby League and you want to command super star money, you’d better be a bloody good player. While Akuila Uate is a damaging ball runner, the 2012 season started to show the flaws that come up when the best in the game start to put you under the greatest of…
When Israel Folau reached out to the Parramatta Eels and told them he wanted to come back and play Rugby League for them, it put a number of different elements onto an eventual collision course that ironically would see Folau decide to turn his back on Rugby League once again, Folau’s decision to turn his back on one of…
The Penrith Panthers have been rumoured to be after him for nearly a year, and he has been photographed taking a tour of the Canterbury Bulldogs training facilities. At the end of all of this, Johnathan Thurston is expected to become the NRL’s first $1 million dollar a year player. There is no doubt at…
Rugby League simply does not play star players what they are worth to the game. With the NRL’s salary cap used to keep costs down, keep clubs financially viable and give us a competition that is as even as any competition in world sport, it is difficult to find way in this system to reward…
The Daily Telegraph in Sydney is reporting that Benji Marshall will ask for an immediate release from his contract with the Wests Tigers to take up a deal to play Rugby Union in Japan. This was always going to happen in the wake of the move by the Sydney Roosters to sign Sonny Bill Williams…
I have just sat down and watch the press conference in Sydney in which the Sydney Roosters announced that they had signed Sonny Bill Williams to a one year deal. The contract has yet to be forwarded to the National Rugby League and there is some concern about the way it come about, with no…
Ian Schubert, the NRL’s salary cap chaperone, has had some devilishly intricate contracts to review over the years. However, there is one from a different kettle of fish and loaves that stretches his abilities more than most, and with Israel Folau’s return to the land of league imminent, he’s about to tussle with its particulars…
For well over a decade now the game of Rugby League in Australia has been crying out for a strategic plan. Something that the game can work towards to give fans, players and various investors in the sport something they can look forward to. Basically the game needed to build towards something, and so today…