Re: Eels Salary Cap Breach
As a rugby league fan in general I have to praise the NRL on the punishment here, they have absolutely hit the nail on the head.
Firstly, the best possible outcome for Rugby League in general is too get rid of those dipsticks on the board... Steve Sharp FFS, if brains were dynamite he couldn't blow his ears off. A well run Eels is great for RL in general, so hopefully this will finally be rock bottom for them (although with them it still could be lower.....)
It absolutely sucks for the fans and players that they cop the punishment for the boars ineptitude, but you just cannot under any circumstances have a team that's cheated the salary cap competing in the finals and possibly a premiership. Docking the points they have already won + not letting them earn more until they are under the cap strikes the right balance between punishing the Eels but still giving their fans the faintest glimmer of hope and they players something to play for. Future crowds, TV ratings and all the rest of those sorts of things have been preserved as much as possible for this season.
I probably wouldn't have too much of an issue with the Eels playing on this year with their points intact. Initial reports suggest they are around 500k over, assuming that includes Watmo's $$ I assume they aren't over once his insurance sorts out... As a fan of another club I don't feel too cheated since he hasn't taken the field (although if I were supporting a team below them on the ladder I may feel differently)... And I think a lot of RL fans feel similarly. But the issue is how do you come down hard enough on them that it is a strong enough deterrent for other clubs going forward? I don't think you can, and it does set a bad precedent.
Perhaps if the NRL were to somehow have the ability to punish individual board members/executives heavily through fines, lifetime bans, round up out front of the leagues club and leave them in stocks for a couple of days etc. then that would may cause club bosses to to think twice before getting the brown paper bags out of the desk draw, or betting 50k on a round of golf with an off-contract player. I'm not sure.... But it just seems bloody unfair to league fans in general - I'd much rather 15 other competitive teams to be running around for the Broncos to smash.