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Bret Harris |
The Australian |
July 24, 2014 12:00AM
THE Queensland Reds have forked out between $600,000 and $700,000 from their own Super Rugby salary cap to sign code-hopper Karmichael Hunt after the ARU declined to provide him with a top-up.
While there has been no official announcement that the Reds have signed Hunt, it is an open secret that it’s a done deal.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/spor...930034b0bcd69#
I was talking to mate visiting from Queensland last night and he is mates with a very high up QRU official and there is no doubt that JOC and Hunt will be at the Reds in 2015 without financial support of ARU.......for a change![]()
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In completely unrelated news quad cooper and will genia's salaries will now be paid for by the ARU.![]()
Generally speaking you aren’t learning much if your lips are moving!!!
They'd have to be paying JOC similar. How much is the (official) salary cap?
Around $4 million seems to ring a bell??
80 Minutes, 15 Positions, No Protection, Wanna Ruck?
Ruck Me, Maul Me, Make Me Scrum!
Education is Important, but Rugby is Importanter!
[cynic]Will the QRU get ~$1.2 million more in ARU support this year?[\cynic]
Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon
I simply cannot believe they are buying JOC and KH, and keeping Cooper, Genia, Horwill, AND funding the salaries of the remaining 25 squad members all for the bargain price of $4million without some creative accounting going on somewhere between Brisbane and Sydney.
Also how do just 2 players replace ALL of the ones that have bailed? Some more financial shenanigans are going on I believe. How do they twist this one in the next annual report?
Not everyone in the squad will be on top dollar there will probably be a few only playing for whatever the minimum allowable payment per year is but while ARU top ups remain in place the system will never be transparent.
Playing for the pride of being able to sing the team song?
Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon
We learnt that you couldn't by a team, players have to believe and want to play for their club. The Queensland Reds weren't a committed team and have a suspect coach. Buying 2 high profile players, one with dodgy team commitment issues, won't make them any better next year.
4mil over 30 is 133k. Not even half the squad would be on that much cash per year from the QRU, Don't have to get creative for the books to find cash to pay one or two players that much.
3.4mil over 29 is 117k. It's not that hard to do because some
Players are on 50-60 or so.
I'd be happy with 117k a year I'll tell you that much
Last edited by jono; 25-07-14 at 16:37.
Not that easy. If you say that Genia, Horwill, O'Connor, Cooper and Hunt average $500k between them, that leaves $2M for 25 players. That means an average of $80k, when the ARU/RUPA mandated minimum is $65k. Then look at the rest of their squad at players like Daley, Gill, Hanson, Holmes, Robinson, Schatz, Simmons, Slipper, Tapuai and Turner, most of which have played Test and all of which are senior/leadership players. No way they are playing for less than six figures, so the math just doesn't work even if every other player on their list is a rookie.
There is no way that Queensland are paying the full amount for Genia, Cooper and Horwill out of their salary cap.
The ARU top up is helping pay the wages of these blokes. How many times do we hear "I'm waiting for the ARU to negotiate their part of the deal".
Get rid of the Wallaby top ups and give the cash to the states, keep match payments for Wallabies Tests if need be.
Last edited by jargan83; 25-07-14 at 20:50.
Having a look, the numbers reported for Genia and Cooper at their last contracts were $400k and $800k respectively (note no ARU top-up for Cooper). With Hunt that makes them $1.8M for just those three...