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Melbourne Rebels go over Brian Waldron's contracts
- Nick Leys
- From: The Daily Telegraph
- April 29, 2010 12:00AM
Under fire ... Brian Waldron. Source: The Daily Telegraph
THE Melbourne Rebels rugby union franchise is "having a second look" at the contracts and salaries of its players in light of the Storm salary cap rorting scandal.
Chairman Harold Mitchell said the Rebels were now in the middle of that process following the resignation last Friday of CEO Brian Waldron - the man blamed as being the key figure in the salary cap rort.
Mitchell confirmed members of the board were examining player contracts when asked about allegations players had been offered "side deals" on top of their salaries by Waldron.
"I can accept people will be saying these things but of course we are having a second look, we would be mad not to," Mitchell said.
"If they weren't signed, I'm sure we don't need to discuss them."
Yesterday Waldron refused to comment on allegations he had received a $275,000 payout from the Rebels.
"Just leave it today guys, OK," a tracksuited Waldron said outside his Melbourne home.
Waldron joined the Melbourne Rebels club on January 11.
Since then they signed former England five-eighth Danny Cipriani, former Wallaby captain Stirling Mortlock and have held discussions with former rugby league international Mark Gasnier and South African brothers Bismarck and Jannie du Plessis.
There is no suggestion any of these players were offered anything other than standard player contracts.
Mitchell said the Rebels were "dealing with player managers, not players" in relations to examining agreements and making sure everything was in accordance with Australian Rugby Union regulations.
There are no salary cap restrictions in the ARU, only strict rules over third-party payments.
Meanwhile, a poll of NRL club chief executives - taken last week before the Storm cap revelations - show the majority are in favour of keeping the salary cap at its current $4.1 million.
Twelve CEOs said the cap should stay as it is, while three - believed to be Brisbane, Parramatta and Melbourne - would support an increase. Cronulla argued that the current cap is already too high. All 16 clubs were united in the view that the cap is a commercial reality and beneficial to the code's viability, but it does spell more bad news for the code.
Until a new TV rights deal is signed in 2013 the NRL's brightest young talents - already being head-hunted by the game's chief market rivals - will continue to be given little incentive other than representative jumpers to stay put.
The AFL, which secured then-Broncos captain-in-waiting Karmichael Hunt last year, is a genuine threat.
Despite the headaches, NRL spokesman John Brady denied the $4.1 million cap was preventing the NRL competing with rival codes.
"Everyone agrees we want to keep as many players as we can," Brady said last night.
"The game and the clubs work very hard to do that. I don't think there's any question we compete with our market rivals. We return more of the revenue to players than any other code. On the most part, we do very well and retain the great majority of players. But we cannot undermine the general health of the game and the competition. That has to be our primary focus."
Titans CEO Michael Searle dismissed union's latest poaching raid by pointing to the return of Wendell Sailor, Lote Tuqiri and Mat Rogers.
"Union's last experiment with signing rugby league players wasn't that fruitful," Searle said.
The NRL has already considerably increased the annual salary cap since its inception in 1999 at $3.25 million.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/spo...-1225859629330
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Originally Posted by travelling_gerry
still those are not Wallabies (apart from Harris) though the Quade saga is not yet finished.
