sidelined

Mark Gasiner has decided to chase the filthy luchre all the way to Stade Francais (lurv the pink). Good on him and good riddance. Money Bags Gaz has tried the “I’m gonna play rugby if you don’t give more money whinge” before but this time, he ended up playing rugby.

He will say it wasn’t about the money but that would be like saying WYD is not really about trying to gloss over a decrepit, authoritarian cult based on a load of superstitious mumbo jumbo with the joy of brainwashed youth.

Let’s get one thing straight. MBG was a good centre but he wasn’t a great centre. Meninga, Rogers, Cronin were great centres. MBG had nothing on the all round skills of those greats.

The one bit of sympathy I can find muster is for the fact that the third partly deals were not honoured. Speaking of third party deals, here are some words from the NRL’s chief muppet, David Gallop:

“Sponsors are not clambering to pay players on an individual basis.”

He says the NRL always looks at third-party agreements in players contracts.

“The rules are clear. If you guarantee a player will get a payment from a third party, it’s tantamount to paying the player and has to be included in the [salary] cap,” he said.

I’d say the fact that third party payments are included in the salary cap limits players going out and finding them (and vice versa). Solutions are needed to funnel more money to the players.

One obvious problem is the short sightedness of Sydney clubs bemoaning the pokie tax. You knew it was coming. A good CEO would have made efforts early on to look for new revenue streams to counter the effect (Hello Dennis!).

But Gallop reveals a similar myopic view. Why should third party deals be part of the salary cap? The salary cap is needed. But if a player is marketable enough then he should be allowed to exploit that. If some commercial entity wants to use a player for marketing purposes then I don’t see the problem. Having this part of the salary cap is wrong.

Saints CEO, Peter Doust, did some outside the square thinking and asked why couldn’t players play rugby in the NRL off season? Injury and player burn out aside, the question Doust should be asking is “How in hell did we agree to a contract with such an escape clause in the first place?”