Just signed Luke Burgess on short term deal.

A short term deal at Salford. The epitome of any players career

The sporting equivalent of a Wonga* loan.



* Other shorts term, high interest loans for idiots are available.

I think Salford's reasoning is spot on. Sign two experienced players to bolster their squad for the 8s. With squads the size they are nowadays its the sensible thing to do.

Let's hope that the clubs making all these short term signings are doing it totally within the salary cap.
I trust that the RL Compliance Unit is on top of all this.
Somehow I doubt it.

Well given it's a live cap these days, as long as the value being paid to the player actually matches what's on the contract - and I'm looking at you, Salford - then the registrations won't go through unless they are under the cap.

There's very little the RFL can do if teams go out of their way to deliberately hide or disguise payments to players, unless it comes to light through another route i.e. the Puletua payments.

Am I correct in saying that those payments only became known when Puletua took Salford to an employment tribunal?

Yup. Salford had given him a second contract with one of Koukash's companies that wasn't declared on the cap returns. Had it not been for the employment tribunal, it would probably never have got on the RFL's radar.

Frankly if Puletua knew about it I'd have been in favour of banning him for a year. He's as compliant in the cap breach as Salford are.

Puletua would have never signed up to the salary cap, why should he be punished?

Except Puletua doesn't know what is being declared to the RFL and what isn't and shouldn't be held responsible for the actions of a club.

If it could be proven that he knew those payments weren't being declared then I'd be in favour of punishing him in some fashion. But that would be almost impossible to prove.

Again though, Tony Puletua never agreed to the Salary Cap, even if he knew, they are rules that apparently 'don't apply to him'.

If he knew the club were doing something that was a breach of the cap - and let's face it, when the club put the second contract in front of him to sign he'd either have to be incredibly stupid or incredibly naive to not at least ask why he was being paid in this way - then he's complicit in them breaking it and should face some form of sanction for his part in it.

If you had a supplier who you knew was committing VAT fraud and you helped them do it by agreeing to issue some phoney invoices, should you be able to walk away and leave them to take the punishment for it?

I bet there's some part of a players contract that says they agree to abide by the rules of the competition. If there isn't then it's very easy to introduce in the future

That would be fraud. Fraud laws apply to me. Salary Cap regulations don't apply to players.

I bet the RFL and clubs are very careful to ensure there are no parts of the Salary Cap regulations which either implicitly or explicitly apply to individual players.

I also bet that no contract which states you arent allowed to sign any contracts with others would be laughed at by pretty much everyone.

FWIW, we got rid of a fair few of our top earners last year in Hock, Chase, Paterson, Hansen etc so really can't see his wage for half a dozen games making much of a dent on the cap. However, being Salford, every player on our books is on 500k a year......



Funny how a team with no internationals from the "big 3" RL playing nations can be accused of SC breaches every time they sign a player when the likes of Leeds, Wigan etc have multiple "star" international players but must be paying them peanuts!

did you have him on two contracts? yes
was was declared? no

ergo you deliberately cheated the salary cap

Not discussing Puletua..... have no issues with that and we've been rightly punished (more than any other previous club). I'm talking about the current squad, which is nowhere near the cap, and adding Burgess and the other guy from the NRL on short-term contracts isn't going to suddenly blow the cap!

If you read my original post I did not mention any club specifically since Salford is not the only club doing this. Indeed we - Leeds Rhinos - did with Segeyaro but we also released Falloon to allow this to happen.
But as a club with previous it's hardly surprising that the Salford name came up in the discussions.

Perhaps Marwan was a bit naive in handing Puletua 2 separate contracts in his name only to sign,Especially as the 2 contracts apparently added up to his previous Saints deal to the penny ?

Rumour has it that both Steve Renouf and Trent Barrett were only required to sign the 1 contract at Wigan when they were lured over to these shores and that they were happy to sign on those terms just as long as their partners were also on the payroll

It's not about having 2 contracts. That's not disallowed anywhere in the regulations.

It's about 1 of those not being lodged with the RFL for salary cap monitoring of the club, not the individual. In the same way as players agree to all kinds of things such as monitoring by either the RFL, the club or other agencies in respect of drugs, off-field behaviour, on-field disciplinary etc etc. That's where the RFL get the power to fine players. From their acceptance of the rules of the competition.

That isnt how it works.

And no player is going to agree to have all their contracts lodged with the RFL. There is no benefit to him to do so.

Edit: in fact, that isnt all you are asking him to do. You are asking him to agree to a clause which would do nothing more than compel him admit to and notify the RFL of a breach that is only a breach because he agreed to it being so, and the RFL can only punish because he has admitted to it.

That would not only be a crazy thing for him to do, it also wouldnt have moved us any further forward because Salford could still pay Puletua off the books, and the RFL still wouldnt know about it until he told them.

Are you going to do your usual and twist the debate all over the place? If so then I won't bother any further after this post.
If not...

Players do agree to monitoring by the RFL, clubs and other agencies. They also agree to abide by certain rules of the competition. That's how the RFL can enforce fines or the player has to leave the competition.

I didn't say the player had to lodge all his contracts with the RFL. I didn't say the player had to lodge ANY contract with the RFL. Nor did I say it would be any benefit to him.

The breach isn't a breach just because the player tells the RFL. It's a breach the second that contract is signed and not declared to the RFL by the club.
The player would only be punished if it were proved that he knew his "other" contract was not declared to the RFL. Ie that the player knew a breach had occurred but did nothing about it.
In the case of Puletua it might have persuaded him to tell the RFL. Or it might not but I can't see how it would do any harm. Of course in the Puletua case he didn't tell the RFL. Instead it came out in his tribunal with Salford.

I never said it would be easy to prove. I stated it wouldn't be. But in the rare case where it could be proved, I don't see a problem with punishing a player who is proved to have knowingly colluded in a salary cap breach.

I always find it amazing how other clubs know more about another club,than there own.

:2a32qfg2setting yourself up for your get out. Smart.

:2a32qfg2and...

:2a32qfg2then a player can have multiple contracts without him having broken a rule.

:2a32qfg2but hang on, you have just said :2a32qfg2So which is it. Does the player need to ensure all his contracts are lodged with the RFL or not? And why and how would he agree to such a thing considering his contract is with the club? The same club who are trying to pay him more money to avoid these rules.
:2a32qfg2You think Tony Puletua didnt declare this other contract to the RFL because if he did he wouldnt be punished, and that if there were the threat of punishment this would have persuaded him to do so?
Other than the Salary Cap specifically not being a restriction on players and as such not applying to them, and the RFL holding no power or jurisdiction over Tony Puletua at this point and it not actually achieving anything.