Sea Eagles board decides not to fight penalties
- Author
- Timestamp
The Manly Sea Eagles have decided not to appeal the $750,000 fine handed to the club earlier this season for salary cap breaches over a five-year period.
Last week the NRL Appeals Committee upheld the original fine against the club and the $330,000 restriction applied to its salary cap for each of the next two seasons that it announced in late March, after Manly lodged objections to the original sanctions.
The NRL had accused the club of $1.5 million in salary cap breaches over the previous five years involving 13 players – but none in the current 2018 roster.
Manly officials appeared before the Appeals Committee in a four-day hearing in late June to debate the technicalities of what the NRL said were breaches of the third party agreement (TPA) rules for players.
Now that the Appeals Committee, headed by Ian Callinan, QC, has dismissed the Sea Eagles' case, the club still had the option of appealing the severity of the fines.
But Manly CEO Lyall Gorman said a board meeting decided not to go down that path.
"It's just time to focus on the future and it's about taking our club back to the heights we aspire to," Gorman told NRL.com on Tuesday.
"The main focus is on looking ahead and drawing a curtain on the past."
The Sea Eagles' decision now draws to a close the saga that has dragged on the entire season.
Two former officials, chief operating officer Neil Bare and CEO Joe Kelly, were initially suspended by the NRL for 12 months. But the pair can return to NRL duties from January 1, 2019, by undertaking approved governance courses.
Manly got into trouble through a series of third-party agreements organised by the club and offered to players during contract negotiations but not declared to the NRL salary cap auditor.
With the case now over, Manly needs to turn its attention to 2019 with pre-season training due to start on November 5.
But there will be further disruption as head coach Trent Barrett gave his 12-month notice last July and will leave the club four months into the new NRL season unless he and the club can reach a compromise.
Manly chairman Scott Penn has previously maintained the club does not have the funds to pay-out Barrett.
