Brown urges NRL to avoid grandfather rule
Aug 6, 2017 - 5:31 PM Newcastle coach Nathan Brown has urged the NRL not to apply a grandfather rule for clubs hoping to remain under a new salary cap next season.As the wait continues on a new collective bargaining agreement to produce a new cap figure, Brown admits the Knights are banking on rivals being forced to shed players for overspending.
"All the clubs, regardless of what they say, everyone got the email eight or ten months ago and got told that you've got to work off $9.1 million," Brown told Triple M.
"And if you go over it, it's your responsibility to get under it."
The NRL last week denied suggestions up to 11 clubs had overshot their budget for playing rosters next season and would need to offload players to stay in the black.
Canterbury is one club widely believed to have been shopping a number of contracted players after luring big-names Aaron Woods and Kieran Foran to Belmore in 2018.
Brown wants the governing body to ensure everyone's books are clean.
"Some clubs have spent over it and took and chance, and probably found themselves in a situation where it's probably left them a little bit vulnerable," he said.
"Some clubs like us took a chance to stay under it in the hope of something good coming up.
"Let's hope our friends at the NRL hold their nerve and do the right thing and make these clubs get under the cap and don't allow some sort of grandfather rule which some are lobbying for.
"The clubs that are over budget and probably put the market into a bit of a spin, they've got to pay the price. But the NRL will decide that at the end of the day."
Brown, who admitted his interest in signing Bulldogs skipper James Graham to the club should he be tapped on the shoulder, also believes most clubs will have little cap room to move.
That means the Knights could be in a position to dictate the player market.
"It's like settling a house. If you haven't got buyers, you can't sell," he said.
"Canterbury might not have a choice who they want to let go at the end of the day because if the NRL do the right thing and make them get under the cap like they should do, they may have to let a player go that they don't want to let go."
Source: AAP
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