WHEN the integrity unit first launched two years ago most around the game applauded.

The early brief was that the unit was going to fix two of the big problems that arose whenever incidents occurred, which were consistency from club to club and transparency about what happened.

Clubs were encouraged to self-report and leave it in the hands of the Integrity Unit.

Chief operating officer Suzanne Young spoke of incentives left for clubs to report itself to the Integrity Unit. Initially, the Raiders were a strong supporter of the Integrity Unit.

Here at Canberra, we were burned once too often by the league, letting good players go under pressure to “do the right” thing while other clubs acted in their own interest and ultimately benefited.

We are all confused and struggling to understand what the NRL is doing.There is no transparency, no consistency, and not a whole lot of smart decisions appearing to be made Ricky Stuart

The impact was significant.

When Todd Carney ran into trouble the NRL came down heavily on the club to sack him. The Raiders didn’t want to, but under pressure and in the spirit of co-operation with a League looking to change player behaviour, they agreed.

The League was on the phone again before Josh Dugan was sacked and then again before Blake Ferguson.

What happened?

media_camera Todd Carney was sacked by Raiders

Canberra saw three marquee players leave, serve varying penalties, and then return for other clubs where they played starring roles. Ferguson was sacked even though he was on rep duty, away from the club.

Meanwhile, little thought was given to the repercussions for the Raiders.

Marquee players don’t come on the market every day.

I wasn’t here when any of those three players were let go but I saw them lose three stars and received no help from the League to replace them despite doing the right thing.

And it is not as easy as swapping like for like. Say those three players were on $600,000 a year, just for an example. They sack them, freeing up $600,000 in the salary cap, but then have to find star players to replace them.

It is generally considered that to woo a player of that pay-scale away from his club you have to pay 10-20 per cent more than what he is seeking to stay where he is.

In other words, to get a player of equal ability to a Dugan or Ferguson on $600,000, the Raiders would have to pay between $660,000 to $720,000.

Since they don’t have that room in their salary cap, though, they have to spend $600,000 on a player worth $500,000 to $545,000. That starts to have serious ramifications on your

salary cap.

So that’s why some clubs flat out refuse to sack players when they get in trouble, no matter what they do.

And it’s why other clubs try to cover up player behaviour. So they don’t come under pressure to have to do that. The Integrity Unit was supposed to sort that out.

It was supposed to take the decision out of the club’s hands and treat every incident with consistency to avoid clubs treating similar incidents differently, according to their needs — and transparency — so we all knew the reasons why. Instead, who knows what to expect anymore?

We are all confused and struggling to understand what the NRL is doing.

There is no transparency, no consistency, and not a whole lot of smart decisions appearing to be made.

Wayne Bennett spoke for much of the game on Wednesday when he said he had “lost faith” in the Integrity Unit.

It’s a feeling being shared around the league. How are we supposed to act after recent events?

Both consistency and integrity have been missing.