With all of the controversy surrounding what different clubs are allowed to afford under the salary cap, I think instituting a player’s point system would be the best and most transparent way to achieve the aims of the salary cap.

The NRL could categorise each player based on experience/ performance into five categories.

International, Origin, NRL, fringe NRL (including NSW and Queensland Cup), National Youth Competition (NYC) and others.

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All player categories could then include a points range to allow sub-classes within each category.

For example, an international player would be within a range of say 85-100 depending on country, position, performance etc and each player would then be given a “rating” within that range.

Therefore, the breakdown for the rest would be as follows:

Origin players between 75 – 85;

NRL players between 55 – 75;

Fringe NRL/ NSW Cup, Queensland Cup players between 45 – 55;

NYC and others between 0 – 30.

The system would only apply to the top-25 NRL players for each club and each players rating could be listed on a website which would make everything a lot more transparent.

NSW/Queensland and NYC players would only be allocated the points when they make their NRL debut or are part of the initial 25).

The total value of each club’s top 25 is not to exceed the maximum 1500* points within the Top 25 (an average of 60 points per player).



Clubs can request dispensation from the NRL in the event of an excessive injury list.

Discounts could be applied for juniors, long-serving players, or players who have improved, from say fringe to international, if they re-sign with their current club.

The discount could be at a tiered rate depending on what category they fall into.

Juniors and long-serving players might get a bigger discount (e.g. 35-40 per cent) than developed import player (e.g. 20 per cent – 30 per cent).

This would encourage clubs to develop their juniors and maybe help loyalty issues (from both club and players).

Each players ‘value’ would be reviewed by the NRL at the start of the last year of their current contract or set for debutants when they are promoted to an NRL roster.

Let’s use Andrew Fifita as an example.

He was a fringe player when he went to the Sharks, so maybe worth a 50 points.



He remains at 50 until 30/10/2013 (the start of the last year of his current contract).

The NRL reassess him and now allocates 90 points for him for his next contract if he switches, or 72 if he re-signs at Cronulla (a 20 per cent reduction as the Sharks have developed him from fringe to international player).

Andrew can then command $1m a season if he can get it, but clubs can only have a team worth 1500 points in total.

Salaries then become irrelevant (and players can demand whatever clubs can afford through NRL grant and third-party payments) as clubs can’t go and buy a premiership as they would need to stay under the points system.

This could help stop the rumours of salary cap breaches (and breaches themselves) and hopefully even out the competition which would make for many more exciting games.

It would also reward teams who can develop their fringe players, juniors to become some of the best in the game.