League: Manly Sea Eagles fined $798,000 for breaching NRL salary cap

The Manly Sea Eagles were fined for breaches in the salary cap but won't lose competition points. Photo / Getty Images.

Punishments for the Manly Sea Eagles breaching the NRL salary cap have been handed down by the league, and the club has been hit hard.

An investigation by the league's integrity unit found the Manly club had made a number of salary cap breaches over the past five years. NRL.com reported the breaches involved 13 players over the five-year period, with deals totalling $1.5 million.

As a result, the club was fined NZ$798,000 and two officials - chief operating officer Neil Bare and former chief executive Joe Kelly, who is now the boss at the Sydney Roosters - received 12-month bans.

They will also find a NZ$702,000 penalty applied to their salary cap for this season and the 2019 competition. Sea Eagles coach Trent Barrett was also given an official warning while club legend Bob Fulton would have to get approval from the NRL to return to an official role within the game.

Manly invited the investigation from the league in July 2017, and the integrity unit reviewed more than 800,000 documents during their investigation including emails and text messages.

"The investigation found a number of cases where players were offered undisclosed benefits outside the salary cap to attract them to the club," NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg told NRL.com.

"These benefits were in the form of third-party agreements which were never declared to the salary cap auditor.

"In other words, Manly had a financial advantage in securing the services of players who may otherwise have gone to other clubs.

"Our salary cap is the main reason we have the closest competition in Australian sport and we will not tolerate any attempt to breach it.

"Every club needs to be aware that any attempt to cheat the salary cap will eventually be detected and the club involved will be heavily sanctioned."

While they were hit hard in the pocket, the club would not lose any competition points as they were now salary cap compliant.

Manly and the officials can appeal the sanctions to the NRL Appeals Committee.