Steve Deane: Blaming salary cap easy sop to unhappy fans

Enough about how the NRL salary cap is failing and ruining the game. The salary cap might not be perfect, but it is working just fine. Better than fine.

Complaints this week from Parramatta chief executive Paul Osbourne that an unfair salary cap system had cost the club Warriors-bound duo Feleti Mateo and Krisnan Inu were simply laughable.

As were the attempts by the anti-salary cap lobby to paint the situation as another example of the cap failing the game.

Forcing clubs like Parramatta to release some of their stockpiled talent is precisely what the cap is designed to do. The rationale for the system is quite clear. It produces an equal, compelling and open competition where the fans of every team know their side has an even shot at glory.

Like that concept or not - and I sure do - it's the one the NRL has gone with. If you'd prefer a comp where only two or three teams ever have a real prospect of winning while the others are delighted with a few crumbs for finishing fourth, or simply avoiding relegation, watch the Premier League.

Or maybe try baseball, where the Yankees' financial might ensures they are in the playoffs every year while other teams go decades without featuring.

Just how much interest would there be in the NRL this year if the Dragons were going for an 11th straight title? There are plenty of competitions without salary caps. Most of them are boring.

Back to the Eels. To blame the salary cap for the departure of Mateo and Inu is disingenuous in the extreme.

The salary cap is the mechanism that forces clubs to make decisions on players, but it isn't the reason they leave. The reason they leave is because the club chooses to invest its money in other players. The reason they leave is because other clubs - in this case the Warriors - place a significantly higher value on them. The reason they leave is that they aren't wanted. Or at least not wanted as much as the players who do receive salary upgrades or contract extensions, or players brought in from other clubs.

Parramatta can bleat all they like about losing a couple of prized players who came through the club's junior ranks. But this is the club that splashed a whole heap of money to bring in Justin Poore, Timana Tahu and Shane Shackleton this season. No doubt it will bring in more players next season.

Ultimately, the club chose those outsiders instead of Mateo and Inu. The Eels have, of course, also invested plenty in keeping Jarryd Hayne, Daniel Mortimer, Fuifui Moimoi and Joel Reddy at the club. So just how prized were Mateo and Inu?

Blaming the salary cap is just an easy sop to disappointed fans who have developed a bond with players who are simply no longer wanted. Mateo and Inu can be brilliant but both can also be quite ordinary. Both were fingered as part of the reason the talent-packed Eels made such a shocking start to the season.

That said, the Warriors should be significantly improved with the pair in their side and the NRL will be a better competition for it. It's an example of the salary cap working perfectly.

The Storm scandal is another example the salary cap haters use to prove the false positive that the system is failing. In reality, the Storm situation proves the exact opposite - if you cheat you will eventually get caught and the penalties will be harsh.

Stripping the Storm of their titles was precisely the right move.

The salary cap's only real failing is that it unfairly restricts the earnings of top players. There is certainly a compelling case for a larger share of the game's revenue to go to the players. In comparison with other codes, league players - who have long lacked an effective union - are hard done by on that score. A correction would certainly help ease the problem of stars swapping codes, but it wouldn't fully solve it. It's a bitter pill for leaguies to swallow, but in a world where people are obsessed as much with fame as fortune, union offers a bigger global stage, and probably always will.

The only way for league to compete financially is for the game to grow its revenue base across the board. Retaining the salary cap is vital. The cap is a key reason why the NRL continues to thrive in terms of interest while other competitions flounder.

Remove it and a handful of players will prosper in the short-term, but long-term the game will suffer. If fan interest drops, sponsorship, television revenues and match day revenues will drop accordingly. Just who will be better off then?