By PETER JESSUP
Eric "The Wallet" Watson's wallet will be $A100,000 ($123,000) lighter after a Jaws-style attack from below and behind, thanks to a fine for salary-cap sins committed by others.
Watson's namesake Mick, chief executive at the new-look New Zealand Warriors that Eric saved from extinction, admitted yesterday that it
was the current owners who would have to swallow a bitter pill, then cough up. The fine levied by the National Rugby League against the previous administration was the largest of those handed out to eight NRL clubs who breached the $A3.2 million salary cap.
How did the last mob get it so wrong, paying around $A300,000 over the odds for a team that came second-to-last in the competition?
Previous chairman Graham Lowe admitted yesterday that "in reflection, yeah," he would have done things differently.
But he was as mystified as New Zealand Rugby League chairman Gerald Ryan and Mick Watson as to the details of the deals done by the previous Tainui-controlled administration and how they came about.
Investigations continue to determine whether they involved cash payments and inducements, including deals involving houses and construction work on houses, the bills being charged to Tainui companies.
The $A100,000 fine will trim by around 10 per cent the NZ Warriors' slice of the end-of-year cake from television. It doesn't have to be paid in cash, but it's still a raw deal, given the number of players from other clubs given perks rather than straight cash to meet the salary cap.
Meanwhile, hardline Australian opinion that the Warriors should be thrown out of the competition seems to have relaxed after photographs of Eric Watson's wife, Nicky, posing in bikinis were reprinted in Sydney sports magazines.
NRL teams - How they line up
