{"id":81076,"date":"2021-06-06T00:06:38","date_gmt":"2021-06-06T00:06:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=81076"},"modified":"2021-06-06T00:57:46","modified_gmt":"2021-06-06T00:57:46","slug":"ridiculous-nrl-rule-leaves-immortal-fuming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=81076","title":{"rendered":"'Ridiculous' NRL rule leaves Immortal fuming"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rugby league Immortal Andrew Johns<\/a> says more needs to be done to encourage one-club players, as Penrith faces a battle to retain all its State of Origin<\/a> stars.<\/p>\n

The Panthers have seven players lining up in the opening Origin match, a situation coach Ivan Cleary<\/a> says is likely to cause the club salary cap grief now that representative bonuses have been triggered.<\/p>\n

Cleary said the NRL should consider allowing representative bonuses to be paid outside the salary cap.<\/p>\n

While he's in favour of reform, that's a situation Johns thinks is unworkable.<\/p>\n

"I understand what Ivan's saying, but they'll find a way to manipulate it," he said on his Wide World of Sports<\/em> program Immortal Behaviour.<\/a><\/p>\n

"Especially the managers. Instead of signing someone for five-hundred (thousand) we'll sign him for four-hundred, and if he plays Origin we'll give him a bonus of $150,000.<\/p>\n

"There's a way they'll manipulate it somehow."<\/p>\n

The salary cap is $9.02 million in 2021. On top of that is an allowance of around $200,000 for players the club developed, or who have been in the club's top 30 for eight years or more.<\/p>\n

\"Nathan<\/p>\n

And that's the area Johns would like to see changed, to ensure clubs can keep their local juniors.<\/p>\n

"I don't care about salary caps, I don't care about bonuses, I just want to see the best players play for one club," he said.<\/p>\n

"Nathan (Cleary) should never play for another club, Jarome Luai is a local junior, should never play for another club.<\/p>\n

"Brian To'o is from Mount Druitt, the same as Jarome – he should never play for another club."<\/p>\n

The Adam Reynolds<\/a> saga could have been avoided had Johns' suggested reforms been implemented.<\/p>\n

The 30year-old is a South Sydney junior who has given more than two decades of service to the area.<\/p>\n

He's played more than 200 first-grade games for the club since debuting in 2012, and scored 14 points in the Rabbitohs' 2014 grand final win over the Bulldogs.<\/p>\n

Yet he's signed a three-year deal with Brisbane from 2022<\/a>, forced out of Souths after the club baulked at offering him a contract longer than 12 months.<\/p>\n

The Rabbitohs were concerned about a potential payout should Reynolds' battered body not be able to continue beyond 2022, a situation that conveniently ignores the fact that the halfback has given his all for the club over so many years.<\/p>\n

\"Rabbitohs<\/p>\n

Instead of being rewarded for his loyalty, Reynolds has been forced out.<\/p>\n

"Adam Reynolds, I've been quite vocal about that," Johns said.<\/p>\n

"Grown up in the local area, won a comp, played first grade for 10 years, and he's been squeezed out.<\/p>\n

"It's just ridiculous. Fans want their local juniors, or players who've stayed there for a long time.<\/p>\n

"The last year or two, they shouldn't even be in the salary cap."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rugby league Immortal Andrew Johns says more needs to be done to encourage one-club players, as Penrith faces a battle to retain all its State […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81076"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=81076"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81076\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81078,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81076\/revisions\/81078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=81076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=81076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=81076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}