Parramatta will contest some of the salary cap `breaches that led to their $525,000 fine and chairman Steve Sharp has has hit out at the NRL, saying the Eels would not be "bullied" into making governance changes via the threat of a four-point deduction next season.
The Parramatta board came together for a marathon meeting on Friday, a day after sanctions against them were handed down from League Central, and emerged admitting to cap breaches last year but resolving to fight the governing body on a range of matters.
The Eels are particularly angry about the stipulation that they conduct an independent governance review of the club and introduce any recommendations from it by next February or start next season on minus four points. They plan to have an independent review run by auditing giant PriceWaterhouseCoopers but to bring about changes on their terms, not those of head office.
"We're prepared to fight for our belief and our brand. I don't think we should be bullied for what's happened here," Sharp said on Friday night.
"We acknowledge that our salary cap was in a mess. But we know our salary cap is compliant for 2015 and we're heading in the right direction.
"I'm not sure they should be linking their requirements where they're trying to say you will have this sort of board and you will have this and that to a salary cap breach which is a process breach."
There is a belief at Parramatta that the NRL is looking to thrust two independent directors on them. The Eels tried to do that themselves last year but had a proposal for one independent director to be added to the board shot down by members.
"We'll push ahead with constitutional reform and we've got a constitutional committee at the moment to build the changes but I don't believe it's for the NRL to say how we should structure our organisation," Sharp said.
Parramatta also plan to contest a range of the infringements in the breach across the club's four salary caps, which totalled $436,000 but centred around the second-tier cap.
They intend to argue that they have been dealt harshly for fielding Taniela Lasalo for four minutes against North Queensland in a round eight game in Townsville last year. Lasalo was one of three players who took the field during the season against NRL warnings - the others were Junior Paulo and David Gower - and his brief appearance cost them a $60,000 bump in their second-tier cap total.
Sharp argues there are mitigating circumstances. "He went up (to Townsville) as the 19th player and then through circumstances with an injury in the warm-up and a concussion that Mitch Allgood had suffered the week before - he still had headaches and the doctor ruled him out- Lasalo had to sit on the bench," he said.
"And through circumstances, with injuries, with four minutes to go we were down by 40 and he had to go on and play four minutes. We copped a very, very large infringement on the salary cap for that. I understand the rules are the rules and that's how it is, and our club was in breach, but certainly not to the extent it was made out to be."
They also plan to argue that Jarryd Hayne's trip to the United States last year - which came to $15,000 including airfares and accommodation - should not have been included in the salary cap simply because he travelled separately from the rest of the team.
And they are upset that they have been punished for issues such as the purchase of a car for over market value by the club from Fuifui Moimoi during the previous Roy Spagnolo administration, having told the NRL about that themselves and self-reported on the pending cap nightmare at Parramatta soon after a Sharp-led board took power from Spagnolo in mid-2013.
Sharp also believe they have ben the victim of some "double dipping" with breaches involving some players included in more than one salary cap section.
The chairman accepted that there had been breaches last year but said his management team had inherited their salary cap problems and defended the club against not following NRL warnings around Lasalo, Paulo and Gower.
"It was either that or be short players, put 16 blokes on the field," he said.
"The consequences occurred on my watch but certainly the things that put those consequences into play were before my time."
Parramatta coach Brad Arthur said he was sure that the sanctions on the Eels would have no impact on the arrivals of big-name signings Kieran Foran and Beau Scott next season.
"I'm 100 per cent confident...they've made their decisions," Arthur told Triple M on Friday night. "I have spoken to them and they're keen to come here."
