Storm co-owner Matthew Tripp has labelled the $100,000 sum awarded to the minor premiers as "embarrassing" and claims the NRL won't be taken as seriously as the AFL, which offers nearly six times as much in its prizemoney pool.
Melbourne will host Cronulla at AAMI Park on Saturday night in a clash that decides the minor premiership. The winner will be presented with the J.J Giltinan Shield and a cheque for $100,000, the reward for being the most consistent team over 26 regular-season rounds. However, the clubs feel the amount is too low, particularly when compared to the riches on offer in other sports.
The AFL doesn't offer a cash prize for finishing the regular season in top spot. However, it awards $71,000 each for the two clubs eliminated in the first week of the finals, $110,000 for those in the second round, a $330,000 cheque for losing preliminary finalists and $660,000 for the runners-up. The AFL premiers pocket $1.2 million, bringing the AFL's total prizemoney pool to $2.882 million.
In the NRL week one losing teams receive $20,000, week 2 losers get $30,000 and losing preliminary finalists are awarded $100,000 per team. The grand finalists split $600,000 with the losers receiving $200,000 and the winners $400,000.
Tripp said the disparity reflected badly on the NRL administration. "$100,000 is embarrassing for the amount of work that goes in over the course of a pre-season and a season," Tripp told Fairfax Media.
"The prestige of winning the minor premiership has waned quite considerably and it's certainly not front of mind for a lot of clubs these days because the incentive isn't there. If they want to be seen as a peer of, and on equal footing to, the AFL, there are areas [league administrators] need to improve in order to be taken as seriously as the AFL. This is obviously one key area that they need to fix.
"I would dearly love to be able to reward the entire club for the amount of work that goes in over the course of those 26 rounds.
"But we have a huge payroll that are not just players, we've got an administerial roster, and $100,000 doesn't go very far.
"Given that's what everyone is striving towards, I don't see a just reward for consistency. The most consistent club all year should be rewarded in a better manner.
"You would hope it would be in line with the AFL where everyone would get their just desserts.
"It's not that anyone tries any less but the prize at the end of it is ho-hum by comparison to their main rival code in the AFL."
Cronulla beat Melbourne in round four, but the southerners are the favourites this time as they try to claim their second minor premiership. While the Storm are trying to maintain a foothold in traditional Australian Rules territory, AFL minor premiers Sydney are already guaranteed a bigger payday after dominating during the regular season. It's possible the other Sydney AFL side, the fourth-ranked GWS Giants, could also finish off their campaign with more prizemoney than the NRL's major and minor premiers.
Tripp said the disparity was made more farcical by the riches on offer at the Auckland Nines. The Nines winner takes home $370,000, while clubs are guaranteed $110,000 just for turning up.
"[The Nines] is a touch footy game, you put in your B-grade side to experiment and take your sponsors over there on a bit of a junket," Tripp said. "All of a sudden they get nearly four times as much as the real deal. It's completely the wrong way around."
The NRL has previously stated it would be prepared to up the premiership and minor premiership prizemoney, but only if the clubs agreed to a commensurate reduction in their annual grants. But the fact the governing body has been bolstered financially by the new broadcast deal means the issue could be revisited at a meeting of club chief executives on Thursday. League powerbrokers will gather to discuss a range of issues including the bunker, licensing agreements and the upcoming collective bargaining agreement negotiations, which will affect the salary cap from 2018.
Several club bosses also want to vent over the NRL's decision not to make Parramatta carry Kieran Foran's $150,000 payout figure in their salary cap.
An earlier version of this story stated that the NRL awarded an overall total of $500,000 to teams that made the finals. The amount is $1 million.
