NRL 2025: Why NR: needs a fun in wake of Payne Haas R360 saga, Cameron Munster targeted, opinion and analysis, Zac Lomaz, Paul Crawley

It is time for the NRL to revisit the idea of starting up a slush fund to pay the top players money above the salary cap that reflects their true worth to the game.

It could also be used as a reward for those elite stars who want to stay loyal to their existing clubs, instead of always chasing the big bucks on offer elsewhere, whether that be a rival club or code.

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You can only wonder what Payne Haas might be thinking if he caught wind of the Perth Bears’ mind-boggling $6 million five-year offer to Jayden Campbell this week.

Just imagine Hass sitting back on his family holiday in Fiji weighing up his own future (and the huge money on offer from R360), when he hears what the little bloke down the road stands to earn in the coming years if Campbell jumps ship to the NRL’s latest expansion team.

As good a player as Campbell is, it is absolute madness that the livewire Titans playmaker stands to earn roughly the same annual salary as Haas if the Broncos’ powerhouse prop stays ‘loyal’ to his current club, while rejecting the advances of the rebel rugby comp.

It’s been reported Haas will get $3.5 million over 3 seasons to remain at the Broncos, while he could earn a mammoth $3 million a season (while potentially also paying minimal tax) to defect.

It would also put Campbell up with the NRL’s top earners including Nathan Cleary, Mitchell Moses, Kalyn Ponga and Jarome Luai, who are all on $1.2 million or more a season.

With due respect to Campbell who at 25 is obviously a very good player with his best football still to come, it just shows how desperate the Bears obviously are to land a marquee signing ahead of their arrival for the 2027 NRL season.

But it also highlights the enormity of the challenge facing existing NRL clubs given the depth of talent will be further tested with the PNG Chiefs arriving in 2028.

I wrote last week that regardless of what decision Haas makes, the game will survive with or without him.

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And it’s the same with any player that may be considering the switch, whether it be Ryan Papenhuyzen, Zac Lomax, or anyone else, with Cameron Munster the latest star now linked to R360.

But from a player’s perspective it could also be argued that there is a fundamental flaw in the current salary cap system where the absolute elite are actually being penalised for their loyalty.

And we only need to look at the situation confronting injured Tongan forward Eliesa Katoa to understand how easily a player’s career can be cut short.

Meanwhile, it was also reported recently that the NRL was on the verge of celebrating record profits again this year, in the vicinity of $70 million.

The game’s elite players are entitled to question if they are getting their fair share of those increased profits.

A discretionary fund was initially put in place by former NRL boss Dave Smith more than a decade ago but it was never used.

However, the idea was to give the game the power to retain and recruit marquee players “under exceptional circumstances” to help compete with rival codes.

Of course, there would be great difficulty implementing a perfectly fair system given a player’s value to the overall game is always subjective.

And the fact is some clubs have multiple players who would be considered more valuable than the standouts at battling clubs.

But at the very least it is a debate worth exploring given the current climate.

It won’t stop players like Campbell exploring their options when expansion clubs are throwing money around that existing clubs just can’t compete with.

But it could help the game minimize the risk of potentially losing the best of the best.

Campbell, as with any player, is well within his rights to earn whatever any club is willing to pay him.

The Courier Mail reported this week that the Titans are still hopeful of keeping him, although the money in the west will be incredibly hard to ignore if the reports are even close to the truth.

If he stays at the Titans, Campbell will stand to earn about $850,000, with ratchet clauses that could push it up to $1 million when the salary cap rises in 2028 in accordance with the next TV deal.

But it’s still a long way short of what the Bears are offering.

As is the case with Haas who could earn twice as much to join R360.

I admire the fact the NRL has stood up for itself by threatening 10-year bans to any player who signs with R360.

But there is also no point us burying our heads in the sand and thinking this will just go away because of that threat.

Whether it be Payne Haas today, or Reece Walsh, Nathan Cleary, Harry Grant or Munster tomorrow, at some point this will come to a head if the game doesn’t pay the top players what the market says they are worth.

And I struggle to comprehend why loyalty must always come at the greatest cost to the game’s biggest stars.