Sea Eagles statement suggests club will appeal salary cap sanctions

Manly Warringah Sea Eagles have released the following Statement in relation to the NRL Salary Cap Determination today.

Our Club Chairman, Scott Penn and CEO, Lyall Gorman, received the NRL’s Breach Notice Determination this morning.

The Determination runs to more than 115 pages, is extremely detailed, and will take some time to analyse.

At this stage, our Club believes that there are strong grounds to appeal, based on the material presented today.

The Club is awaiting preliminary legal advice and will respond in more detail once that advice has been received.

However, our Club makes the following points:

• We believe that our Club has co-operated proactively with the NRL through the course of its investigation
• As previously stated, our Club does not agree with some of the central allegations made by the NRL
• Our Club maintains it has not paid players any additional amounts above its annual salary cap declaration
• Our Club has already commenced corporate governance reforms and will continue to make changes to ensure that our Club is fully compliant with all relevant policies and guidelines issued by the NRL.

Club Chairman Scott Penn said:

"We’re working hard to ensure that the long and proud reputation of the Sea Eagles is upheld. We’re concerned at the impact that this investigation has had on our players, supporters, sponsors and staff.

"We will now consider our options in relation to appealing the NRL’s decision."