Cameron Smith adamant players shouldn’t publicise salaries

While 'salary cap sombrero' jokes reemerge across social media following the Roosters' latest signings, Cameron Smith has gone against calls to make NRL player's salaries public.

The Sydney Roosters have snared Dominic Young for 2024, and reportedly Spencer Leniu as well for next season, causing fans across the league to throw their arms up and ask 'what salary cap?'

It's led to a host of people calling for NRL players to make their salaries public as a host of rival sports do, including the NBA and NFL overseas.

Cameron Smith refutes the idea, instead claiming the players deserve their privacy.

“I don't think displaying players' salaries is the way to go, I really don't, that's a privacy issue,” Smith said on SEN 1170 the Captain's Run.

“There's very few industries out there that show people's salaries, so why should elite sportspeople have to do that?

“There are people in our game that know exactly what (amount) these players are being paid, they're employed to have that in front of them, calculate where each club is at and if they're all above board and abiding by the NRL salary cap rules, then it's fine.”

The idea also could cause internal drama at clubs, and lead to players questioning why they're only earning a fraction of what their team-mate's are receiving, or what players in the same positions at rival clubs are earning.

Smith doesn't believe clubs are rorting the cap, instead the veteran is convinced that certain clubs just know how to make their side look attractive to rival players.

“It's unfortunate as some people may see it, where some clubs are favoured as far as being able to entice players to sign for them, that's just an unfortunate event,” Smith added.

“Given the dominance of Penrith of late, I think it was inevitable that they were going to lose some players… they are signed on relatively small contracts to start with.

“The more established players like Isaiah Yeo and Nathan Cleary, they'll be taking up a large chunk of that club's salary cap, so when you have workers like a Spencer Leniu being paid sort of a minimum wage and there's a chance to move to be paid much more to play a similar role, it's very enticing.

“If you look at clubs, particularly the ones with sustained success, they're the ones that start to, over time lose players to opposition clubs when they start picking away successful clubs.”