From the past five years, you'd struggle to find a more dysfunctional NRL club than Parramatta Eels. Wests Tigers have had their issues, but I think that the Eels take the cake, this is why the current players appear to have no problems in distancing themselves from the boardroom antics at Parramatta, especially as the salary cap drama hung over their heads.

That salary cap drama today came to a climax with the NRL handing down what must be considered fair punishment to Parramatta for hustling the salary cap. I wouldn't concern myself with too many of the finer points in this punishment if I were you, there is however the loss of any competition points earned this season which has a huge impact on the Eels current team and the state of the NRL.

One of the finer points of the Eels' punishment that does need to be addressed is that the Eels will only start to gain competition points again, once the necessary changes have been made to comply with the salary cap. This is not only important because it gives the Eels hope of trying to gain something from the 2016 season, given the way the NRL has put the Eels' officials on blast, it's also important because it basically implies that changes need to be made with regards to how the club is run; heads must roll (I choose violence!)

It goes without saying that this is a bummer for the current playing group and coach Brad Arthur. The Eels are reportedly around $500,000 over the cap this season, which means that to get under the cap and then play for competition points, they'll likely need to release a few players. If you take the current Eels team and get them to try win the necessary games to make the finals then it's do-able, however if you take a few pieces out of that puzzle, it's not so easy. What could work in the Eels' favour is that Anthony Watmough hasn't featured this season and I'm guessing that if Watmough retired (he's battling some hefty injury troubles) that would help their cap situation. 

The Eels have long been a shambles off the field and numerous Australian media outlets have reported, repeatedly that the Eels have shown a lack of responsibility or denial, to the point where they have threatened the NRL with legal action. The actions of officials have cost the current Eels team their great start to the 2016 season and you'd have to imagine that these findings by the NRL will leave the Eels' top dawgs like Steve Sharp and Daniel Anderson with no choice but to stand down.

Todd Greenberg, as the top dawg of the NRL, said that these findings date back to 2013 which is funny as the Eels' hustling of the salary cap didn't exactly result in success. Melbourne Storm's salary cap hustling was directly related to success, they cheated the cap and enjoyed the benefits of that, perhaps it's a fair reflection of the Eels that their salary cap hustling only resulted in the club staying well clear of the top of the NRL.

Depending on how long it takes for the Eels to satisfy the NRL's needs, they could still be in with a sniff of making the top-8. This is a very good Eels team under Brad Arthur and given that I already felt as though the playing group wanted to distance themselves from the shenanigans of those who run the club, I reckon the Eels players won't have any issues in finding motivation. 

What will be interesting, is how long it takes for the Eels to satisfy the NRL's needs. From all accounts, what has pissed the NRL off the most has been the lack of transparency or co-operation from the Eels and if they continue to play hardball then they are only prolonging the pain. Pain which the players and fans won't want anything to do with, hence I think we'll see rather drastic action, swiftly.

This is big news and it's rightfully dramatic, however it has been brewing for a while now and there has been noise around a possible loss of points for a few weeks. Those with a vested interest in the Eels would have been aware that this was a possibility, so you'd have to guess that they were somewhat prepared for this. 

Hopefully there is some sort of positive spin put on this for the Eels as the season pans out. Wipe the slate clean off the field, move forward and allow the playing group to represent their club and their fans as well as they can.