Parramatta hope to convince the NRL that they should only have to trim as little as $150,000 from their salary cap this year in order to be playing for points against South Sydney next Friday, a figure that would comfortably be achieved with the retirement of Anthony Watmough.
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The Eels on Thursday submitted an application to League Central requesting that Watmough be declared to have a career-ending injury and thus removed from the cap. Hours later the veteran back-rower confirmed he was prepared to retire to do "the right thing by the club".
The club is still facing a race against time to be cap compliant for round 10, however, as the NRL awaits the outcome of action taken by five officials implicated in their breach notice in the Supreme Court on Friday before Brad Arthur's team can be given the green light to be competitive.
The Eels were told on Tuesday they must strip $570,000 from their top-25 roster in order to play for points next Friday and begin an ambitious quest to win 12 from their remaining 15 games and reach the semi-finals.
Parramatta's internal point man on fixing their cap dilemma - former NRL salary cap auditor Ian Schubert - has produced a plan to take to headquarters.
Fairfax Media has been told by sources at the Eels that they were under the cap by $200,000 as of last month. Schubert's latest sums, which include the exit of Ryan Morgan to Melbourne and third-party deals they've subsequently been breached for, are understood to have them in a best-case scenario having to shed about $150,000 from their roster.
The retirement of Watmough would easily cover that, particularly if the NRL agreed to backdate his career-ending injury and remove his full $700,000 contract from this year's figures.
"I've got no doubt in my mind what I have to do if it comes to that, and if it comes to that I've got no hesitation in doing the right thing by the club," Watmough told Channel Nine on Thursday night.
The Eels believe there are some anomalies in the way the NRL has calculated their cap position including some entries being double counted and are looking to work through them with salary cap auditor Jamie L'Oste Brown.
The NRL indicated on Thursday their cap blowout could be revised during the preliminary breach notice period based on discussions with L'Oste Brown, with a similar development occurring last year when a $525,000 fine for other cap excesses was later reduced to $465,000.
With Watmough's retirement appearing to be the problem solver the principal stumbling block for the Parramatta players remains the legal action taken by chairman Steve Sharp, directors Tom Issa and Peter Serrao, chief executive John Boulous and football operations manager Daniel Anderson against the NRL. The five are back in court on Friday after being granted an injunction against suspensions that were handed to them as they were asked to show cause why they should not be deregistered.
Another Eels director, Parramatta Lord Mayor Paul Garrard, said on Thursday the club would be "disputing a lot of what is in the breach notice" and maintained they were under the cap for this season.
"I support the documentation put forward by Ian Schubert and there clearly needs to be some interpretation of the breach notice in terms of the figures they've presented," Garrard said.
"They haven't given us any metrics of what they are, where they come from. It wasn't in the breach notice where they got the figures from."
Garrard was confident, however, that Arthur's team would be playing for points against Souths.
"A dialogue will be created between the NRL [and the club], and it will need to happen smartly, to enable the Anthony Watmough issue and the salary cap issue to be addressed prior to tomorrow week and to get that team on the field," he said.
