What he missed was a discussion about how the NRL could potentially incorporate the best models from other sporting leagues throughout the world. For instance, the NBA has a “stretch provision” that allows a team to spread a player’s remaining salary over a longer period of time when waiving them. So if a player – one usually not performing up to their pay cheque – moves on to another club with a year to go on their contract, instead of suffering all the salary cap pain in one season, a club can spread it out over twice the number of remaining years on their deal, plus one.

To put it into rugby league terms, if, say, Dylan Brown was moved on from the last two years of his $1.3 million-a-season deal with Newcastle, the playmaker still gets all his money, but it is spread over five years of the Knights’ salary cap (2 x 2 + 1).

The NBA brought in the rule to provide more flexibility for franchises to manage their rosters, to ensure that one bad deal doesn’t render a club uncompetitive for years.

While there’s an acceptance the NRL requires a salary cap, to keep the competition even and prevent clubs from spending themselves into oblivion, an overhaul is long overdue. There hasn’t been a proper review since the NSWRL introduced it way back in 1990, and the argument that teams don’t stay at the top or bottom for long no longer rings true. The Panthers have won four consecutive grand finals, while Wests Tigers are attempting to avoid a fourth straight wooden spoon.

With the introduction of two new teams, coupled with a new broadcast deal and a fresh collective bargaining agreement in coming seasons, it was deemed time to have a close look at the salary cap.

Concessions for loyal and long-serving players, reducing squad sizes to better distribute talent, introducing trade windows, injury replacements, third-party agreements, publishing player salaries – everything is on the table.

This should be music to the ears of Gould, who declined to comment when contacted. For years, through his various media platforms, “Gus” has been providing the NRL with unsolicited advice when it comes to the salary cap.

“It is an absolute waste of time talking about the salary cap because the NRL is not listening,” Gould wrote in his Sun-Herald column in August 2003.

“The salary cap in its current form punishes success. It provides no incentive for development of junior talent. It does not reward those clubs with the ability to develop representative-class players. It gives no compensation to clubs with representative players who have to do without them during the rep season, or even if they lose them to injuries sustained in rep games.”

In May of the following season, Gould wrote: “I have had a gutful of these archaic and ridiculous NRL salary cap restrictions,” in reference to the prospect of Luke Ricketson finishing his career at a club other than the Roosters.

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Midway through 2007, he wrote: “I’ve been slamming the salary cap for years and warning of its detrimental effect on the player depth in clubs and the quality of football, and its contribution to the constant drain of players into retirement, overseas, or to rugby.

“None of the half-baked cliches I get from people at head office even comes close to satisfactory.”

More recently, Gould has used his Six Tackles with Gus podcast to warn about the perils of blooding young players too early, or paying them too much in their formative years.

For decades, the premiership-winning coach has complained that head office won’t listen. Now he has the chance to help make the cap fit.

Michael Chammas and Andrew “Joey” Johns dissect the upcoming NRL round, plus the latest footy news, results and analysis. Sign up for the Sin Bin newsletter.

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