Paul Kent: The salary cap does not fit Former Queensland Origin great Gordon Tallis says he's surprised by North Queensland's decision to part company with Neil Henry after five years at the helm. HIGH in the commentary box Darren Lockyer, on Channel 9, is showing all the smarts you need to be an NRL coach in the modern game. Namely, he is staying high in the commentary box as a commentator. Who'd want to be a coach these days? Neil Henry was sacked on Monday - essentially for failing to get a group of highly paid players to perform as their contracts stipulated. One of the great endorsements for Henry in the months before he was sacked was that, as the club negotiated with representative stars Johnathan Thurston, James Tamou and Matt Scott, not once was Henry's coaching raised as a stumbling block. Twelve months ago everyone was trying to run Ivan Cleary out of town as the Panthers lost player after player and Cleary tried to wrestle with a salary cap that was in tatters, but few were prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt. Mick Potter dropped Benji Marshall to the bench in May and they lined up with pitchforks and torches, ready to barbecue him for his sacrilege. The anger has eased only recently, not with Marshall's announcement that he was going to rugby but with Marshall's each subsequent performance showing the wisdom of Potter's decision. Potter saw it before everybody else, and just might be the luckiest coach in the NRL right now. Not because he still has a job but because Marshall's decision has saved him and his club from carrying a huge burden on their salary cap for the rest of Marshall's contract, which was for a further two years. Parramatta have no such luxury with Chris Sandow. Sandow's problems at South Sydney have resurfaced at Parramatta, to the point the Eels now have more than half a million dollars of their salary cap playing in NSW Cup - beset by enough off-field problems that it can't help but impact his football. The NRL does a great job on player welfare, but this is a separate issue. Players are finally getting the help they need. Now it's the clubs' turn. In pre-salary-cap days it wasn't a problem because clubs could simply go and buy another player to replace a player who was injured, physically or mentally. While it clearly wasn't a player of equal calibre, it did alleviate problems. That can't happen now that clubs are limited to salary caps, making each year's 25-man roster a calculated gamble. And clubs are suffering for it. NRL 360 co-hosts Ben Ikin and Paul Kent discuss Benji Marshall's impending departure from the Tigers and the NRL. The game is becoming as much a battle of attrition as skill. Coaches already realise the greatest advantage a club can have in the modern game is recovery. Peptides, anyone? Who can last 26 rounds best - and head into the playoffs in the healthiest state? Look through the injured roster at the start of each NRL finals series and your premiership winner more often than not has the fewest players in the casualty ward. It's not what the cap was intended for and, now that other pieces are falling into place and the game is finally getting itself together, it's time we matured and started to take the game where it should have been years ago. There isn't a salary cap-run league in the world that doesn't also have an injured reserve list. They take the pressure off clubs. It comes with some stipulations. In the NFL, for example, a player listed as an injured reserve is unable to play with the team for the rest of the season. If Parramatta, for example, were playing in the NFL or NHL, they could place Sandow on injured reserve so he could get help while allowing them to find a replacement player for the remaining six games. The Eels wouldn't be left to suffer on the field. With Jarryd Hayne likely ruled out for the season, they could also look to replace him. Injured reserve keeps the player at the club, on pay, but means he is not counted on the salary cap. Alternatively, if a trade system worked, as in the English Premier League, clubs like Penrith and Parramatta would be able to much easier fix the salary cap problems left by previous administrations. They might not transfer to the NRL exactly - but they are worth considering given the restrictions of the game's antiquated salary cap laws. The cap is so restrictive the NRL needs to consider alternatives. What we have instead, for a variety of reasons, is a fix-all mentality that can be solved by sacking the coach. Sacking coaches is the cheapest alternative - and not one for a game that wants to grow.