Four National Rugby League clubs, including the premiership-winning Sydney Roosters, have been hit with fines totalling more than $400,000 for breaching the salary cap.

The Roosters, Brisbane, Melbourne and Newcastle became the latest victims of the NRL's team of salary cap auditors, less than five months after the Bulldogs' high-profile breach of the league's $3.25 million limit.

The reigning premier was the hardest hit, lumped with a fine of $150,000 for breaches of $75,000 in each of the past two seasons relating to a contract involving star halfback Craig Wing.

The breach resulted from a contract guarantee originally entered into by Souths Juniors in late 1999 after South Sydney seniors were expelled from the NRL.

Wing joined the Roosters, but Souths Juniors continued paying part of his contract, resulting in Sydney being hit with a heavy fine.

Sydney chief executive Bernie Gurr insisted the fine would not tarnish the club's premiership win, while NRL chief executive David Gallop was at pains to point out that the breaches were nowhere near the scale of the Bulldogs.

The 'Dogs were fined $500,000 and docked 37 points last year after admitting to rorting the cap by more than $1 million over the past two seasons.

"That was nothing like the size or scale of this," Gallop said. "(The Roosters) involved one player's contract that was put in place when Souths were kicked out of the competition.

"The Bulldogs involved a large number of players over a protracted period. The Bulldogs were in breach of the salary cap in 2000, 2001 and 2002 and they would have been in 2003 if they did not shed players."

Gurr declined to comment on whether the Roosters would fight the fine until after the club's lawyers had a chance to look at the breach notice,

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