Suitman said:
Colonel, how do you know what the players are on?
Riddell for instance, came here on big money - and you say it was upgraded??
Cayless would also have been on big money from his last contract - to have upgraded that further seems peculiar.
Grothe is the only one of those three that I believe would have been offered a pay rise, and deservedly so. I reckon we would have got him back cheaply from the Roosters. I can't believe the other two have been given a pay rise.
That takes care of three of the 14 or 15.
As for the other 12, there wouldn't have been any of them on less than 100 k's a year. That's at least 1.2 million. Some of them would have been on more so I'm being conservative here.
Are you saying it has taken that amount of money to buy Finch, Hindmarsh and Lowrie, and upgrade the contracts of the others that have crept into the 25?
If that's the case, that's very poor management.
Add to this the money we now have for Tahu and the increase in the salary cap, and I can't believe that we haven't got a healthy little sum to spend on one or two marquee players and some left over to keep our juniors.
Suity
I don't know exact figures as to what players are on but I have a good idea that the figures bandied around here are well off the mark.
For a start there is no way that players like Delaney, O'Dwyer, Petersen, Perenara, Peek, Afamasaga and Lewis would have been on more than $100,000 dollars. Half that and I think you are a lot closer. I expect you are over inflating the value of players in that instance. The NRL minimum payment last year was $35,000 and was increased to $50,000 this year. For any of those players to be on more than double that is laughable. Sideshow for instance was only signed on for 2006 as a last choice when other clubs didn't pick him up. Flegg contracts are hardly worth mega dollars either so minimum wage for these kids is considered a good deal.
Whether all of those 14 or 15 were part of the top 25 as well needs to be considered as well.
We did re-sign a number of players around June 30 and the end of the season to new deals as well.
Vella's last contract was also suggested to be less than what he was on when he was playing for NSW and Australia - that was only signed at the end of 2005.
Since Grothe's last contract he has played for NSW and Australia.
As for Hindy - he signed a long term deal and this was topped up to make him the highest paid player at the club.
Riddell and Cayless were suggested to be on considerable money - whether it remained the same or was increased you alos have to consider any incentives that are worked into these contracts. These incentives have to be worked into the cap as well. They may not necessarily be paid more money as such but their contracts may have incentives that are worth more if targets are met.
The NRL does not allow clubs to use a buffer in there cap anymore. They have to spend a minimum amount of their cap on players - I don't know an exact figure but this was to stop clubs using the cap for example from 2004 to sign players for 2005. The club can't be under the cap by a considerable amount because the NRL will not let them. If the money is there it now has to be spent.
).
