Saints won the comp...allot of players went to other clubs or retired....this leaves allot of money in the piggybank to buy quality players...who did we replace these quality players with?...Cuthbertson?
Now look at Souths...they're losing Sam Burgess...who are they getting?..Tim Grant and Glenn Stewart.
So where's their so called "re-building" phase.
Ben Te'o says Hi
Guys...just playing devils advocate here, nothing personal and a lot of what people are saying makes sense but it's a bloody lottery with the salary cap and how it is managed. Penrith and their moneyball philosophy is working and makes it look simple but they have taken years to 'rebuild'. Been a long time between drinks for them but are on the up.
Gould and Cleary cleared the decks and offloaded plenty...Jennings, Lewis et al and not popular decisions as far as supporters were concerned but this is now paying dividends.
Souths are under massive cap pressure even after the two signings mentioned for next year. I can vouch for this. That is where the window of opportunity comes from. If not last year, then it needs to be this year for Souths as they will lose more of their starting line up to big bucks on offer from other clubs and the odd 'retirement' at the end of next year.
Manly will be paying close to $300k ea to offload Stewart and Watmough....keeping in mind that's just to have them not playing at Manly. Hardly good cap management in that instance but they have picked up some bargain buys in the last few years that have come good for them. They will possibly lose half of their starting pack this year and it is common knowledge Matai wants out and Lyons is on the wrong side of 30.
For all his failings, Ricky Stuart recognised the dead wood at Parra last year and you'll recall there were 12 players from their squad of 25 told to look elsewhere.
Just yesterday, Luke Bailey has confirmed his retirement even though he is only 56 and happy to go around for another year ...but no contract on offer. Titans have no money.
Roosters have been on a roller coaster ride for years. I strongly believe they are at the leading edge of salary cap abuse and creative accounting.
Canberra have shown they cannot attract decent players even after offering over and above.
Broncos have major issues yet to come to light. I won't speculate any further on this for now.
Storm...pfft...cheats but have just bought Learoyd-lahrs and will get value for money. Hoffmann leaving, Smith, Slater and Cronk all approaching retirement and will free up close to $3m of their cap funds...or will it be more like $2m on the books?
Bulldogs...same as Storm but have a decent recruitment network run by Crusher Cleal that stretches far and wide.
Cronulla...lol ....spent big on Lewis, Tupou, Heightington, Gibbs, Fifita, Carney, Ayshford, Gallen and have missed their window. They will now be rebuilding for the next few years..and hopefully in Perth!
These are just some of the examples of recent cap management issues that show just how difficult it is to get it right. I'm not saying we've always done it well but you seriously need the stars to align to get it all right. What it also shows is that we have a good blend of experienced 'marquee players' and some absolute crackers of juniors coming through and our future actually looks bright. We've also got a few no frills types that we need at the right price to keep us moving along. They will never be world beaters but are a reasonable fit for squad requirements and meeting the cap. We can only hope these guys prove their worth and value to our club. Hopefully this also highlights why we don't always sign those top shelf players that become available due to being released by other clubs. Does everyone understand each club MUST have 25 players in their first grade squad? Not 23, not 19 and the cap can only stretch so far. We can't sign them all and some of the claims made about our recruitment etc, may well be far from the truth in terms of who is available, what has been promised by others and exactly how much money do they want !
Getting back onto the post subject, our biggest problem now and since the days of Creeping Jesus has been the coaching appointment. My fingers are crossed hoping for an improvement in what lies ahead but our mix of contracted players is certainly getting close to what we need for our window of opportunity. A little fine tuning here and there, a couple of purchases and a couple of player off loads and we just might look the goods. The future looks good and I'm prepared to think we will be back where we belong in the coming years.
