What's you logic here? Unless the entire problem this season is about Hayne leaving, people can't complain about the fact that the bloke shot through in the off-season, which severely limiting our options in replacing him? Why does his leaving have to be the *only* reason for our problems before people are allowed to pissed off with it? It is not our only problem, but it is a significant factor and I don't like it. Got no problem with him leaving to pursue his dream or whatever....but the timing and lack of notice left us up the proverbial. If we are going to bitch at all (which of course IS pointless in the larger scheme of things) I don't see why people's decisions are immune to criticism, and others' aren't.
There's no reason to believe that our 2015 cap would have been f**ked if he stayed (any more so than our 2nd tier cap is presently). We've signed and, more importantly, renewed players since then. And there's been no suggestion that we're about to breach the 2015 Top 25 cap (that I've heard anyway).
And Morris had agreed to terms with the Dogs in September...it just took the Dragons till October to confirm his release. Who did Brisbane sign after Hayne left? Barba is the only one who was on the market in October, and he was and is a massive risk.
The point is pretty f**king obvious I would have thought.
There is no point still whinging at Hayne about our lack of notice.
We still don't have a plan for fullback for NEXT YEAR.
What is the point of complaining about Hayne? Some absolute top quality fullbacks have been traded for both 2015 and 2016.
Despite claiming at the time that we had a "hit list" of fullbacks the CEO now concedes we desperately need one.
Plus there is a suspended sentence of 4 points in place for next year which suggests we must be marginal for this year. What if hayne's salary was added to that? I'm tipping we'd be in trouble. Especially as watmough's salary this year was reported to be heavily subsidised by Manly.
There is a very strong inference that we didn't have enough cap space for 2015 - hence why we never replaced Hayne or bought the "gun centre" which Seward said we were looking at.
Unless the decision that Hopoate could replace him was genuine, in which case it was just an epic f**k up.
And it is not supported by the continuing failure to add a fullback once it became obvious that he wasn't up to it. Or to add one for next year.
The other remaining explanation would seem to be just general incompetence, which is also compelling.
