sunshine_coast_tiger
New member
The biggest issue with our club is the management of the salary cap. If we are spending the full amount we are spending it very ineffectively when you look at our rooster compared to the top sides (Roosters, Souths , Dogs etc..), we have a very poor rooster with a lot of players that would get no where near the top sides top 25 players.
So what are we doing wrong? My opinion is that whilst the NRL like to harp on about the salary cap and evenness to the comp the top sides play way over the allowed salary cap ( wouldn't surprise me if they pay their players about $1 million over the cap). How do they do this, they use Third Party Agreements to pay their players more. The NRL have never sorted this out and have little desire to make the Third Party Agreements a fair system limited to the same amounts for each club.
We pay overs to a lot of junior players hoping they become great players. Despite what has been said for the current level of ability we pay our juniors too much to get them to stay at the club. Guys like Brooks, Mosses, Sironen, Tedesco, Simona etc are payed significantly above their current level of ability (we are taking a punt on how good they could be, same happened with a lot of our young players from the 2005 squad, we payed overs to keep them) and signed to 3-4 year deals to keep them from other clubs. It is a good idea if you could put them under the cap at a smaller amount and have a lot of the money coming from Third Parties but we don't. It is a hard situation as other clubs are waiting to cherry pick our juniors. Other problem with this as they get better and their contracts start to end they will all want greater money.
The above for mine means that we don't have enough salary cap room to buy the experienced better than average first grader in positions we need. Since Ellis has left the club we have needed a top back rower, we spent big money on Blair who was no where near what we required. We need to buy good experienced players is positions of need to help the development of our juniors coming through. To attract good players to our club we have to pay offers to get them here at the moment.
Some mentioned Penrith as they way to go and in many respect they are a model worth following. They have a very large and strong junior league with plently of young talent coming through. They brought the right coach in Ivan Cleary. They made hard decisions and got rid of over paid non performing players in Luke Lewis and Jennings. They have recruited very well to supplement their juniors. They brought players in the key positions they most needed in Jamie Soward and Peter Wallace (actually a Penrith junior who went elsewhere). They brought experienced good first graders ( Brent Kite, Lewis Brown, Elijah Taylor,James Segeyaro, Jamal Idris etc….). These experienced players not all big names but all appear to have the right attitude help the development of the young players. They even buy good young talent from other clubs that are better than their local juniors (eg Peachey).
I can only hope Phil Moss was a big part of what happened at the Panthers and can do the same think at our club. We need to make some hard decisions to cut some under performing players. Guys that should be on this list include: Keith (probably on a lot more at our club than he could get elsewhere), Lawrence, Dene, Moltzen (would hate to think what we actually pay him) etc. We need to recruit good players in position of need and then fill the squad with the right experienced players around them. The junior talent base is their we need to work out how to add to it. It can be done but in our recent history we have been very poor recruiters and have been inept in our managing of the salary cap.
So what are we doing wrong? My opinion is that whilst the NRL like to harp on about the salary cap and evenness to the comp the top sides play way over the allowed salary cap ( wouldn't surprise me if they pay their players about $1 million over the cap). How do they do this, they use Third Party Agreements to pay their players more. The NRL have never sorted this out and have little desire to make the Third Party Agreements a fair system limited to the same amounts for each club.
We pay overs to a lot of junior players hoping they become great players. Despite what has been said for the current level of ability we pay our juniors too much to get them to stay at the club. Guys like Brooks, Mosses, Sironen, Tedesco, Simona etc are payed significantly above their current level of ability (we are taking a punt on how good they could be, same happened with a lot of our young players from the 2005 squad, we payed overs to keep them) and signed to 3-4 year deals to keep them from other clubs. It is a good idea if you could put them under the cap at a smaller amount and have a lot of the money coming from Third Parties but we don't. It is a hard situation as other clubs are waiting to cherry pick our juniors. Other problem with this as they get better and their contracts start to end they will all want greater money.
The above for mine means that we don't have enough salary cap room to buy the experienced better than average first grader in positions we need. Since Ellis has left the club we have needed a top back rower, we spent big money on Blair who was no where near what we required. We need to buy good experienced players is positions of need to help the development of our juniors coming through. To attract good players to our club we have to pay offers to get them here at the moment.
Some mentioned Penrith as they way to go and in many respect they are a model worth following. They have a very large and strong junior league with plently of young talent coming through. They brought the right coach in Ivan Cleary. They made hard decisions and got rid of over paid non performing players in Luke Lewis and Jennings. They have recruited very well to supplement their juniors. They brought players in the key positions they most needed in Jamie Soward and Peter Wallace (actually a Penrith junior who went elsewhere). They brought experienced good first graders ( Brent Kite, Lewis Brown, Elijah Taylor,James Segeyaro, Jamal Idris etc….). These experienced players not all big names but all appear to have the right attitude help the development of the young players. They even buy good young talent from other clubs that are better than their local juniors (eg Peachey).
I can only hope Phil Moss was a big part of what happened at the Panthers and can do the same think at our club. We need to make some hard decisions to cut some under performing players. Guys that should be on this list include: Keith (probably on a lot more at our club than he could get elsewhere), Lawrence, Dene, Moltzen (would hate to think what we actually pay him) etc. We need to recruit good players in position of need and then fill the squad with the right experienced players around them. The junior talent base is their we need to work out how to add to it. It can be done but in our recent history we have been very poor recruiters and have been inept in our managing of the salary cap.
