I don't understand why people bother themselves with salary figures, whether we are paying "overs" or not. A lot of fantasy football going on with a real-life roster.
I can understand people putting together future forecast team lists - not for me, I don't read them - but fair enough if you want to play around with the potential roster. But their salaries and trying to guess cap space / compliance? Who cares? If we have a decent roster who cares who is getting paid what? Roosters are apparently salary cap compliant but I'd struggle to find a regular Joe supporter who can figure out how they do it and who gets paid what.
You never know the salaries for certain, so IMO it's pointless speculation. Value is also relative, what a player is worth to one club is not the same as worth to another. E.g. Guerra is near worthless to Roosters when they already have Cordner, Aubusson, Matterson, Liu, Taukeiaho, Butcher, but valuable to Newcastle.
If we sign Watson, it adds to an already solid list of purchases than in my opinion vastly outstrip the losses this season, both in terms of ability and depth. I don't really care where Watson plays, speculation on my part has no impact on the Round 1 lineup. If he drops Brooks or Lolo to reggies, so be it.
2018 looks like being the first true season in a very long time that we have the ability to drop FG-level footballers who aren't producing FG-level football. Imagine being able to drop Luke Brooks and promote Connor Watson, being able to drop Nofo and promote Curtis Rona, based on form.
For too long we've had a roster that was safe from the hook because the depth was sorely lacking. No wonder guys like Curtis Sironen didn't really produce good football for so many years, then when he did get dropped because we had Aloiai, he asked for a release and we've moved on. Perfect result, drop non-performers and either they fight to get back into the team or they leave. Can't wait.