@ricksen said:
@jirskyr said:
@happy tiger said:
@Fade To Black said:
We are plenty worse off than the Raiders and Panthers mate. They have stacked rosters and no doubt still have plenty of spare moolah to throw at any other top-shelf players that come onto the market, ours included.
The Raiders and Panthers will be having to upgrade a lot of contracts in the next 18 months
Let's see what happens then
Totally agree. Any club at all with a "stacked" roster will feel salary cap pressure quick smart.
Penrith have a couple of young blokes who did well last year, but they are going to have issues like Tigers when the contracts are back up for renewal in 1-2 seasons. Whether or not those kids continue to play well or drop form, there will be headaches because they then have to make decisions about long-term potential.
People just don't seem to get it, nobody can stack a side with marquee players in the modern game. Even with TPAs, it's just not realistic to be able to hold off the other clubs every time when another young talent comes up for his contract renewal.
So either you get a few very expensive players and surround them with cheap options, or you spread the cash out across all positions, and hope it clicks.
Of course it's tough - no one has said any different, and no one expects a fleet of marquee players.
Canberra came second last year, and Penrith 5th. Both were a game (or two) away from the GF. Some of their young players will improve and warrant more $$ in future years, others will regress and they'll probably be let go.
Penrith have already extended Moylan and Cartwright for example.
We haven't made the finals since 2011 (have only come close once) and yet we seemingly still have more issues than anyone with our cap management.
Just for some perspective, regarding "issues with salary cap":
2006 - Raiders fined $173K after exceeding salary cap, plus 7 other clubs fined for minor breaches: Melbourne ($63,250), St George Illawarra ($62,400), Brisbane ($30,000), South Sydney ($28,600), Wests Tigers ($21,250), Newcastle ($19,250), and Cronulla ($5,000).
2007 - 6 clubs fined for minor breaches: South Sydney ($70,150), Wests Tigers ($46,800), Canberra ($45,800), Canterbury ($25,000), Melbourne ($13,900) and Brisbane ($10,000).
2008 - 5 clubs fined for minor breaches: St George Illawarra ($15,200), South Sydney ($12,500), Gold Coast ($5,450), Canterbury ($4,650) and Wests Tigers ($3,650).
2009 - 7 clubs fined for minor breaches: Melbourne ($15,000), Brisbane ($5,000), Canterbury ($3,750), and the Wests Tigers, Penrith, Sydney and the Gold Coast ($2,500 each).
2010 - Storm stripped of premierships, prize money and fined for systematic rorts. 5 clubs fined for minor breaches: Parramatta ($25,000), St George Illawarra ($22,500), Brisbane ($17,000), Sydney ($7,250) and Canberra ($1,800).
2011 - Tigers fined $187,150 for exceeding in 2010 but no points deducted. Other minor fines: Gold Coast Titans ($78,900), Parramatta Eels ($45,000), Canberra Raiders ($31,650), and the St George Illawarra Dragons ($15,700)
2012 - four clubs fined for minor breaches: Parramatta Eels ($80,350), Gold Coast Titans ($41,200), Penrith Panthers ($39,650) and the Canberra Raiders ($5,350).
2014 - Titans fined AU$300,000 after an investigation into several clubs.
2015 - Parramatta were fined a total of $465,000 for breaching the salary cap in the 2014 season.
We've been fined 5 times in the last 11 seasons. So have Raiders and Titans. Storm and Broncos 4 times; Dragons, Souths, Dogs, Panthers, Eels 3 times. Storm and Eels had systematic rorting. 13/16 clubs have been fined at some time in the last 11 years, only Manly, Cowboys and Warriors are cleanskins during this period.