Transfer Market: Tigers’ shock bid to snare DWZ

[cochise]

are we able to use some of this year's salary cap to bump up Mbye so we pay less the next 2 years ?

Why arn't we doing this for say Brooks? or Twal or Tamou or Daine Laurie?

I don't understand why we don't frontload our cap a lot more. Were probably not going to make the 8, what we have to give up on signing DWZ for 400k this year...woopie.

Frontload our spare coin on players we are going to keep. I hate that we have signed Mbye, but I have to admit putting him at 5/8 has worked and he has played his heart out. The fact that he stayed in first grade when Reynolds and Packer dropped all comes down to attitude. I would frontload anyone else but Mbye though.
Look, honestly Mbye was an 750K investment that never worked out. Sure he has sometimes played at the 200k level, sometimes at the 450k level.. But if I had to pick our backline it is:
Daine Laurie
Cini/Nofo
Doueini/James - jet-Roberts, plus we have Oliver coming from the UK.
Hastings + Brooks in the halves.

Mbye at best is NR14. OR Mbye starts at 6 and Hastings forces his way into the starting squad.

We probably won't be signing Mbye on less then 450k. No way we should be frontloading HIM, and why spend so much on NR14 when we could put up a junior. I don't see where Mbye fits, why front load?

Because this year is technically a write off in terms of recruitment so if we front-load Mbye's contract he would be on say 500k next year. If he goes to crap and someone picks him up next year, we will only be contributing around 200k as opposed to 500k.


Because we will have paid the rest this year, how does that save money?

Doesn't save any money ...Does re-arrange when the money is paid...creates more Cap space in 2022


Agree with that, but IMO it doesnt make sense to front load a player if you looking to get another club to take him off your books, you will pay a larger percentage of the salary.

Makes sense to front load a Brooks because he will definitely be here for another year.

Front loading a player you are looking to get rid of doesn't make sense to me.

I wouldn't either...But no doubt I don't see us signing 2 quality players in the next month..so the Cap needs to be exhausted each year..you don't carry over...

You can front load... not to the extent you use to be able ..if it was me..I would spread the excess over 5 or 6 players like Nofoaluma, Garner, Utoikamanu, Douiehi..offer Luciano a bit of sweetener to extend all from money still left from 2021..when it's all added up and deducted from 2022 or 23 even you create space..Also not 1 player is taking a big swing in salary from year to year...

Is it the money (cap) or the numbers (squad of 30) or both that the NRL want done?

Both. Need 30 players signed by the deadline and there is a minimum % of the cap money that needs be spent (90% from memory).

So, if we have no one in mind to sign, we will bring 2 development players up and distribute the cap balance out where they think it required?

Yes that is the most likely outcome.

Hopefully next year there's only one spot open and it's filled relatively early into the year. We are at a disadvantage only using 28 out of our 30 spots, lack depth in certain positions and are struggling to fill them.

To be honest I don't think it is that critical and would prefer the club to keep a couple of spots open. It wasn't that long ago we had a top 25 players. We now have 30 plus development players and this year we can now even play players on second tier contracts.

One spot is plenty, when we are lacking depth in multiple positions and have multiple spots open in our roster it shows an issue in our recruitment. It's nothing major but hopefully it's improved next year, happy to keep one spot open just in case but we are over halfway through the season now the spots need to be filled

Be interesting to see who they would promote. I'm assuming Tuilagi would be one

Tuilagi will be upgraded i would think. I don't think it shows an issue with recruitment at all, I think it was planned all along. Keep those spots if a player becomes available then you take them, if not you upgrade a development player. We tried to get Hastings across and that would have filled a spot. Imagine the uproar if a couple of world class players became available and we couldn't fit them in.

It shows an issue for mine. In an age where clubs use sports science, high performance staff and the like to get every little edge, playing a collision sport with less players to pick from than your opposition is a disadvantage, we’ve had a pretty good run with injuries which maybe hasn’t emphasised the problem - But it’s a clear issue that we can’t attract top notch players.

I honestly think roster sizes of 30 are too big.

 

[BAGNF05]

are we able to use some of this year's salary cap to bump up Mbye so we pay less the next 2 years ?

Why arn't we doing this for say Brooks? or Twal or Tamou or Daine Laurie?

I don't understand why we don't frontload our cap a lot more. Were probably not going to make the 8, what we have to give up on signing DWZ for 400k this year...woopie.

Frontload our spare coin on players we are going to keep. I hate that we have signed Mbye, but I have to admit putting him at 5/8 has worked and he has played his heart out. The fact that he stayed in first grade when Reynolds and Packer dropped all comes down to attitude. I would frontload anyone else but Mbye though.
Look, honestly Mbye was an 750K investment that never worked out. Sure he has sometimes played at the 200k level, sometimes at the 450k level.. But if I had to pick our backline it is:
Daine Laurie
Cini/Nofo
Doueini/James - jet-Roberts, plus we have Oliver coming from the UK.
Hastings + Brooks in the halves.

Mbye at best is NR14. OR Mbye starts at 6 and Hastings forces his way into the starting squad.

We probably won't be signing Mbye on less then 450k. No way we should be frontloading HIM, and why spend so much on NR14 when we could put up a junior. I don't see where Mbye fits, why front load?

Because this year is technically a write off in terms of recruitment so if we front-load Mbye's contract he would be on say 500k next year. If he goes to crap and someone picks him up next year, we will only be contributing around 200k as opposed to 500k.


Because we will have paid the rest this year, how does that save money?

Doesn't save any money ...Does re-arrange when the money is paid...creates more Cap space in 2022


Agree with that, but IMO it doesnt make sense to front load a player if you looking to get another club to take him off your books, you will pay a larger percentage of the salary.

Makes sense to front load a Brooks because he will definitely be here for another year.

Front loading a player you are looking to get rid of doesn't make sense to me.

I wouldn't either...But no doubt I don't see us signing 2 quality players in the next month..so the Cap needs to be exhausted each year..you don't carry over...

You can front load... not to the extent you use to be able ..if it was me..I would spread the excess over 5 or 6 players like Nofoaluma, Garner, Utoikamanu, Douiehi..offer Luciano a bit of sweetener to extend all from money still left from 2021..when it's all added up and deducted from 2022 or 23 even you create space..Also not 1 player is taking a big swing in salary from year to year...

Is it the money (cap) or the numbers (squad of 30) or both that the NRL want done?

Both. Need 30 players signed by the deadline and there is a minimum % of the cap money that needs be spent (90% from memory).

So, if we have no one in mind to sign, we will bring 2 development players up and distribute the cap balance out where they think it required?

Yes that is the most likely outcome.

Hopefully next year there's only one spot open and it's filled relatively early into the year. We are at a disadvantage only using 28 out of our 30 spots, lack depth in certain positions and are struggling to fill them.

To be honest I don't think it is that critical and would prefer the club to keep a couple of spots open. It wasn't that long ago we had a top 25 players. We now have 30 plus development players and this year we can now even play players on second tier contracts.

One spot is plenty, when we are lacking depth in multiple positions and have multiple spots open in our roster it shows an issue in our recruitment. It's nothing major but hopefully it's improved next year, happy to keep one spot open just in case but we are over halfway through the season now the spots need to be filled

Be interesting to see who they would promote. I'm assuming Tuilagi would be one

Tuilagi will be upgraded i would think. I don't think it shows an issue with recruitment at all, I think it was planned all along. Keep those spots if a player becomes available then you take them, if not you upgrade a development player. We tried to get Hastings across and that would have filled a spot. Imagine the uproar if a couple of world class players became available and we couldn't fit them in.

It shows an issue for mine. In an age where clubs use sports science, high performance staff and the like to get every little edge, playing a collision sport with less players to pick from than your opposition is a disadvantage, we’ve had a pretty good run with injuries which maybe hasn’t emphasised the problem - But it’s a clear issue that we can’t attract top notch players.

I honestly think roster sizes of 30 are too big.

Perhaps but when you look at our roster compared to the top sides, I’d say we’d take a couple of good defenders if we could attract them.

 

[cochise]

are we able to use some of this year's salary cap to bump up Mbye so we pay less the next 2 years ?

Why arn't we doing this for say Brooks? or Twal or Tamou or Daine Laurie?

I don't understand why we don't frontload our cap a lot more. Were probably not going to make the 8, what we have to give up on signing DWZ for 400k this year...woopie.

Frontload our spare coin on players we are going to keep. I hate that we have signed Mbye, but I have to admit putting him at 5/8 has worked and he has played his heart out. The fact that he stayed in first grade when Reynolds and Packer dropped all comes down to attitude. I would frontload anyone else but Mbye though.
Look, honestly Mbye was an 750K investment that never worked out. Sure he has sometimes played at the 200k level, sometimes at the 450k level.. But if I had to pick our backline it is:
Daine Laurie
Cini/Nofo
Doueini/James - jet-Roberts, plus we have Oliver coming from the UK.
Hastings + Brooks in the halves.

Mbye at best is NR14. OR Mbye starts at 6 and Hastings forces his way into the starting squad.

We probably won't be signing Mbye on less then 450k. No way we should be frontloading HIM, and why spend so much on NR14 when we could put up a junior. I don't see where Mbye fits, why front load?

Because this year is technically a write off in terms of recruitment so if we front-load Mbye's contract he would be on say 500k next year. If he goes to crap and someone picks him up next year, we will only be contributing around 200k as opposed to 500k.


Because we will have paid the rest this year, how does that save money?

Doesn't save any money ...Does re-arrange when the money is paid...creates more Cap space in 2022


Agree with that, but IMO it doesnt make sense to front load a player if you looking to get another club to take him off your books, you will pay a larger percentage of the salary.

Makes sense to front load a Brooks because he will definitely be here for another year.

Front loading a player you are looking to get rid of doesn't make sense to me.

I wouldn't either...But no doubt I don't see us signing 2 quality players in the next month..so the Cap needs to be exhausted each year..you don't carry over...

You can front load... not to the extent you use to be able ..if it was me..I would spread the excess over 5 or 6 players like Nofoaluma, Garner, Utoikamanu, Douiehi..offer Luciano a bit of sweetener to extend all from money still left from 2021..when it's all added up and deducted from 2022 or 23 even you create space..Also not 1 player is taking a big swing in salary from year to year...

Is it the money (cap) or the numbers (squad of 30) or both that the NRL want done?

Both. Need 30 players signed by the deadline and there is a minimum % of the cap money that needs be spent (90% from memory).

So, if we have no one in mind to sign, we will bring 2 development players up and distribute the cap balance out where they think it required?

Yes that is the most likely outcome.

Hopefully next year there's only one spot open and it's filled relatively early into the year. We are at a disadvantage only using 28 out of our 30 spots, lack depth in certain positions and are struggling to fill them.

To be honest I don't think it is that critical and would prefer the club to keep a couple of spots open. It wasn't that long ago we had a top 25 players. We now have 30 plus development players and this year we can now even play players on second tier contracts.

One spot is plenty, when we are lacking depth in multiple positions and have multiple spots open in our roster it shows an issue in our recruitment. It's nothing major but hopefully it's improved next year, happy to keep one spot open just in case but we are over halfway through the season now the spots need to be filled

Be interesting to see who they would promote. I'm assuming Tuilagi would be one

Tuilagi will be upgraded i would think. I don't think it shows an issue with recruitment at all, I think it was planned all along. Keep those spots if a player becomes available then you take them, if not you upgrade a development player. We tried to get Hastings across and that would have filled a spot. Imagine the uproar if a couple of world class players became available and we couldn't fit them in.

It shows an issue for mine. In an age where clubs use sports science, high performance staff and the like to get every little edge, playing a collision sport with less players to pick from than your opposition is a disadvantage, we’ve had a pretty good run with injuries which maybe hasn’t emphasised the problem - But it’s a clear issue that we can’t attract top notch players.

I honestly think roster sizes of 30 are too big.

Perhaps but when you look at our roster compared to the top sides, I’d say we’d take a couple of good defenders if we could attract them.

Of course we would, but no players have become available during the season this year. We have tried to get some players from other clubs to fill needs but other clubs haven't released them. So in that situation you upgrade some of your youngsters, it is actually good recruitment.

 

[TillLindemann]

To cut a long story short, we're not actually signing DWZ are we?

 

[BAGNF05]

are we able to use some of this year's salary cap to bump up Mbye so we pay less the next 2 years ?

Why arn't we doing this for say Brooks? or Twal or Tamou or Daine Laurie?

I don't understand why we don't frontload our cap a lot more. Were probably not going to make the 8, what we have to give up on signing DWZ for 400k this year...woopie.

Frontload our spare coin on players we are going to keep. I hate that we have signed Mbye, but I have to admit putting him at 5/8 has worked and he has played his heart out. The fact that he stayed in first grade when Reynolds and Packer dropped all comes down to attitude. I would frontload anyone else but Mbye though.
Look, honestly Mbye was an 750K investment that never worked out. Sure he has sometimes played at the 200k level, sometimes at the 450k level.. But if I had to pick our backline it is:
Daine Laurie
Cini/Nofo
Doueini/James - jet-Roberts, plus we have Oliver coming from the UK.
Hastings + Brooks in the halves.

Mbye at best is NR14. OR Mbye starts at 6 and Hastings forces his way into the starting squad.

We probably won't be signing Mbye on less then 450k. No way we should be frontloading HIM, and why spend so much on NR14 when we could put up a junior. I don't see where Mbye fits, why front load?

Because this year is technically a write off in terms of recruitment so if we front-load Mbye's contract he would be on say 500k next year. If he goes to crap and someone picks him up next year, we will only be contributing around 200k as opposed to 500k.


Because we will have paid the rest this year, how does that save money?

Doesn't save any money ...Does re-arrange when the money is paid...creates more Cap space in 2022


Agree with that, but IMO it doesnt make sense to front load a player if you looking to get another club to take him off your books, you will pay a larger percentage of the salary.

Makes sense to front load a Brooks because he will definitely be here for another year.

Front loading a player you are looking to get rid of doesn't make sense to me.

I wouldn't either...But no doubt I don't see us signing 2 quality players in the next month..so the Cap needs to be exhausted each year..you don't carry over...

You can front load... not to the extent you use to be able ..if it was me..I would spread the excess over 5 or 6 players like Nofoaluma, Garner, Utoikamanu, Douiehi..offer Luciano a bit of sweetener to extend all from money still left from 2021..when it's all added up and deducted from 2022 or 23 even you create space..Also not 1 player is taking a big swing in salary from year to year...

Is it the money (cap) or the numbers (squad of 30) or both that the NRL want done?

Both. Need 30 players signed by the deadline and there is a minimum % of the cap money that needs be spent (90% from memory).

So, if we have no one in mind to sign, we will bring 2 development players up and distribute the cap balance out where they think it required?

Yes that is the most likely outcome.

Hopefully next year there's only one spot open and it's filled relatively early into the year. We are at a disadvantage only using 28 out of our 30 spots, lack depth in certain positions and are struggling to fill them.

To be honest I don't think it is that critical and would prefer the club to keep a couple of spots open. It wasn't that long ago we had a top 25 players. We now have 30 plus development players and this year we can now even play players on second tier contracts.

One spot is plenty, when we are lacking depth in multiple positions and have multiple spots open in our roster it shows an issue in our recruitment. It's nothing major but hopefully it's improved next year, happy to keep one spot open just in case but we are over halfway through the season now the spots need to be filled

Be interesting to see who they would promote. I'm assuming Tuilagi would be one

Tuilagi will be upgraded i would think. I don't think it shows an issue with recruitment at all, I think it was planned all along. Keep those spots if a player becomes available then you take them, if not you upgrade a development player. We tried to get Hastings across and that would have filled a spot. Imagine the uproar if a couple of world class players became available and we couldn't fit them in.

It shows an issue for mine. In an age where clubs use sports science, high performance staff and the like to get every little edge, playing a collision sport with less players to pick from than your opposition is a disadvantage, we’ve had a pretty good run with injuries which maybe hasn’t emphasised the problem - But it’s a clear issue that we can’t attract top notch players.

I honestly think roster sizes of 30 are too big.

Perhaps but when you look at our roster compared to the top sides, I’d say we’d take a couple of good defenders if we could attract them.

Of course we would, but no players have become available during the season this year. We have tried to get some players from other clubs to fill needs but other clubs haven't released them. So in that situation you upgrade some of your youngsters, it is actually good recruitment.

Might be sensible and future focussed but it’s a strategy that’s forced on us because good players aren’t knocking on our door. You’ve said it yourself, until we start winning we have a recruitment problem.

If we were a strong recruiting club with cash available, could we have jagged Xavier Coates from a club looking to rework their salary cap?

Could we have attracted a Kotoni Staggs away from a place he doesn’t seem that happy with yet chose to stay?

All hypotheticals.

 

[Milky]

are we able to use some of this year's salary cap to bump up Mbye so we pay less the next 2 years ?

Why arn't we doing this for say Brooks? or Twal or Tamou or Daine Laurie?

I don't understand why we don't frontload our cap a lot more. Were probably not going to make the 8, what we have to give up on signing DWZ for 400k this year...woopie.

Frontload our spare coin on players we are going to keep. I hate that we have signed Mbye, but I have to admit putting him at 5/8 has worked and he has played his heart out. The fact that he stayed in first grade when Reynolds and Packer dropped all comes down to attitude. I would frontload anyone else but Mbye though.
Look, honestly Mbye was an 750K investment that never worked out. Sure he has sometimes played at the 200k level, sometimes at the 450k level.. But if I had to pick our backline it is:
Daine Laurie
Cini/Nofo
Doueini/James - jet-Roberts, plus we have Oliver coming from the UK.
Hastings + Brooks in the halves.

Mbye at best is NR14. OR Mbye starts at 6 and Hastings forces his way into the starting squad.

We probably won't be signing Mbye on less then 450k. No way we should be frontloading HIM, and why spend so much on NR14 when we could put up a junior. I don't see where Mbye fits, why front load?

Because this year is technically a write off in terms of recruitment so if we front-load Mbye's contract he would be on say 500k next year. If he goes to crap and someone picks him up next year, we will only be contributing around 200k as opposed to 500k.


Because we will have paid the rest this year, how does that save money?

It doesn't save money, it provides us with additional cap space for next year to use on a decent player..

 

[TonyTiger]

I wouldn’t either…But no doubt I don’t see us signing 2 quality players in the next month…so the Cap needs to be exhausted each year…you don’t carry over…

Where are all these players who ring Madge, why can't we sign a couple of those

Dallin rang him and said I’m only on 800k here at the Dogs, I can be your NZ buddy again if you bring me to the Tigers on 950k

 

[cochise]

are we able to use some of this year's salary cap to bump up Mbye so we pay less the next 2 years ?

Why arn't we doing this for say Brooks? or Twal or Tamou or Daine Laurie?

I don't understand why we don't frontload our cap a lot more. Were probably not going to make the 8, what we have to give up on signing DWZ for 400k this year...woopie.

Frontload our spare coin on players we are going to keep. I hate that we have signed Mbye, but I have to admit putting him at 5/8 has worked and he has played his heart out. The fact that he stayed in first grade when Reynolds and Packer dropped all comes down to attitude. I would frontload anyone else but Mbye though.
Look, honestly Mbye was an 750K investment that never worked out. Sure he has sometimes played at the 200k level, sometimes at the 450k level.. But if I had to pick our backline it is:
Daine Laurie
Cini/Nofo
Doueini/James - jet-Roberts, plus we have Oliver coming from the UK.
Hastings + Brooks in the halves.

Mbye at best is NR14. OR Mbye starts at 6 and Hastings forces his way into the starting squad.

We probably won't be signing Mbye on less then 450k. No way we should be frontloading HIM, and why spend so much on NR14 when we could put up a junior. I don't see where Mbye fits, why front load?

Because this year is technically a write off in terms of recruitment so if we front-load Mbye's contract he would be on say 500k next year. If he goes to crap and someone picks him up next year, we will only be contributing around 200k as opposed to 500k.


Because we will have paid the rest this year, how does that save money?

Doesn't save any money ...Does re-arrange when the money is paid...creates more Cap space in 2022


Agree with that, but IMO it doesnt make sense to front load a player if you looking to get another club to take him off your books, you will pay a larger percentage of the salary.

Makes sense to front load a Brooks because he will definitely be here for another year.

Front loading a player you are looking to get rid of doesn't make sense to me.

I wouldn't either...But no doubt I don't see us signing 2 quality players in the next month..so the Cap needs to be exhausted each year..you don't carry over...

You can front load... not to the extent you use to be able ..if it was me..I would spread the excess over 5 or 6 players like Nofoaluma, Garner, Utoikamanu, Douiehi..offer Luciano a bit of sweetener to extend all from money still left from 2021..when it's all added up and deducted from 2022 or 23 even you create space..Also not 1 player is taking a big swing in salary from year to year...

Is it the money (cap) or the numbers (squad of 30) or both that the NRL want done?

Both. Need 30 players signed by the deadline and there is a minimum % of the cap money that needs be spent (90% from memory).

So, if we have no one in mind to sign, we will bring 2 development players up and distribute the cap balance out where they think it required?

Yes that is the most likely outcome.

Hopefully next year there's only one spot open and it's filled relatively early into the year. We are at a disadvantage only using 28 out of our 30 spots, lack depth in certain positions and are struggling to fill them.

To be honest I don't think it is that critical and would prefer the club to keep a couple of spots open. It wasn't that long ago we had a top 25 players. We now have 30 plus development players and this year we can now even play players on second tier contracts.

One spot is plenty, when we are lacking depth in multiple positions and have multiple spots open in our roster it shows an issue in our recruitment. It's nothing major but hopefully it's improved next year, happy to keep one spot open just in case but we are over halfway through the season now the spots need to be filled

Be interesting to see who they would promote. I'm assuming Tuilagi would be one

Tuilagi will be upgraded i would think. I don't think it shows an issue with recruitment at all, I think it was planned all along. Keep those spots if a player becomes available then you take them, if not you upgrade a development player. We tried to get Hastings across and that would have filled a spot. Imagine the uproar if a couple of world class players became available and we couldn't fit them in.

It shows an issue for mine. In an age where clubs use sports science, high performance staff and the like to get every little edge, playing a collision sport with less players to pick from than your opposition is a disadvantage, we’ve had a pretty good run with injuries which maybe hasn’t emphasised the problem - But it’s a clear issue that we can’t attract top notch players.

I honestly think roster sizes of 30 are too big.

Perhaps but when you look at our roster compared to the top sides, I’d say we’d take a couple of good defenders if we could attract them.

Of course we would, but no players have become available during the season this year. We have tried to get some players from other clubs to fill needs but other clubs haven't released them. So in that situation you upgrade some of your youngsters, it is actually good recruitment.

Might be sensible and future focussed but it’s a strategy that’s forced on us because good players aren’t knocking on our door. You’ve said it yourself, until we start winning we have a recruitment problem.

We definitely have an issue attracting high profile players but this is a different situation to that, I have no problem with us holding 2 spots open at the start of the season for any players that may become available, if none do then upgrade youngsters.

Those 2 spots aren't there because we missed out a high profile player, they were planned to be open spots.

 

[BAGNF05]

are we able to use some of this year's salary cap to bump up Mbye so we pay less the next 2 years ?

Why arn't we doing this for say Brooks? or Twal or Tamou or Daine Laurie?

I don't understand why we don't frontload our cap a lot more. Were probably not going to make the 8, what we have to give up on signing DWZ for 400k this year...woopie.

Frontload our spare coin on players we are going to keep. I hate that we have signed Mbye, but I have to admit putting him at 5/8 has worked and he has played his heart out. The fact that he stayed in first grade when Reynolds and Packer dropped all comes down to attitude. I would frontload anyone else but Mbye though.
Look, honestly Mbye was an 750K investment that never worked out. Sure he has sometimes played at the 200k level, sometimes at the 450k level.. But if I had to pick our backline it is:
Daine Laurie
Cini/Nofo
Doueini/James - jet-Roberts, plus we have Oliver coming from the UK.
Hastings + Brooks in the halves.

Mbye at best is NR14. OR Mbye starts at 6 and Hastings forces his way into the starting squad.

We probably won't be signing Mbye on less then 450k. No way we should be frontloading HIM, and why spend so much on NR14 when we could put up a junior. I don't see where Mbye fits, why front load?

Because this year is technically a write off in terms of recruitment so if we front-load Mbye's contract he would be on say 500k next year. If he goes to crap and someone picks him up next year, we will only be contributing around 200k as opposed to 500k.


Because we will have paid the rest this year, how does that save money?

Doesn't save any money ...Does re-arrange when the money is paid...creates more Cap space in 2022


Agree with that, but IMO it doesnt make sense to front load a player if you looking to get another club to take him off your books, you will pay a larger percentage of the salary.

Makes sense to front load a Brooks because he will definitely be here for another year.

Front loading a player you are looking to get rid of doesn't make sense to me.

I wouldn't either...But no doubt I don't see us signing 2 quality players in the next month..so the Cap needs to be exhausted each year..you don't carry over...

You can front load... not to the extent you use to be able ..if it was me..I would spread the excess over 5 or 6 players like Nofoaluma, Garner, Utoikamanu, Douiehi..offer Luciano a bit of sweetener to extend all from money still left from 2021..when it's all added up and deducted from 2022 or 23 even you create space..Also not 1 player is taking a big swing in salary from year to year...

Is it the money (cap) or the numbers (squad of 30) or both that the NRL want done?

Both. Need 30 players signed by the deadline and there is a minimum % of the cap money that needs be spent (90% from memory).

So, if we have no one in mind to sign, we will bring 2 development players up and distribute the cap balance out where they think it required?

Yes that is the most likely outcome.

Hopefully next year there's only one spot open and it's filled relatively early into the year. We are at a disadvantage only using 28 out of our 30 spots, lack depth in certain positions and are struggling to fill them.

To be honest I don't think it is that critical and would prefer the club to keep a couple of spots open. It wasn't that long ago we had a top 25 players. We now have 30 plus development players and this year we can now even play players on second tier contracts.

One spot is plenty, when we are lacking depth in multiple positions and have multiple spots open in our roster it shows an issue in our recruitment. It's nothing major but hopefully it's improved next year, happy to keep one spot open just in case but we are over halfway through the season now the spots need to be filled

Be interesting to see who they would promote. I'm assuming Tuilagi would be one

Tuilagi will be upgraded i would think. I don't think it shows an issue with recruitment at all, I think it was planned all along. Keep those spots if a player becomes available then you take them, if not you upgrade a development player. We tried to get Hastings across and that would have filled a spot. Imagine the uproar if a couple of world class players became available and we couldn't fit them in.

It shows an issue for mine. In an age where clubs use sports science, high performance staff and the like to get every little edge, playing a collision sport with less players to pick from than your opposition is a disadvantage, we’ve had a pretty good run with injuries which maybe hasn’t emphasised the problem - But it’s a clear issue that we can’t attract top notch players.

I honestly think roster sizes of 30 are too big.

Perhaps but when you look at our roster compared to the top sides, I’d say we’d take a couple of good defenders if we could attract them.

Of course we would, but no players have become available during the season this year. We have tried to get some players from other clubs to fill needs but other clubs haven't released them. So in that situation you upgrade some of your youngsters, it is actually good recruitment.

Might be sensible and future focussed but it’s a strategy that’s forced on us because good players aren’t knocking on our door. You’ve said it yourself, until we start winning we have a recruitment problem.

We definitely have an issue attracting high profile players but this is a different situation to that, I have no problem with us holding 2 spots open at the start of the season for any players that may become available, if none do then upgrade youngsters.

Those 2 spots aren't there because we missed out a high profile player, they were planned to be open spots.

I think they’re related. If we didn’t have a red hot crack at Xavier Coates I’d be disappointed.

 

[cochise]

are we able to use some of this year's salary cap to bump up Mbye so we pay less the next 2 years ?

Why arn't we doing this for say Brooks? or Twal or Tamou or Daine Laurie?

I don't understand why we don't frontload our cap a lot more. Were probably not going to make the 8, what we have to give up on signing DWZ for 400k this year...woopie.

Frontload our spare coin on players we are going to keep. I hate that we have signed Mbye, but I have to admit putting him at 5/8 has worked and he has played his heart out. The fact that he stayed in first grade when Reynolds and Packer dropped all comes down to attitude. I would frontload anyone else but Mbye though.
Look, honestly Mbye was an 750K investment that never worked out. Sure he has sometimes played at the 200k level, sometimes at the 450k level.. But if I had to pick our backline it is:
Daine Laurie
Cini/Nofo
Doueini/James - jet-Roberts, plus we have Oliver coming from the UK.
Hastings + Brooks in the halves.

Mbye at best is NR14. OR Mbye starts at 6 and Hastings forces his way into the starting squad.

We probably won't be signing Mbye on less then 450k. No way we should be frontloading HIM, and why spend so much on NR14 when we could put up a junior. I don't see where Mbye fits, why front load?

Because this year is technically a write off in terms of recruitment so if we front-load Mbye's contract he would be on say 500k next year. If he goes to crap and someone picks him up next year, we will only be contributing around 200k as opposed to 500k.


Because we will have paid the rest this year, how does that save money?

Doesn't save any money ...Does re-arrange when the money is paid...creates more Cap space in 2022


Agree with that, but IMO it doesnt make sense to front load a player if you looking to get another club to take him off your books, you will pay a larger percentage of the salary.

Makes sense to front load a Brooks because he will definitely be here for another year.

Front loading a player you are looking to get rid of doesn't make sense to me.

I wouldn't either...But no doubt I don't see us signing 2 quality players in the next month..so the Cap needs to be exhausted each year..you don't carry over...

You can front load... not to the extent you use to be able ..if it was me..I would spread the excess over 5 or 6 players like Nofoaluma, Garner, Utoikamanu, Douiehi..offer Luciano a bit of sweetener to extend all from money still left from 2021..when it's all added up and deducted from 2022 or 23 even you create space..Also not 1 player is taking a big swing in salary from year to year...

Is it the money (cap) or the numbers (squad of 30) or both that the NRL want done?

Both. Need 30 players signed by the deadline and there is a minimum % of the cap money that needs be spent (90% from memory).

So, if we have no one in mind to sign, we will bring 2 development players up and distribute the cap balance out where they think it required?

Yes that is the most likely outcome.

Hopefully next year there's only one spot open and it's filled relatively early into the year. We are at a disadvantage only using 28 out of our 30 spots, lack depth in certain positions and are struggling to fill them.

To be honest I don't think it is that critical and would prefer the club to keep a couple of spots open. It wasn't that long ago we had a top 25 players. We now have 30 plus development players and this year we can now even play players on second tier contracts.

One spot is plenty, when we are lacking depth in multiple positions and have multiple spots open in our roster it shows an issue in our recruitment. It's nothing major but hopefully it's improved next year, happy to keep one spot open just in case but we are over halfway through the season now the spots need to be filled

Be interesting to see who they would promote. I'm assuming Tuilagi would be one

Tuilagi will be upgraded i would think. I don't think it shows an issue with recruitment at all, I think it was planned all along. Keep those spots if a player becomes available then you take them, if not you upgrade a development player. We tried to get Hastings across and that would have filled a spot. Imagine the uproar if a couple of world class players became available and we couldn't fit them in.

It shows an issue for mine. In an age where clubs use sports science, high performance staff and the like to get every little edge, playing a collision sport with less players to pick from than your opposition is a disadvantage, we’ve had a pretty good run with injuries which maybe hasn’t emphasised the problem - But it’s a clear issue that we can’t attract top notch players.

I honestly think roster sizes of 30 are too big.

Perhaps but when you look at our roster compared to the top sides, I’d say we’d take a couple of good defenders if we could attract them.

Of course we would, but no players have become available during the season this year. We have tried to get some players from other clubs to fill needs but other clubs haven't released them. So in that situation you upgrade some of your youngsters, it is actually good recruitment.

Might be sensible and future focussed but it’s a strategy that’s forced on us because good players aren’t knocking on our door. You’ve said it yourself, until we start winning we have a recruitment problem.

We definitely have an issue attracting high profile players but this is a different situation to that, I have no problem with us holding 2 spots open at the start of the season for any players that may become available, if none do then upgrade youngsters.

Those 2 spots aren't there because we missed out a high profile player, they were planned to be open spots.


I think they’re related. If we didn’t have a red hot crack at Xavier Coates I’d be disappointed.

What does that have to do with open spots for this year? He signed with the Storm for next year.

 

[BAGNF05]

are we able to use some of this year's salary cap to bump up Mbye so we pay less the next 2 years ?

Why arn't we doing this for say Brooks? or Twal or Tamou or Daine Laurie?

I don't understand why we don't frontload our cap a lot more. Were probably not going to make the 8, what we have to give up on signing DWZ for 400k this year...woopie.

Frontload our spare coin on players we are going to keep. I hate that we have signed Mbye, but I have to admit putting him at 5/8 has worked and he has played his heart out. The fact that he stayed in first grade when Reynolds and Packer dropped all comes down to attitude. I would frontload anyone else but Mbye though.
Look, honestly Mbye was an 750K investment that never worked out. Sure he has sometimes played at the 200k level, sometimes at the 450k level.. But if I had to pick our backline it is:
Daine Laurie
Cini/Nofo
Doueini/James - jet-Roberts, plus we have Oliver coming from the UK.
Hastings + Brooks in the halves.

Mbye at best is NR14. OR Mbye starts at 6 and Hastings forces his way into the starting squad.

We probably won't be signing Mbye on less then 450k. No way we should be frontloading HIM, and why spend so much on NR14 when we could put up a junior. I don't see where Mbye fits, why front load?

Because this year is technically a write off in terms of recruitment so if we front-load Mbye's contract he would be on say 500k next year. If he goes to crap and someone picks him up next year, we will only be contributing around 200k as opposed to 500k.


Because we will have paid the rest this year, how does that save money?

Doesn't save any money ...Does re-arrange when the money is paid...creates more Cap space in 2022


Agree with that, but IMO it doesnt make sense to front load a player if you looking to get another club to take him off your books, you will pay a larger percentage of the salary.

Makes sense to front load a Brooks because he will definitely be here for another year.

Front loading a player you are looking to get rid of doesn't make sense to me.

I wouldn't either...But no doubt I don't see us signing 2 quality players in the next month..so the Cap needs to be exhausted each year..you don't carry over...

You can front load... not to the extent you use to be able ..if it was me..I would spread the excess over 5 or 6 players like Nofoaluma, Garner, Utoikamanu, Douiehi..offer Luciano a bit of sweetener to extend all from money still left from 2021..when it's all added up and deducted from 2022 or 23 even you create space..Also not 1 player is taking a big swing in salary from year to year...

Is it the money (cap) or the numbers (squad of 30) or both that the NRL want done?

Both. Need 30 players signed by the deadline and there is a minimum % of the cap money that needs be spent (90% from memory).

So, if we have no one in mind to sign, we will bring 2 development players up and distribute the cap balance out where they think it required?

Yes that is the most likely outcome.

Hopefully next year there's only one spot open and it's filled relatively early into the year. We are at a disadvantage only using 28 out of our 30 spots, lack depth in certain positions and are struggling to fill them.

To be honest I don't think it is that critical and would prefer the club to keep a couple of spots open. It wasn't that long ago we had a top 25 players. We now have 30 plus development players and this year we can now even play players on second tier contracts.

One spot is plenty, when we are lacking depth in multiple positions and have multiple spots open in our roster it shows an issue in our recruitment. It's nothing major but hopefully it's improved next year, happy to keep one spot open just in case but we are over halfway through the season now the spots need to be filled

Be interesting to see who they would promote. I'm assuming Tuilagi would be one

Tuilagi will be upgraded i would think. I don't think it shows an issue with recruitment at all, I think it was planned all along. Keep those spots if a player becomes available then you take them, if not you upgrade a development player. We tried to get Hastings across and that would have filled a spot. Imagine the uproar if a couple of world class players became available and we couldn't fit them in.

It shows an issue for mine. In an age where clubs use sports science, high performance staff and the like to get every little edge, playing a collision sport with less players to pick from than your opposition is a disadvantage, we’ve had a pretty good run with injuries which maybe hasn’t emphasised the problem - But it’s a clear issue that we can’t attract top notch players.

I honestly think roster sizes of 30 are too big.

Perhaps but when you look at our roster compared to the top sides, I’d say we’d take a couple of good defenders if we could attract them.

Of course we would, but no players have become available during the season this year. We have tried to get some players from other clubs to fill needs but other clubs haven't released them. So in that situation you upgrade some of your youngsters, it is actually good recruitment.

Might be sensible and future focussed but it’s a strategy that’s forced on us because good players aren’t knocking on our door. You’ve said it yourself, until we start winning we have a recruitment problem.

We definitely have an issue attracting high profile players but this is a different situation to that, I have no problem with us holding 2 spots open at the start of the season for any players that may become available, if none do then upgrade youngsters.

Those 2 spots aren't there because we missed out a high profile player, they were planned to be open spots.


I think they’re related. If we didn’t have a red hot crack at Xavier Coates I’d be disappointed.

What does that have to do with open spots for this year? He signed with the Storm for next year.

Yeah but we know Broncos are looking to rework their salary cap, so he was technically on the market. Other big names that have been on the market this year include Reece Walsh, Toby Rudolph, Schuster and Brimson. All good players that I’m sure we could have used if they were keen on coming to Wests Tigers. But I dare say they weren’t.

 

[cochise]

are we able to use some of this year's salary cap to bump up Mbye so we pay less the next 2 years ?

Why arn't we doing this for say Brooks? or Twal or Tamou or Daine Laurie?

I don't understand why we don't frontload our cap a lot more. Were probably not going to make the 8, what we have to give up on signing DWZ for 400k this year...woopie.

Frontload our spare coin on players we are going to keep. I hate that we have signed Mbye, but I have to admit putting him at 5/8 has worked and he has played his heart out. The fact that he stayed in first grade when Reynolds and Packer dropped all comes down to attitude. I would frontload anyone else but Mbye though.
Look, honestly Mbye was an 750K investment that never worked out. Sure he has sometimes played at the 200k level, sometimes at the 450k level.. But if I had to pick our backline it is:
Daine Laurie
Cini/Nofo
Doueini/James - jet-Roberts, plus we have Oliver coming from the UK.
Hastings + Brooks in the halves.

Mbye at best is NR14. OR Mbye starts at 6 and Hastings forces his way into the starting squad.

We probably won't be signing Mbye on less then 450k. No way we should be frontloading HIM, and why spend so much on NR14 when we could put up a junior. I don't see where Mbye fits, why front load?

Because this year is technically a write off in terms of recruitment so if we front-load Mbye's contract he would be on say 500k next year. If he goes to crap and someone picks him up next year, we will only be contributing around 200k as opposed to 500k.


Because we will have paid the rest this year, how does that save money?

Doesn't save any money ...Does re-arrange when the money is paid...creates more Cap space in 2022


Agree with that, but IMO it doesnt make sense to front load a player if you looking to get another club to take him off your books, you will pay a larger percentage of the salary.

Makes sense to front load a Brooks because he will definitely be here for another year.

Front loading a player you are looking to get rid of doesn't make sense to me.

I wouldn't either...But no doubt I don't see us signing 2 quality players in the next month..so the Cap needs to be exhausted each year..you don't carry over...

You can front load... not to the extent you use to be able ..if it was me..I would spread the excess over 5 or 6 players like Nofoaluma, Garner, Utoikamanu, Douiehi..offer Luciano a bit of sweetener to extend all from money still left from 2021..when it's all added up and deducted from 2022 or 23 even you create space..Also not 1 player is taking a big swing in salary from year to year...

Is it the money (cap) or the numbers (squad of 30) or both that the NRL want done?

Both. Need 30 players signed by the deadline and there is a minimum % of the cap money that needs be spent (90% from memory).

So, if we have no one in mind to sign, we will bring 2 development players up and distribute the cap balance out where they think it required?

Yes that is the most likely outcome.

Hopefully next year there's only one spot open and it's filled relatively early into the year. We are at a disadvantage only using 28 out of our 30 spots, lack depth in certain positions and are struggling to fill them.

To be honest I don't think it is that critical and would prefer the club to keep a couple of spots open. It wasn't that long ago we had a top 25 players. We now have 30 plus development players and this year we can now even play players on second tier contracts.

One spot is plenty, when we are lacking depth in multiple positions and have multiple spots open in our roster it shows an issue in our recruitment. It's nothing major but hopefully it's improved next year, happy to keep one spot open just in case but we are over halfway through the season now the spots need to be filled

Be interesting to see who they would promote. I'm assuming Tuilagi would be one

Tuilagi will be upgraded i would think. I don't think it shows an issue with recruitment at all, I think it was planned all along. Keep those spots if a player becomes available then you take them, if not you upgrade a development player. We tried to get Hastings across and that would have filled a spot. Imagine the uproar if a couple of world class players became available and we couldn't fit them in.

It shows an issue for mine. In an age where clubs use sports science, high performance staff and the like to get every little edge, playing a collision sport with less players to pick from than your opposition is a disadvantage, we’ve had a pretty good run with injuries which maybe hasn’t emphasised the problem - But it’s a clear issue that we can’t attract top notch players.

I honestly think roster sizes of 30 are too big.

Perhaps but when you look at our roster compared to the top sides, I’d say we’d take a couple of good defenders if we could attract them.

Of course we would, but no players have become available during the season this year. We have tried to get some players from other clubs to fill needs but other clubs haven't released them. So in that situation you upgrade some of your youngsters, it is actually good recruitment.

Might be sensible and future focussed but it’s a strategy that’s forced on us because good players aren’t knocking on our door. You’ve said it yourself, until we start winning we have a recruitment problem.

We definitely have an issue attracting high profile players but this is a different situation to that, I have no problem with us holding 2 spots open at the start of the season for any players that may become available, if none do then upgrade youngsters.

Those 2 spots aren't there because we missed out a high profile player, they were planned to be open spots.


I think they’re related. If we didn’t have a red hot crack at Xavier Coates I’d be disappointed.

What does that have to do with open spots for this year? He signed with the Storm for next year.

Yeah but we know Broncos are looking to rework their salary cap, so he was technically on the market. Other big names that have been on the market this year include Reece Walsh, Toby Rudolph, Schuster and Brimson. All good players that I’m sure we could have used if they were keen on coming to Wests Tigers. But I dare say they weren’t.

We are not an attractive club for high profile players, 10 years without finals does that to a club and it is not something that you can wave a magic wand and fix. We are building nicely through our youth signings, that and smart decisions around the experience players we sign needs to be our strategy until we become more attractive.

 

[BAGNF05]

are we able to use some of this year's salary cap to bump up Mbye so we pay less the next 2 years ?

Why arn't we doing this for say Brooks? or Twal or Tamou or Daine Laurie?

I don't understand why we don't frontload our cap a lot more. Were probably not going to make the 8, what we have to give up on signing DWZ for 400k this year...woopie.

Frontload our spare coin on players we are going to keep. I hate that we have signed Mbye, but I have to admit putting him at 5/8 has worked and he has played his heart out. The fact that he stayed in first grade when Reynolds and Packer dropped all comes down to attitude. I would frontload anyone else but Mbye though.
Look, honestly Mbye was an 750K investment that never worked out. Sure he has sometimes played at the 200k level, sometimes at the 450k level.. But if I had to pick our backline it is:
Daine Laurie
Cini/Nofo
Doueini/James - jet-Roberts, plus we have Oliver coming from the UK.
Hastings + Brooks in the halves.

Mbye at best is NR14. OR Mbye starts at 6 and Hastings forces his way into the starting squad.

We probably won't be signing Mbye on less then 450k. No way we should be frontloading HIM, and why spend so much on NR14 when we could put up a junior. I don't see where Mbye fits, why front load?

Because this year is technically a write off in terms of recruitment so if we front-load Mbye's contract he would be on say 500k next year. If he goes to crap and someone picks him up next year, we will only be contributing around 200k as opposed to 500k.


Because we will have paid the rest this year, how does that save money?

Doesn't save any money ...Does re-arrange when the money is paid...creates more Cap space in 2022


Agree with that, but IMO it doesnt make sense to front load a player if you looking to get another club to take him off your books, you will pay a larger percentage of the salary.

Makes sense to front load a Brooks because he will definitely be here for another year.

Front loading a player you are looking to get rid of doesn't make sense to me.

I wouldn't either...But no doubt I don't see us signing 2 quality players in the next month..so the Cap needs to be exhausted each year..you don't carry over...

You can front load... not to the extent you use to be able ..if it was me..I would spread the excess over 5 or 6 players like Nofoaluma, Garner, Utoikamanu, Douiehi..offer Luciano a bit of sweetener to extend all from money still left from 2021..when it's all added up and deducted from 2022 or 23 even you create space..Also not 1 player is taking a big swing in salary from year to year...

Is it the money (cap) or the numbers (squad of 30) or both that the NRL want done?

Both. Need 30 players signed by the deadline and there is a minimum % of the cap money that needs be spent (90% from memory).

So, if we have no one in mind to sign, we will bring 2 development players up and distribute the cap balance out where they think it required?

Yes that is the most likely outcome.

Hopefully next year there's only one spot open and it's filled relatively early into the year. We are at a disadvantage only using 28 out of our 30 spots, lack depth in certain positions and are struggling to fill them.

To be honest I don't think it is that critical and would prefer the club to keep a couple of spots open. It wasn't that long ago we had a top 25 players. We now have 30 plus development players and this year we can now even play players on second tier contracts.

One spot is plenty, when we are lacking depth in multiple positions and have multiple spots open in our roster it shows an issue in our recruitment. It's nothing major but hopefully it's improved next year, happy to keep one spot open just in case but we are over halfway through the season now the spots need to be filled

Be interesting to see who they would promote. I'm assuming Tuilagi would be one

Tuilagi will be upgraded i would think. I don't think it shows an issue with recruitment at all, I think it was planned all along. Keep those spots if a player becomes available then you take them, if not you upgrade a development player. We tried to get Hastings across and that would have filled a spot. Imagine the uproar if a couple of world class players became available and we couldn't fit them in.

It shows an issue for mine. In an age where clubs use sports science, high performance staff and the like to get every little edge, playing a collision sport with less players to pick from than your opposition is a disadvantage, we’ve had a pretty good run with injuries which maybe hasn’t emphasised the problem - But it’s a clear issue that we can’t attract top notch players.

I honestly think roster sizes of 30 are too big.

Perhaps but when you look at our roster compared to the top sides, I’d say we’d take a couple of good defenders if we could attract them.

Of course we would, but no players have become available during the season this year. We have tried to get some players from other clubs to fill needs but other clubs haven't released them. So in that situation you upgrade some of your youngsters, it is actually good recruitment.

Might be sensible and future focussed but it’s a strategy that’s forced on us because good players aren’t knocking on our door. You’ve said it yourself, until we start winning we have a recruitment problem.

We definitely have an issue attracting high profile players but this is a different situation to that, I have no problem with us holding 2 spots open at the start of the season for any players that may become available, if none do then upgrade youngsters.

Those 2 spots aren't there because we missed out a high profile player, they were planned to be open spots.


I think they’re related. If we didn’t have a red hot crack at Xavier Coates I’d be disappointed.

What does that have to do with open spots for this year? He signed with the Storm for next year.

Yeah but we know Broncos are looking to rework their salary cap, so he was technically on the market. Other big names that have been on the market this year include Reece Walsh, Toby Rudolph, Schuster and Brimson. All good players that I’m sure we could have used if they were keen on coming to Wests Tigers. But I dare say they weren’t.

We are not an attractive club for high profile players, 10 years without finals does that to a club and it is not something that you can wave a magic wand and fix. We are building nicely through our youth signings, that and smart decisions around the experience players we sign needs to be our strategy until we become more attractive.

So we agree, your first sentence is exactly my point. Where we differ in opinion is that I would have liked us to fill one of those spots with a ‘good first grader’ earlier in the year. With the benefit of hindsight Isiah Papalii from the Warriors would have been good.

 

[cochise]

are we able to use some of this year's salary cap to bump up Mbye so we pay less the next 2 years ?

Why arn't we doing this for say Brooks? or Twal or Tamou or Daine Laurie?

I don't understand why we don't frontload our cap a lot more. Were probably not going to make the 8, what we have to give up on signing DWZ for 400k this year...woopie.

Frontload our spare coin on players we are going to keep. I hate that we have signed Mbye, but I have to admit putting him at 5/8 has worked and he has played his heart out. The fact that he stayed in first grade when Reynolds and Packer dropped all comes down to attitude. I would frontload anyone else but Mbye though.
Look, honestly Mbye was an 750K investment that never worked out. Sure he has sometimes played at the 200k level, sometimes at the 450k level.. But if I had to pick our backline it is:
Daine Laurie
Cini/Nofo
Doueini/James - jet-Roberts, plus we have Oliver coming from the UK.
Hastings + Brooks in the halves.

Mbye at best is NR14. OR Mbye starts at 6 and Hastings forces his way into the starting squad.

We probably won't be signing Mbye on less then 450k. No way we should be frontloading HIM, and why spend so much on NR14 when we could put up a junior. I don't see where Mbye fits, why front load?

Because this year is technically a write off in terms of recruitment so if we front-load Mbye's contract he would be on say 500k next year. If he goes to crap and someone picks him up next year, we will only be contributing around 200k as opposed to 500k.


Because we will have paid the rest this year, how does that save money?

Doesn't save any money ...Does re-arrange when the money is paid...creates more Cap space in 2022


Agree with that, but IMO it doesnt make sense to front load a player if you looking to get another club to take him off your books, you will pay a larger percentage of the salary.

Makes sense to front load a Brooks because he will definitely be here for another year.

Front loading a player you are looking to get rid of doesn't make sense to me.

I wouldn't either...But no doubt I don't see us signing 2 quality players in the next month..so the Cap needs to be exhausted each year..you don't carry over...

You can front load... not to the extent you use to be able ..if it was me..I would spread the excess over 5 or 6 players like Nofoaluma, Garner, Utoikamanu, Douiehi..offer Luciano a bit of sweetener to extend all from money still left from 2021..when it's all added up and deducted from 2022 or 23 even you create space..Also not 1 player is taking a big swing in salary from year to year...

Is it the money (cap) or the numbers (squad of 30) or both that the NRL want done?

Both. Need 30 players signed by the deadline and there is a minimum % of the cap money that needs be spent (90% from memory).

So, if we have no one in mind to sign, we will bring 2 development players up and distribute the cap balance out where they think it required?

Yes that is the most likely outcome.

Hopefully next year there's only one spot open and it's filled relatively early into the year. We are at a disadvantage only using 28 out of our 30 spots, lack depth in certain positions and are struggling to fill them.

To be honest I don't think it is that critical and would prefer the club to keep a couple of spots open. It wasn't that long ago we had a top 25 players. We now have 30 plus development players and this year we can now even play players on second tier contracts.

One spot is plenty, when we are lacking depth in multiple positions and have multiple spots open in our roster it shows an issue in our recruitment. It's nothing major but hopefully it's improved next year, happy to keep one spot open just in case but we are over halfway through the season now the spots need to be filled

Be interesting to see who they would promote. I'm assuming Tuilagi would be one

Tuilagi will be upgraded i would think. I don't think it shows an issue with recruitment at all, I think it was planned all along. Keep those spots if a player becomes available then you take them, if not you upgrade a development player. We tried to get Hastings across and that would have filled a spot. Imagine the uproar if a couple of world class players became available and we couldn't fit them in.

It shows an issue for mine. In an age where clubs use sports science, high performance staff and the like to get every little edge, playing a collision sport with less players to pick from than your opposition is a disadvantage, we’ve had a pretty good run with injuries which maybe hasn’t emphasised the problem - But it’s a clear issue that we can’t attract top notch players.

I honestly think roster sizes of 30 are too big.

Perhaps but when you look at our roster compared to the top sides, I’d say we’d take a couple of good defenders if we could attract them.

Of course we would, but no players have become available during the season this year. We have tried to get some players from other clubs to fill needs but other clubs haven't released them. So in that situation you upgrade some of your youngsters, it is actually good recruitment.

Might be sensible and future focussed but it’s a strategy that’s forced on us because good players aren’t knocking on our door. You’ve said it yourself, until we start winning we have a recruitment problem.

We definitely have an issue attracting high profile players but this is a different situation to that, I have no problem with us holding 2 spots open at the start of the season for any players that may become available, if none do then upgrade youngsters.

Those 2 spots aren't there because we missed out a high profile player, they were planned to be open spots.


I think they’re related. If we didn’t have a red hot crack at Xavier Coates I’d be disappointed.

What does that have to do with open spots for this year? He signed with the Storm for next year.

Yeah but we know Broncos are looking to rework their salary cap, so he was technically on the market. Other big names that have been on the market this year include Reece Walsh, Toby Rudolph, Schuster and Brimson. All good players that I’m sure we could have used if they were keen on coming to Wests Tigers. But I dare say they weren’t.

We are not an attractive club for high profile players, 10 years without finals does that to a club and it is not something that you can wave a magic wand and fix. We are building nicely through our youth signings, that and smart decisions around the experience players we sign needs to be our strategy until we become more attractive.

So we agree, your first sentence is exactly my point. Where we differ in opinion is that I would have liked us to fill one of those spots with a ‘good first grader’ earlier in the year. With the benefit of hindsight Isiah Papalii from the Warriors would have been good.

We have tried to get multiple players from other clubs but they have fallen through.

 

[BAGNF05]

are we able to use some of this year's salary cap to bump up Mbye so we pay less the next 2 years ?

Why arn't we doing this for say Brooks? or Twal or Tamou or Daine Laurie?

I don't understand why we don't frontload our cap a lot more. Were probably not going to make the 8, what we have to give up on signing DWZ for 400k this year...woopie.

Frontload our spare coin on players we are going to keep. I hate that we have signed Mbye, but I have to admit putting him at 5/8 has worked and he has played his heart out. The fact that he stayed in first grade when Reynolds and Packer dropped all comes down to attitude. I would frontload anyone else but Mbye though.
Look, honestly Mbye was an 750K investment that never worked out. Sure he has sometimes played at the 200k level, sometimes at the 450k level.. But if I had to pick our backline it is:
Daine Laurie
Cini/Nofo
Doueini/James - jet-Roberts, plus we have Oliver coming from the UK.
Hastings + Brooks in the halves.

Mbye at best is NR14. OR Mbye starts at 6 and Hastings forces his way into the starting squad.

We probably won't be signing Mbye on less then 450k. No way we should be frontloading HIM, and why spend so much on NR14 when we could put up a junior. I don't see where Mbye fits, why front load?

Because this year is technically a write off in terms of recruitment so if we front-load Mbye's contract he would be on say 500k next year. If he goes to crap and someone picks him up next year, we will only be contributing around 200k as opposed to 500k.


Because we will have paid the rest this year, how does that save money?

Doesn't save any money ...Does re-arrange when the money is paid...creates more Cap space in 2022


Agree with that, but IMO it doesnt make sense to front load a player if you looking to get another club to take him off your books, you will pay a larger percentage of the salary.

Makes sense to front load a Brooks because he will definitely be here for another year.

Front loading a player you are looking to get rid of doesn't make sense to me.

I wouldn't either...But no doubt I don't see us signing 2 quality players in the next month..so the Cap needs to be exhausted each year..you don't carry over...

You can front load... not to the extent you use to be able ..if it was me..I would spread the excess over 5 or 6 players like Nofoaluma, Garner, Utoikamanu, Douiehi..offer Luciano a bit of sweetener to extend all from money still left from 2021..when it's all added up and deducted from 2022 or 23 even you create space..Also not 1 player is taking a big swing in salary from year to year...

Is it the money (cap) or the numbers (squad of 30) or both that the NRL want done?

Both. Need 30 players signed by the deadline and there is a minimum % of the cap money that needs be spent (90% from memory).

So, if we have no one in mind to sign, we will bring 2 development players up and distribute the cap balance out where they think it required?

Yes that is the most likely outcome.

Hopefully next year there's only one spot open and it's filled relatively early into the year. We are at a disadvantage only using 28 out of our 30 spots, lack depth in certain positions and are struggling to fill them.

To be honest I don't think it is that critical and would prefer the club to keep a couple of spots open. It wasn't that long ago we had a top 25 players. We now have 30 plus development players and this year we can now even play players on second tier contracts.

One spot is plenty, when we are lacking depth in multiple positions and have multiple spots open in our roster it shows an issue in our recruitment. It's nothing major but hopefully it's improved next year, happy to keep one spot open just in case but we are over halfway through the season now the spots need to be filled

Be interesting to see who they would promote. I'm assuming Tuilagi would be one

Tuilagi will be upgraded i would think. I don't think it shows an issue with recruitment at all, I think it was planned all along. Keep those spots if a player becomes available then you take them, if not you upgrade a development player. We tried to get Hastings across and that would have filled a spot. Imagine the uproar if a couple of world class players became available and we couldn't fit them in.

It shows an issue for mine. In an age where clubs use sports science, high performance staff and the like to get every little edge, playing a collision sport with less players to pick from than your opposition is a disadvantage, we’ve had a pretty good run with injuries which maybe hasn’t emphasised the problem - But it’s a clear issue that we can’t attract top notch players.

I honestly think roster sizes of 30 are too big.

Perhaps but when you look at our roster compared to the top sides, I’d say we’d take a couple of good defenders if we could attract them.

Of course we would, but no players have become available during the season this year. We have tried to get some players from other clubs to fill needs but other clubs haven't released them. So in that situation you upgrade some of your youngsters, it is actually good recruitment.

Might be sensible and future focussed but it’s a strategy that’s forced on us because good players aren’t knocking on our door. You’ve said it yourself, until we start winning we have a recruitment problem.

We definitely have an issue attracting high profile players but this is a different situation to that, I have no problem with us holding 2 spots open at the start of the season for any players that may become available, if none do then upgrade youngsters.

Those 2 spots aren't there because we missed out a high profile player, they were planned to be open spots.


I think they’re related. If we didn’t have a red hot crack at Xavier Coates I’d be disappointed.

What does that have to do with open spots for this year? He signed with the Storm for next year.

Yeah but we know Broncos are looking to rework their salary cap, so he was technically on the market. Other big names that have been on the market this year include Reece Walsh, Toby Rudolph, Schuster and Brimson. All good players that I’m sure we could have used if they were keen on coming to Wests Tigers. But I dare say they weren’t.

We are not an attractive club for high profile players, 10 years without finals does that to a club and it is not something that you can wave a magic wand and fix. We are building nicely through our youth signings, that and smart decisions around the experience players we sign needs to be our strategy until we become more attractive.

So we agree, your first sentence is exactly my point. Where we differ in opinion is that I would have liked us to fill one of those spots with a ‘good first grader’ earlier in the year. With the benefit of hindsight Isiah Papalii from the Warriors would have been good.

We have tried to get multiple players from other clubs but they have fallen through.

We’re goin in circles a little now, I call that a recruitment issue. I think our recruitment has improved with the Laurie, AD, Simpkin, Stef signings a clear indication of that, but until we can land some match winners to blend in there with them I believe we continue to tread water (win every second or third week). The young brigade need to see what it takes to win before they will win. And the winning needs to start to resolve the recruitment issue. Vicious cycle.

 

[JC99]

are we able to use some of this year's salary cap to bump up Mbye so we pay less the next 2 years ?

Why arn't we doing this for say Brooks? or Twal or Tamou or Daine Laurie?

I don't understand why we don't frontload our cap a lot more. Were probably not going to make the 8, what we have to give up on signing DWZ for 400k this year...woopie.

Frontload our spare coin on players we are going to keep. I hate that we have signed Mbye, but I have to admit putting him at 5/8 has worked and he has played his heart out. The fact that he stayed in first grade when Reynolds and Packer dropped all comes down to attitude. I would frontload anyone else but Mbye though.
Look, honestly Mbye was an 750K investment that never worked out. Sure he has sometimes played at the 200k level, sometimes at the 450k level.. But if I had to pick our backline it is:
Daine Laurie
Cini/Nofo
Doueini/James - jet-Roberts, plus we have Oliver coming from the UK.
Hastings + Brooks in the halves.

Mbye at best is NR14. OR Mbye starts at 6 and Hastings forces his way into the starting squad.

We probably won't be signing Mbye on less then 450k. No way we should be frontloading HIM, and why spend so much on NR14 when we could put up a junior. I don't see where Mbye fits, why front load?

Because this year is technically a write off in terms of recruitment so if we front-load Mbye's contract he would be on say 500k next year. If he goes to crap and someone picks him up next year, we will only be contributing around 200k as opposed to 500k.


Because we will have paid the rest this year, how does that save money?

Doesn't save any money ...Does re-arrange when the money is paid...creates more Cap space in 2022


Agree with that, but IMO it doesnt make sense to front load a player if you looking to get another club to take him off your books, you will pay a larger percentage of the salary.

Makes sense to front load a Brooks because he will definitely be here for another year.

Front loading a player you are looking to get rid of doesn't make sense to me.

I wouldn't either...But no doubt I don't see us signing 2 quality players in the next month..so the Cap needs to be exhausted each year..you don't carry over...

You can front load... not to the extent you use to be able ..if it was me..I would spread the excess over 5 or 6 players like Nofoaluma, Garner, Utoikamanu, Douiehi..offer Luciano a bit of sweetener to extend all from money still left from 2021..when it's all added up and deducted from 2022 or 23 even you create space..Also not 1 player is taking a big swing in salary from year to year...

Is it the money (cap) or the numbers (squad of 30) or both that the NRL want done?

Both. Need 30 players signed by the deadline and there is a minimum % of the cap money that needs be spent (90% from memory).

So, if we have no one in mind to sign, we will bring 2 development players up and distribute the cap balance out where they think it required?

Yes that is the most likely outcome.

Hopefully next year there's only one spot open and it's filled relatively early into the year. We are at a disadvantage only using 28 out of our 30 spots, lack depth in certain positions and are struggling to fill them.

To be honest I don't think it is that critical and would prefer the club to keep a couple of spots open. It wasn't that long ago we had a top 25 players. We now have 30 plus development players and this year we can now even play players on second tier contracts.

One spot is plenty, when we are lacking depth in multiple positions and have multiple spots open in our roster it shows an issue in our recruitment. It's nothing major but hopefully it's improved next year, happy to keep one spot open just in case but we are over halfway through the season now the spots need to be filled

Be interesting to see who they would promote. I'm assuming Tuilagi would be one

Tuilagi will be upgraded i would think. I don't think it shows an issue with recruitment at all, I think it was planned all along. Keep those spots if a player becomes available then you take them, if not you upgrade a development player. We tried to get Hastings across and that would have filled a spot. Imagine the uproar if a couple of world class players became available and we couldn't fit them in.

Problem is we don't have a winger and we've got spots open in the roster, that shows we've failed to sign someone for that position/spot.

Happy to keep spots open but not over halfway through a season that's all

That is because we went into season banking on Kepaoa filling that wing position, that is why we have actively been trying to negotiate a swap for a winger in recent weeks.

The bloke who's not a winger - not a great decision. Was moved to centre before being hurt. Realistically we went into the season with only Nofa and AJ to cover wing while having roster spots open

Hopefully we sign a winger ASAP. Roberts will be targeted this week I feel Sivo will be a big test

 

[GCfan]

are we able to use some of this year's salary cap to bump up Mbye so we pay less the next 2 years ?

Why arn't we doing this for say Brooks? or Twal or Tamou or Daine Laurie?

I don't understand why we don't frontload our cap a lot more. Were probably not going to make the 8, what we have to give up on signing DWZ for 400k this year...woopie.

Frontload our spare coin on players we are going to keep. I hate that we have signed Mbye, but I have to admit putting him at 5/8 has worked and he has played his heart out. The fact that he stayed in first grade when Reynolds and Packer dropped all comes down to attitude. I would frontload anyone else but Mbye though.
Look, honestly Mbye was an 750K investment that never worked out. Sure he has sometimes played at the 200k level, sometimes at the 450k level.. But if I had to pick our backline it is:
Daine Laurie
Cini/Nofo
Doueini/James - jet-Roberts, plus we have Oliver coming from the UK.
Hastings + Brooks in the halves.

Mbye at best is NR14. OR Mbye starts at 6 and Hastings forces his way into the starting squad.

We probably won't be signing Mbye on less then 450k. No way we should be frontloading HIM, and why spend so much on NR14 when we could put up a junior. I don't see where Mbye fits, why front load?

Because this year is technically a write off in terms of recruitment so if we front-load Mbye's contract he would be on say 500k next year. If he goes to crap and someone picks him up next year, we will only be contributing around 200k as opposed to 500k.


Because we will have paid the rest this year, how does that save money?

Doesn't save any money ...Does re-arrange when the money is paid...creates more Cap space in 2022


Agree with that, but IMO it doesnt make sense to front load a player if you looking to get another club to take him off your books, you will pay a larger percentage of the salary.

Makes sense to front load a Brooks because he will definitely be here for another year.

Front loading a player you are looking to get rid of doesn't make sense to me.

I wouldn't either...But no doubt I don't see us signing 2 quality players in the next month..so the Cap needs to be exhausted each year..you don't carry over...

You can front load... not to the extent you use to be able ..if it was me..I would spread the excess over 5 or 6 players like Nofoaluma, Garner, Utoikamanu, Douiehi..offer Luciano a bit of sweetener to extend all from money still left from 2021..when it's all added up and deducted from 2022 or 23 even you create space..Also not 1 player is taking a big swing in salary from year to year...

Is it the money (cap) or the numbers (squad of 30) or both that the NRL want done?

Both. Need 30 players signed by the deadline and there is a minimum % of the cap money that needs be spent (90% from memory).

So, if we have no one in mind to sign, we will bring 2 development players up and distribute the cap balance out where they think it required?

Yes that is the most likely outcome.

Hopefully next year there's only one spot open and it's filled relatively early into the year. We are at a disadvantage only using 28 out of our 30 spots, lack depth in certain positions and are struggling to fill them.

To be honest I don't think it is that critical and would prefer the club to keep a couple of spots open. It wasn't that long ago we had a top 25 players. We now have 30 plus development players and this year we can now even play players on second tier contracts.

One spot is plenty, when we are lacking depth in multiple positions and have multiple spots open in our roster it shows an issue in our recruitment. It's nothing major but hopefully it's improved next year, happy to keep one spot open just in case but we are over halfway through the season now the spots need to be filled

Be interesting to see who they would promote. I'm assuming Tuilagi would be one

Tuilagi will be upgraded i would think. I don't think it shows an issue with recruitment at all, I think it was planned all along. Keep those spots if a player becomes available then you take them, if not you upgrade a development player. We tried to get Hastings across and that would have filled a spot. Imagine the uproar if a couple of world class players became available and we couldn't fit them in.

It shows an issue for mine. In an age where clubs use sports science, high performance staff and the like to get every little edge, playing a collision sport with less players to pick from than your opposition is a disadvantage, we’ve had a pretty good run with injuries which maybe hasn’t emphasised the problem - But it’s a clear issue that we can’t attract top notch players.

I honestly think roster sizes of 30 are too big.

Perhaps but when you look at our roster compared to the top sides, I’d say we’d take a couple of good defenders if we could attract them.

Of course we would, but no players have become available during the season this year. We have tried to get some players from other clubs to fill needs but other clubs haven't released them. So in that situation you upgrade some of your youngsters, it is actually good recruitment.

Might be sensible and future focussed but it’s a strategy that’s forced on us because good players aren’t knocking on our door. You’ve said it yourself, until we start winning we have a recruitment problem.

We definitely have an issue attracting high profile players but this is a different situation to that, I have no problem with us holding 2 spots open at the start of the season for any players that may become available, if none do then upgrade youngsters.

Those 2 spots aren't there because we missed out a high profile player, they were planned to be open spots.


I think they’re related. If we didn’t have a red hot crack at Xavier Coates I’d be disappointed.

I don’t know if i care now seeing he’s heading to Melbourne but understand the sentiment of wanting to be active for the best players.

 

[weststigerman]

are we able to use some of this year's salary cap to bump up Mbye so we pay less the next 2 years ?

Why arn't we doing this for say Brooks? or Twal or Tamou or Daine Laurie?

I don't understand why we don't frontload our cap a lot more. Were probably not going to make the 8, what we have to give up on signing DWZ for 400k this year...woopie.

Frontload our spare coin on players we are going to keep. I hate that we have signed Mbye, but I have to admit putting him at 5/8 has worked and he has played his heart out. The fact that he stayed in first grade when Reynolds and Packer dropped all comes down to attitude. I would frontload anyone else but Mbye though.
Look, honestly Mbye was an 750K investment that never worked out. Sure he has sometimes played at the 200k level, sometimes at the 450k level.. But if I had to pick our backline it is:
Daine Laurie
Cini/Nofo
Doueini/James - jet-Roberts, plus we have Oliver coming from the UK.
Hastings + Brooks in the halves.

Mbye at best is NR14. OR Mbye starts at 6 and Hastings forces his way into the starting squad.

We probably won't be signing Mbye on less then 450k. No way we should be frontloading HIM, and why spend so much on NR14 when we could put up a junior. I don't see where Mbye fits, why front load?

Because this year is technically a write off in terms of recruitment so if we front-load Mbye's contract he would be on say 500k next year. If he goes to crap and someone picks him up next year, we will only be contributing around 200k as opposed to 500k.


Because we will have paid the rest this year, how does that save money?

Doesn't save any money ...Does re-arrange when the money is paid...creates more Cap space in 2022


Agree with that, but IMO it doesnt make sense to front load a player if you looking to get another club to take him off your books, you will pay a larger percentage of the salary.

Makes sense to front load a Brooks because he will definitely be here for another year.

Front loading a player you are looking to get rid of doesn't make sense to me.

I wouldn't either...But no doubt I don't see us signing 2 quality players in the next month..so the Cap needs to be exhausted each year..you don't carry over...

You can front load... not to the extent you use to be able ..if it was me..I would spread the excess over 5 or 6 players like Nofoaluma, Garner, Utoikamanu, Douiehi..offer Luciano a bit of sweetener to extend all from money still left from 2021..when it's all added up and deducted from 2022 or 23 even you create space..Also not 1 player is taking a big swing in salary from year to year...

Is it the money (cap) or the numbers (squad of 30) or both that the NRL want done?

Both. Need 30 players signed by the deadline and there is a minimum % of the cap money that needs be spent (90% from memory).

So, if we have no one in mind to sign, we will bring 2 development players up and distribute the cap balance out where they think it required?

Yes that is the most likely outcome.

Hopefully next year there's only one spot open and it's filled relatively early into the year. We are at a disadvantage only using 28 out of our 30 spots, lack depth in certain positions and are struggling to fill them.

To be honest I don't think it is that critical and would prefer the club to keep a couple of spots open. It wasn't that long ago we had a top 25 players. We now have 30 plus development players and this year we can now even play players on second tier contracts.

One spot is plenty, when we are lacking depth in multiple positions and have multiple spots open in our roster it shows an issue in our recruitment. It's nothing major but hopefully it's improved next year, happy to keep one spot open just in case but we are over halfway through the season now the spots need to be filled

Be interesting to see who they would promote. I'm assuming Tuilagi would be one

Tuilagi will be upgraded i would think. I don't think it shows an issue with recruitment at all, I think it was planned all along. Keep those spots if a player becomes available then you take them, if not you upgrade a development player. We tried to get Hastings across and that would have filled a spot. Imagine the uproar if a couple of world class players became available and we couldn't fit them in.

Problem is we don't have a winger and we've got spots open in the roster, that shows we've failed to sign someone for that position/spot.

Happy to keep spots open but not over halfway through a season that's all

That is because we went into season banking on Kepaoa filling that wing position, that is why we have actively been trying to negotiate a swap for a winger in recent weeks.

The bloke who's not a winger - not a great decision. Was moved to centre before being hurt. Realistically we went into the season with only Nofa and AJ to cover wing while having roster spots open

Hopefully we sign a winger ASAP. Roberts will be targeted this week I feel Sivo will be a big test

He seemed to think his best position was winger. He said as much in an interview in the off season.

He’s played a good 60-70 minutes at centre which is not enough for me to believe he’s suddenly going to be able to catch in the centres.

Much like Roberts on the wing for me. Still yet to be proven successful.

I do agree though it was silly to have AJ as a first choice winger. Ignoring Mansour was a crazy decision considering Souths got him for 2 years which IMO was fine.

 

[GCfan]

are we able to use some of this year's salary cap to bump up Mbye so we pay less the next 2 years ?

Why arn't we doing this for say Brooks? or Twal or Tamou or Daine Laurie?

I don't understand why we don't frontload our cap a lot more. Were probably not going to make the 8, what we have to give up on signing DWZ for 400k this year...woopie.

Frontload our spare coin on players we are going to keep. I hate that we have signed Mbye, but I have to admit putting him at 5/8 has worked and he has played his heart out. The fact that he stayed in first grade when Reynolds and Packer dropped all comes down to attitude. I would frontload anyone else but Mbye though.
Look, honestly Mbye was an 750K investment that never worked out. Sure he has sometimes played at the 200k level, sometimes at the 450k level.. But if I had to pick our backline it is:
Daine Laurie
Cini/Nofo
Doueini/James - jet-Roberts, plus we have Oliver coming from the UK.
Hastings + Brooks in the halves.

Mbye at best is NR14. OR Mbye starts at 6 and Hastings forces his way into the starting squad.

We probably won't be signing Mbye on less then 450k. No way we should be frontloading HIM, and why spend so much on NR14 when we could put up a junior. I don't see where Mbye fits, why front load?

Because this year is technically a write off in terms of recruitment so if we front-load Mbye's contract he would be on say 500k next year. If he goes to crap and someone picks him up next year, we will only be contributing around 200k as opposed to 500k.


Because we will have paid the rest this year, how does that save money?

Doesn't save any money ...Does re-arrange when the money is paid...creates more Cap space in 2022


Agree with that, but IMO it doesnt make sense to front load a player if you looking to get another club to take him off your books, you will pay a larger percentage of the salary.

Makes sense to front load a Brooks because he will definitely be here for another year.

Front loading a player you are looking to get rid of doesn't make sense to me.

I wouldn't either...But no doubt I don't see us signing 2 quality players in the next month..so the Cap needs to be exhausted each year..you don't carry over...

You can front load... not to the extent you use to be able ..if it was me..I would spread the excess over 5 or 6 players like Nofoaluma, Garner, Utoikamanu, Douiehi..offer Luciano a bit of sweetener to extend all from money still left from 2021..when it's all added up and deducted from 2022 or 23 even you create space..Also not 1 player is taking a big swing in salary from year to year...

Is it the money (cap) or the numbers (squad of 30) or both that the NRL want done?

Both. Need 30 players signed by the deadline and there is a minimum % of the cap money that needs be spent (90% from memory).

So, if we have no one in mind to sign, we will bring 2 development players up and distribute the cap balance out where they think it required?

Yes that is the most likely outcome.

Hopefully next year there's only one spot open and it's filled relatively early into the year. We are at a disadvantage only using 28 out of our 30 spots, lack depth in certain positions and are struggling to fill them.

To be honest I don't think it is that critical and would prefer the club to keep a couple of spots open. It wasn't that long ago we had a top 25 players. We now have 30 plus development players and this year we can now even play players on second tier contracts.

One spot is plenty, when we are lacking depth in multiple positions and have multiple spots open in our roster it shows an issue in our recruitment. It's nothing major but hopefully it's improved next year, happy to keep one spot open just in case but we are over halfway through the season now the spots need to be filled

Be interesting to see who they would promote. I'm assuming Tuilagi would be one

Tuilagi will be upgraded i would think. I don't think it shows an issue with recruitment at all, I think it was planned all along. Keep those spots if a player becomes available then you take them, if not you upgrade a development player. We tried to get Hastings across and that would have filled a spot. Imagine the uproar if a couple of world class players became available and we couldn't fit them in.

Problem is we don't have a winger and we've got spots open in the roster, that shows we've failed to sign someone for that position/spot.

Happy to keep spots open but not over halfway through a season that's all

That is because we went into season banking on Kepaoa filling that wing position, that is why we have actively been trying to negotiate a swap for a winger in recent weeks.


Hopefully we sign a winger ASAP. Roberts will be targeted this week I feel Sivo will be a big test

How good would it be to see Jimmy just burn him all game. I reckon that would be so good for the Jets confidence (which looks like it’s slowly building)

 

[JC99]

are we able to use some of this year's salary cap to bump up Mbye so we pay less the next 2 years ?

Why arn't we doing this for say Brooks? or Twal or Tamou or Daine Laurie?

I don't understand why we don't frontload our cap a lot more. Were probably not going to make the 8, what we have to give up on signing DWZ for 400k this year...woopie.

Frontload our spare coin on players we are going to keep. I hate that we have signed Mbye, but I have to admit putting him at 5/8 has worked and he has played his heart out. The fact that he stayed in first grade when Reynolds and Packer dropped all comes down to attitude. I would frontload anyone else but Mbye though.
Look, honestly Mbye was an 750K investment that never worked out. Sure he has sometimes played at the 200k level, sometimes at the 450k level.. But if I had to pick our backline it is:
Daine Laurie
Cini/Nofo
Doueini/James - jet-Roberts, plus we have Oliver coming from the UK.
Hastings + Brooks in the halves.

Mbye at best is NR14. OR Mbye starts at 6 and Hastings forces his way into the starting squad.

We probably won't be signing Mbye on less then 450k. No way we should be frontloading HIM, and why spend so much on NR14 when we could put up a junior. I don't see where Mbye fits, why front load?

Because this year is technically a write off in terms of recruitment so if we front-load Mbye's contract he would be on say 500k next year. If he goes to crap and someone picks him up next year, we will only be contributing around 200k as opposed to 500k.


Because we will have paid the rest this year, how does that save money?

Doesn't save any money ...Does re-arrange when the money is paid...creates more Cap space in 2022


Agree with that, but IMO it doesnt make sense to front load a player if you looking to get another club to take him off your books, you will pay a larger percentage of the salary.

Makes sense to front load a Brooks because he will definitely be here for another year.

Front loading a player you are looking to get rid of doesn't make sense to me.

I wouldn't either...But no doubt I don't see us signing 2 quality players in the next month..so the Cap needs to be exhausted each year..you don't carry over...

You can front load... not to the extent you use to be able ..if it was me..I would spread the excess over 5 or 6 players like Nofoaluma, Garner, Utoikamanu, Douiehi..offer Luciano a bit of sweetener to extend all from money still left from 2021..when it's all added up and deducted from 2022 or 23 even you create space..Also not 1 player is taking a big swing in salary from year to year...

Is it the money (cap) or the numbers (squad of 30) or both that the NRL want done?

Both. Need 30 players signed by the deadline and there is a minimum % of the cap money that needs be spent (90% from memory).

So, if we have no one in mind to sign, we will bring 2 development players up and distribute the cap balance out where they think it required?

Yes that is the most likely outcome.

Hopefully next year there's only one spot open and it's filled relatively early into the year. We are at a disadvantage only using 28 out of our 30 spots, lack depth in certain positions and are struggling to fill them.

To be honest I don't think it is that critical and would prefer the club to keep a couple of spots open. It wasn't that long ago we had a top 25 players. We now have 30 plus development players and this year we can now even play players on second tier contracts.

One spot is plenty, when we are lacking depth in multiple positions and have multiple spots open in our roster it shows an issue in our recruitment. It's nothing major but hopefully it's improved next year, happy to keep one spot open just in case but we are over halfway through the season now the spots need to be filled

Be interesting to see who they would promote. I'm assuming Tuilagi would be one

Tuilagi will be upgraded i would think. I don't think it shows an issue with recruitment at all, I think it was planned all along. Keep those spots if a player becomes available then you take them, if not you upgrade a development player. We tried to get Hastings across and that would have filled a spot. Imagine the uproar if a couple of world class players became available and we couldn't fit them in.

Problem is we don't have a winger and we've got spots open in the roster, that shows we've failed to sign someone for that position/spot.

Happy to keep spots open but not over halfway through a season that's all

That is because we went into season banking on Kepaoa filling that wing position, that is why we have actively been trying to negotiate a swap for a winger in recent weeks.

The bloke who's not a winger - not a great decision. Was moved to centre before being hurt. Realistically we went into the season with only Nofa and AJ to cover wing while having roster spots open

Hopefully we sign a winger ASAP. Roberts will be targeted this week I feel Sivo will be a big test

He seemed to think his best position was winger. He said as much in an interview in the off season.

He’s played a good 60-70 minutes at centre which is not enough for me to believe he’s suddenly going to be able to catch in the centres.

Much like Roberts on the wing for me. Still yet to be proven successful.

I do agree though it was silly to have AJ as a first choice winger. Ignoring Mansour was a crazy decision considering Souths got him for 2 years which IMO was fine.

His problem is catching those high balls under pressure, he's a good ball runner who can score a try. If he can't field kicks he definitely can't be on the wing, shouldn't be as much of an issue at centre hopefully.

We had a glaring lack of depth at wing before the season even started and it was never fixed. Shouldn't be left over halfway through a season