Because I cannot see how they are spending within it.

Ponga on 1.25mill a year. Frizell just signed on 600k+. Klemmer is not on small coin. Neither is Glasby. And Pearce would not be cheap. Just those 5 would eat up a fair bit of their cap.

Then you consider Guerra wouldn’t have been a bargain and I can’t imagine they got Brailey or Connor Watson for peanuts. They upgraded Fitzgibbon last year too.

Funnily enough the ‘working class’ Knights have become like Man City, wealthy overnight and recruiting like mad since their new owners Newcastle Wests took over.

I’m actually happy for them (for the most part) and happy to have my theory disproved. But they really don’t seem to have to fight to retain players over money.

Im with u…no way it adds up.Neither does the Eels when u think about it…not twice in 5 years surely?
As Singo says…all u need is a benefactor with cash.A trip to Nana Glen can result in a totally inplausible outcome,and Uncle Nick is a little more discreet…Knights must have found a new mogul.
Having said that,if we werent carrying Packer McQueen Reynolds and Mybe…thats a cool $3mill or so…maybe we cld snare Hunt or Milford or Bird…?Blame Ivan
Shows wot a great job Madge is doing to keep us competitive

Third party deals

I could see the players in Sydney wanting to move to Newcastle on less coin
Think about it
Who would want to live in that HOLE
Ahh I’m off to work now in Beautiful Cairns

@Cairnstigers said in Do Newcastle have a salary cap exemption?:

I could see the players in Sydney wanting to move to Newcastle on less coin
Think about it
Who would want to live in that HOLE
Ahh I’m off to work now in Beautiful Cairns

Give it to em.

@clontarfkid said in Do Newcastle have a salary cap exemption?:

Im with u…no way it adds up.Neither does the Eels when u think about it…not twice in 5 years surely?
As Singo says…all u need is a benefactor with cash.A trip to Nana Glen can result in a totally inplausible outcome,and Uncle Nick is a little more discreet…Knights must have found a new mogul.
Having said that,if we werent carrying Packer McQueen Reynolds and Mybe…thats a cool $3mill or so…maybe we cld snare Hunt or Milford or Bird…?Blame Ivan
Shows wot a great job Madge is doing to keep us competitive

It is difficult to be competitive when big name signings. are either injured or. not performing or performing to their best ability. which. is significantly below what they are being paid.

@rihannafan1 said in Do Newcastle have a salary cap exemption?:

Because I cannot see how they are spending within it.

Ponga on 1.25mill a year. Frizell just signed on 600k+. Klemmer is not on small coin. Neither is Glasby. And Pearce would not be cheap. Just those 5 would eat up a fair bit of their cap.

Then you consider Guerra wouldn’t have been a bargain and I can’t imagine they got Brailey or Connor Watson for peanuts. They upgraded Fitzgibbon last year too.

Funnily enough the ‘working class’ Knights have become like Man City, wealthy overnight and recruiting like mad since their new owners Newcastle Wests took over.

I’m actually happy for them (for the most part) and happy to have my theory disproved. But they really don’t seem to have to fight to retain players over money.

In the words of Joh Bjelke Peterson “Dont you worry about that”.Second most corrupt politician in Australian history only behind Bob Askin

@rihannafan1 said in Do Newcastle have a salary cap exemption?:

Because I cannot see how they are spending within it.

Ponga on 1.25mill a year. Frizell just signed on 600k+. Klemmer is not on small coin. Neither is Glasby. And Pearce would not be cheap. Just those 5 would eat up a fair bit of their cap.

Then you consider Guerra wouldn’t have been a bargain and I can’t imagine they got Brailey or Connor Watson for peanuts. They upgraded Fitzgibbon last year too.

Funnily enough the ‘working class’ Knights have become like Man City, wealthy overnight and recruiting like mad since their new owners Newcastle Wests took over.

I’m actually happy for them (for the most part) and happy to have my theory disproved. But they really don’t seem to have to fight to retain players over money.

One town team, and Newcastle is a growing city. Plenty of third party money available up that way for sure. There’s probably McDonald Jones houses popping up all over Huntlee with footy players moving into them.

I don’t think they are over the cap just a bit top heavy. Their backups are mostly kids as opposed to us for example who mostly have blokes with lots of FG as backups. Also as mentioned life is a lot cheaper in newcastle - you can live near the beach for a lot less then you can in Sydney so you can pay blokes less outside the stars because they don’t want to leave Newcastle to live in Penrith or Five Dock with no beach and twice as much mortgage.

Also 2 of those are next year and they will let go some decent size contracts in Aidan Guerra and Connor Watson especially - remembering Guerra was an origin player and their 1st decent signing so thats some decent money cleared out.

Lots of clubs with dodgy looking caps but Knights don’t really seem one of them

WTs cap is the one that looks dodgy… incompetently dodgy. The knights fans must be cheering they have people that seem to actually know how to run a NRL club. Good on them, wish it was us.

Knights have a lot of home grown talent still

That helps a lot

Will have to find another million to keep Sir Donald or he will pull up stumps and go to the Rorters.

If they need to unload any players, Id love to see Bradman Best running out for Wests.

Gotta remember that when they won the spoon they were way under the cap and got in trouble for not spending enough. A lot of their players are juniors or young guys and they’ve spent a lot on their big guns. It’s a top heavy roster but once they get a few injuries their depth isn’t strong.

The wests group is pretty savvy. My old man owned the major car dealership in newy and there is a lot of 3rd party stuff they can do with how much the team is loved. Dad used to have the john’s brothers down selling cars back in the day. Wayne Bennett talking at functions etc. Wests will be in a strong place to make all those connections.