How Graham offered pay cut to keep Reynolds at Bulldogs

[rogueflare]

I'm open to the idea of having a farewell for Graham when we play the drag queens next year. He deserves something from us.

 

[boggie23]

The story speaks volumes of the chsmpion bloke James Graham is.

I have nothing but respect for the bloke. He was a great leader of our club one of our best Captains in my lifetime

I wonder if dib knew by telling the story he makes himself look like a bigger didkhead then he already is hahaha.

 

[immortalbulldog]

It's must be a huge kick in the nuts for a guy like Graham to have a **** like Dib stand up and pay him tribute 10 minutes after he forced him out the door

 

[boggie23]

Reynolds technically could have stayed, but he took the money and ran in the end.

At the end of the day that call proved to be a smart one though, given the cap issue would mean we couldn't have kept him anyway.

I still can't understand how people on here will slam Dib and Des over all this, and blindly overlook Castles efforts in this salary cap fuckup.

If anything it's entirely possible this predicament is her doing, and why she "resigned" when caught out. For all we know Ray Dib is trying to limit the damage shes done.

Exactly. Firstly I don't know why you chase another prop while you have 4 on the books already.

I don't know why you re-sign tolman 12 months before his contract is due to expire (we would be 550k better off for next year akready). I really don't know how you have so many back ended deals when we never strengthened our squad. If anything post barba we should have front ended everyone so today they are on less not more then marker value.

We have lost quality players, we had signed plenty of talent that never came, we released a few high priced players too. We only bought reserve graders, the cap goes up and we are reportedly 1 million in the red. We release our captain (along with not re-signing Reynolds, kas, lichaa along with other fringe top 25 players....) and we are still atleast 1 player off being cap compliant....

Only 3 people to blame for this. And only 1 is gone for next year.....

 

[Flanagun]

Couldn't agree more.

Say what you will about his game plan, his team choices, his training habits, his attitude with the media.

The biggest distraction that man did to this club is cultural. You have ex players saying it feels weird being back here. You release or fail to re-sign 4 club captains in the last 3 years. Ok every player can be replaced on the field. But people like graham can never be replaced in the dressing rooms. And that's what counts. When you have no energy left graham is the one that will fire you up. And he is the person that will motivate you. He is a player that you play better for.

This act shows how much of a club legend the man is. Not only as a player, but as a human and a friend. Reminds me a bit of Thurston in his passion and love for the club and his team mates. this club has had hundreds of players pull on the jersey in its history. I bet you can count the ones that would die for the club with your fingers. Graham is one of them.

Let's not forget this was a player that has been concussed on more then ond occasion and has told the trainer to fuck off so he can stay on. Compare that to Hayne for example that wont even turn up to extra training sessions.

We didn't lose a on field captain, we didn't lose a prop, we lost the heart and soul of our team. We lost someone that would take younger players under his wing and was willing to spend time to help them out. We lost the dressing room and no matter how much talent you have on the field you will never be a winner without a player like that.

Ennis, Pritchard, Graham. These are the winners, these are the guys that when the going got tough would stand up. These are the guys that got us to the finals time and time again.

Well said mate, I think you can add JR to that list too even though he did get his send off. I think he has really suffered from coaching as much as anyone in our squad but has won and helped us win many big games to get us to and help us advance in finals.

You can't measure passion and the influence it has in a team....as much as some mock it here...especially in relation to players like JG and JR....

 

[boggie23]

Well said mate, I think you can add JR to that list too even though he did get his send off. I think he has really suffered from coaching as much as anyone in our squad but has won and helped us win many big games to get us to and help us advance in finals.

You can't measure passion and the influence it has in a team....as much as some mock it here...especially in relation to players like JG and JR....

I think we will see the best of Reynolds next year. He will have a controlling half outside him so he can just focus on injecting himself into the game. He will also handle the ball more which is how you develop as a half.

For graham I expect him (if he can regain full fitness) to be the best on field at the dragons.

In all honesty who do we have left? Outside of josh Morris (maybe Jackson and klemmer) it doesn't feel like we have any leaders, or anyone that has been around long enough to get this club.

 

[Flanagun]

Reynolds technically could have stayed, but he took the money and ran in the end.

At the end of the day that call proved to be a smart one though, given the cap issue would mean we couldn't have kept him anyway.

I still can't understand how people on here will slam Dib and Des over all this, and blindly overlook Castles efforts in this salary cap fuckup.

If anything it's entirely possible this predicament is her doing, and why she "resigned" when caught out. For all we know Ray Dib is trying to limit the damage shes done.

Mate if you want to blame Castke that's your prerogative.... I just don't see it... this back ending shut us straight from Des' playbook at Manly.. we're entering exactly the same dirt of difficulties Manly had only we have no premiership to show for it....

The back ending just had Des' stamp all over it imo. Especially when considering he negotiated a contract that gave him a lot of power and say over such things.... Raelenr may have made mistakes too, I don't know, but I think the major problem we're facing is back ending and that seems to me to be a tried and trusted (but in this case unsuccessful) Hasler tactic.

 

[Flanagun]

I think we will see the best of Reynolds next year. He will have a controlling half outside him so he can just focus on injecting himself into the game. He will also handle the ball more which is how you develop as a half.

For graham I expect him (if he can regain full fitness) to be the best on field at the dragons.

In all honesty who do we have left? Outside of josh Morris (maybe Jackson and klemmer) it doesn't feel like we have any leaders, or anyone that has been around long enough to get this club.

Yeah maybe Jackson, Klemmer, the Mozzies who are no doting chickens any more and some of those young guys coming up through our systems.

I think we have a few headers and a few young players who do get our culture, but if we keep Des around he'll only drum that out of the young guys...the Mozzies probably only have a season left...maybe 2 and who knows? Klezmer snd Jacko may end up on the shopping list down the road.

It's a proud club and I don't think it's hard to instil that culture in new players at the best of times...but you need the right coach and the right clubmen to teach them.

 

[Shnissss]

Mate if you want to blame Castke that's your prerogative.... I just don't see it... this back ending shut us straight from Des' playbook at Manly.. we're entering exactly the same dirt of difficulties Manly had only we have no premiership to show for it....

The back ending just had Des' stamp all over it imo. Especially when considering he negotiated a contract that gave him a lot of power and say over such things.... Raelenr may have made mistakes too, I don't know, but I think the major problem we're facing is back ending and that seems to me to be a tried and trusted (but in this case unsuccessful) Hasler tactic.

As far as theories go mine is that by back ending contracts Hasler was expecting that a premiership winning side would see other clubs after our players meaning we could afford to let a couple go for top dollar. This combined with an increase to the cap would see us stay on the right side of the cap. This plan obviously hasn't worked.

Anything other than this is simply poor management. Maybe we should all chip in for some Microsoft excel classes for the club to help them tally up salaries

 

[CrittaMagic69]

As far as theories go mine is that by back ending contracts Hasler was expecting that a premiership winning side would see other clubs after our players meaning we could afford to let a couple go for top dollar. This combined with an increase to the cap would see us stay on the right side of the cap. This plan obviously hasn't worked.

Anything other than this is simply poor management. Maybe we should all chip in for some Microsoft excel classes for the club to help them tally up salaries

Well unfortunately for Des he forgot about the part where he had to develop our players games and provide a Premiership winning system...

 

[Realist90]

Mate if you want to blame Castke that's your prerogative.... I just don't see it... this back ending shut us straight from Des' playbook at Manly.. we're entering exactly the same dirt of difficulties Manly had only we have no premiership to show for it....

The back ending just had Des' stamp all over it imo. Especially when considering he negotiated a contract that gave him a lot of power and say over such things.... Raelenr may have made mistakes too, I don't know, but I think the major problem we're facing is back ending and that seems to me to be a tried and trusted (but in this case unsuccessful) Hasler tactic.

Bro putting the contracts together is one of her dam jobs lol, yes Hasler asks for the players but she has to do the contracts and all that. She's always the one coming out saying no I haven't signed him this that and was at the centre of the Andrew Fifita debacle where she took responsibility in saying they have not signed or something.
We not hating on Raelene coz she's female, she's a just shit at the job she had at hand and criticism shouldn't be held back or excuses made for her just coz she's a female.
She is clearly a lot to blame for the handling of the salary cap that honestly can't be denied. But you're a good bloke you just feel bad for people lol

 

[Realist90]

Reynolds technically could have stayed, but he took the money and ran in the end.

At the end of the day that call proved to be a smart one though, given the cap issue would mean we couldn't have kept him anyway.

I still can't understand how people on here will slam Dib and Des over all this, and blindly overlook Castles efforts in this salary cap fuckup.

If anything it's entirely possible this predicament is her doing, and why she "resigned" when caught out. For all we know Ray Dib is trying to limit the damage shes done.

I completely agree with this. Whilst we don't have the facts and it's unpopular for some reason to criticise Raelene for shit she was meant to look after, it does seem they kept her there a couple years too long and she had no fucken idea what she was doing. I think sib like you say is trying to fix her mess up without bashing on a female and her services coz that will not go down well with the nrl or news articles lol.
Her being forced to resign clearly says to me she fucked up real bad and the bulldogs could no longer say everything will be fine she knows what she's doing.
In saying that des obviously needs a lot of blaming which he is deservedly getting and dib to, but it's like everyone's forgotten about castle and it's all dib now lol.

 

[Realist90]

Well unfortunately for Des he forgot about the part where he had to develop our players games and provide a Premiership winning system...

Raelene must of forgot she actually needs to know how to run the club both on and off the field in order to win a premiership lol. Not just say oh we've got a 5 year plan and if we win we win if we don't, well we're bringing in refugees so it's a win win lol.

 

[Precise]

How the FUCK are we still not under the cap? And need to let one more player go? A fringe player or another $800k front rower?

Our team isn't worth $5million let alone $10.

 

[Flanagun]

Bro putting the contracts together is one of her dam jobs lol, yes Hasler asks for the players but she has to do the contracts and all that. She's always the one coming out saying no I haven't signed him this that and was at the centre of the Andrew Fifita debacle where she took responsibility in saying they have not signed or something.
We not hating on Raelene coz she's female, she's a just shit at the job she had at hand and criticism shouldn't be held back or excuses made for her just coz she's a female.
She is clearly a lot to blame for the handling of the salary cap that honestly can't be denied. But you're a good bloke you just feel bad for people lol

She may have been involved mate, but she wasn't the primary architect of our troubles. The same shit happened at manly. The only difference is that manly had success before the rot set in.

Raekene is gone anyway. I just wish I could believe our problems will go with her...

I still think they run deeper.

It's not kindness mate, it's just identifying similar things happening st a club where our coach has history but our outgoing CEO has none.

I'm not defending her I'm just not co denning her as the root cause of our problems. I think that's Des. I think she supported Des, so I'm no fan, I'm just more threatened by Des and Dib, because they are still fucking up the club as we speak!

 

[Flanagun]

As far as theories go mine is that by back ending contracts Hasler was expecting that a premiership winning side would see other clubs after our players meaning we could afford to let a couple go for top dollar. This combined with an increase to the cap would see us stay on the right side of the cap. This plan obviously hasn't worked.

Anything other than this is simply poor management. Maybe we should all chip in for some Microsoft excel classes for the club to help them tally up salaries

Well you may be right, but whatever his reasoning, I think as coach, he has to take account for his plans.

 

[GrogDog]

As far as theories go mine is that by back ending contracts Hasler was expecting that a premiership winning side would see other clubs after our players meaning we could afford to let a couple go for top dollar. This combined with an increase to the cap would see us stay on the right side of the cap. This plan obviously hasn't worked.

Anything other than this is simply poor management. Maybe we should all chip in for some Microsoft excel classes for the club to help them tally up salaries

As Ben Ikin and Paul **** were saying last week on 360, Des does intentionally backend contracts....he did it at Manly. The theory is that he buys a $10 mil team for $8mil and backends the contracts until later on and in that time he "hopes" to win a premiership or two and then the club is fuked for years to come. Manly struggled for years after Des and only now look good with young blokes. The thing with the plan is, is it Des's intention to jump ship every time the fuked part comes to leave the club and fans behind? Some could say a very selfish and arrogant approach when you destroy clubs for your own coaching stats...as we have seen with the dogs though. We didn't win anything and are now entering the backended fuked part with nothing to show for it! Should be outright banned by the NRL TBH and I thought it was? Undermines the stability of clubs IMO.

 

[Phalangist]

Graham and Reynolds are both great clubmen and both deserved infinitely better treatment than they received from our embarrassment of an administration.

Disgraceful.

Agree 100% about graham BUT renoylds got more then enough good treatment from the club. Jeez that Belmore fiasco was over the top.

 

[Phalangist]

I think we will see the best of Reynolds next year. He will have a controlling half outside him so he can just focus on injecting himself into the game. He will also handle the ball more which is how you develop as a half.

For graham I expect him (if he can regain full fitness) to be the best on field at the dragons.

In all honesty who do we have left? Outside of josh Morris (maybe Jackson and klemmer) it doesn't feel like we have any leaders, or anyone that has been around long enough to get this club.

Foran and woods are both leaders

 

[Minion]

It is truly disgraceful how this champion player and true clubman has been treated. This is not how you reward dedication and loyalty.