Bulldogs face at two seasons of pain until the club can right its salary cap woes
THE Bulldogs have two more seasons in their own small hell before they can even think it will turn around.
The Dogs’ salary cap problems run to the 2020 season.
No relief comes until the season after. Yes, three more seasons away, and only a small miracle, of the rainbow and unicorn kind, will deliver the Bulldogs any success before then.
The Dogs’ salary cap is in such a poor state that if the hard work did not begin now then they would almost certainly be wooden spooners the next two seasons.
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They would field a team essentially filled with a few big name players, like Josh Jackson, David Klemmer and Kieran Foran, and the rest of the jerseys would be filled by juniors and reserve graders.
The Bulldogs released Aaron Woods on Tuesday, joining Moses Mbye let go from the club a fortnight ago.
Two quality players.
The severity of Canterbury’s cap problems is shrouded in grey information as the club tries to balance the fine line between the reality of their books and trying to keep fans encouraged enough to hang around.
That, or prevent them from burning the joint down.
Canterbury’s problems began when the previous administration began working towards a new salary cap of 10-point-something for 2018 and beyond, long before it eventually landed on $9.6 million last year.
In simple mathematics, it basically meant every player at the club was earning about 10 per cent more than he should have been banking.
That is a shortcut to disaster.
It forced the club to release James Graham to St George Illawarra just to be compliant this season.
It provided only small relief.
Losing Graham was particularly painful. (Mark Nolan/Getty Images)
As fans’ outrage grew, as certain board members strode into office claiming they would never subsidise a Bulldogs’ salary at another club, chief executive Andrew Hill fronted a members forum earlier this season and assured them the club would be cap compliant next season.
It dimmed the fires for a brief while.
What Hill didn’t say, and could not say, is there is a difference between being cap compliant and being competitive.
The more the Bulldogs looked at their books the more they realised the long-term damage the numbers relayed.
Dogs fans are used to saying goodbye. (AAP Image/Brendon Thorne)
Hill and coach Dean Pay soon knew they had a choice.
They could take the club medicine for three more seasons, honour the promise to members not to subsidise the wages for players at other clubs, or they could try to create some flexibility in their cap now and begin the slow process back.
Next season provides no relief.
Built into the contracts of those still contracted next season are ratchet clauses and back-ended deals set to be activated.
So the salary cap gets another squeeze at Belmore.
The drama could cost Bulldogs coach Dean Pay his career. (Alix Sweeney)
It gives the Bulldogs no option but to lose Josh and Brett Morris and Greg Eastwood.
The Bulldogs could have retained both and remained salary cap compliant next season but it would have meant surrounding them with at least seven players on minimum wage.
By the time 2020 rolls around more ratchet clauses are activated and more back-ended deals come into play.
These realities are what Hill and Pay have wrestled with.
They went back to their options.
The Morris boys could be next out the door. (AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts)
They were still the same. Wait until they regain control of their roster in 2021 and write off this season and the next two, blame the previous administration, or take the sour pill.
They knew they couldn’t wait.
By then Bulldogs fans would have burned down Belmore and Hill and Pay would have been kicked to the street by an angry mob.
Instead, the delicate operation has begun.
They are trying to build flexibility in the cap until 2021. Releasing a player here, developing a player there, trying to find ways to generate value for their misspent dollar.
Jack Cogger could be a good investment. (AAP Image/Darren Pateman)
Jack Cogger arrives at Belmore next season. So does Christian Crichton from Penrith.
Jeremy Marshall-King is developing nicely at the price.
Pay has no choice but to play the long game.
“We’ll get those young blokes,” he said on Tuesday, “and then put 40 or 50 games into them and when you get the money back we will put some established quality around them and then challenge for a competition.”
The risk is still clearly there.
Forty or 50 games is almost two full seasons. A long wait for Bulldogs fans.
And Pay, who has one more year to run.
The coach knows his decision to build for the long-term risks his new coaching career.
He has no guarantee he will be at the club beyond next season, even as he repairs the failings of those who came before him.
“You want the job,” he said.
“If you’re going to make the hard decisions you want to come out the other side and enjoy coaching better players and a good group of players that are going to challenge.”
Pay returned to a club preaching the need to return to its values. Every bit of that is about to be tested.
