Controversy Corner - Grahame Hughes on Dean Pay and whats going on

[_G-Dog_]

So Napa at 700K was a bad choice by Pay?.. what about 300K for Meaney & 280K for Cogger as per members forum chat..

 

[c-b-b]

Hughes literally says fuck all.. and I watched it twice?

It's like his radio show then. People ask his opinion on stuff and he often has no idea, it's like he doesn't even watch games or know who plays for which team.

 

[GDR]

So Napa at 700K was a bad choice by Pay?.. what about 300K for Meaney & 280K for Cogger as per members forum chat..

Sounds like you are just fabricating numbers.. no one that was at the members meeting mentioned any of those figures.. what was gathered from the meeting was 6 players were on approx 1.4 mil. napa, meaney, CHN, Ogden, Okunbor and Crichton..

 

[B-Train]

I'm not buying the narrative of let's write off 2020 already and there's nothing the board can do... I'm aware of the massive backended contracts and Foran etc, but no one told them to waste 500k plus on Napa that we didn't have to spend.

They can still get creative in generating space for next year. Even if the worst case scenarios are true with Tolman, Hoppa and Jackson, they could all be paid half of their salary by us and half by another club and that would generate $1.5 million in cap space...

Or the board could arrange TPA's for current or new recruits to ease the burden. They can't play this "mess we inherited" tune forever. Two years is enough, especially after releasing half the team and finishing in the bottom four both years. They have to start accepting responsibility that they knew they job they took on and could do better with what they can control....

 

[KLil]

I smell BS. There is no way that team is milking 10 mil including the other ****** that are still on the books for the next few years.

If it is true the club need to inform the members and supporters the true story and figures if they want any support through memberships on the back of all this.

 

[froggy]

I smell BS. There is no way that team is milking 10 mil including the other ****** that are still on the books for the next few years.

If it is true the club need to inform the members and supporters the true story and figures if they want any support through memberships on the back of all this.

I agree. This board have only one option to keep the fans from tearing the joint down. Release the actual figures and tell us who is on what. I know some people might think it’s crazy but I cannot figure out how we are on the same salary cap as Melbourne and the Roosters especially after releasing all those players.

Doing that would buy some love. Because it’s definitely grim at the moment

 

[seven07]

Des and co chose to fuck the future for a chance to win 1 - 2 premierships. They did this by trying to assemble the best possible talented roster they could, fitting them in by back ending the contracts and worrying about the fact they would no longer be able to sign anyone as the back end of those contracts came to pass. And even have to move some stars on to manage it.

Des is a fierce competitor and he thought his cunning plan was going to yield results. It backfired and so badly, that the counterbalance of having a lower salary cap is now the other side of the swing. Bend far enough and the rubber band is going to snap back! Hence, we all may be confused about where the money went, but it went into all those stars that got into 2 grand finals! Win 1 or 2 of them and suddenly we are back feeling satisfied. But what they did not count on is how overpaying for players because you have this back-ending strategy makes you spoil them too. Players like Mbye were not meeting the price tag and it was frustrating. Then they did not count on demoralising the team by moving on the most passionate of our players like Josh and Graham.

The greed to play the system was a big gamble and we lost big. The board and Des had to go - but now we are trying to move through the counterbalance phase that is taking 3 years and we are only half way through it.

No point whinging about it - it has happened and the current board don't have magic wands.

Yes there is a point of whinging you don't look for excuses you look for answers. This board all seems to do is look for excuses, how do you get rid of woods, mbye,klezmer,Morris bros just doesn't make sense Jesus fucking Christ how dumb can you get.

 

[seven07]

I agree. This board have only one option to keep the fans from tearing the joint down. Release the actual figures and tell us who is on what. I know some people might think it’s crazy but I cannot figure out how we are on the same salary cap as Melbourne and the Roosters especially after releasing all those players.

Doing that would buy some love. Because it’s definitely grim at the moment

Mate there taking us fans for a ride. Hughes couldn't wait to change the subject when old man rothfield was giving it to the board. At the end of the day lyn Anderson couldn't run a brothel let alone an nrl club.

 

[steeliz]

I know but most if not all of the backended contracts should be expired by now or this year. I still think that no-one of any quality wants to come over. Obviously the club would never admit this as it would be embarrassing plus weaken their chances of staying in power.

The last of the back-ended contracts will be seen next year unfortunately.

The Des/Dib/Raerae gift that just keeps on giving.

 

[Mr Invisible]

Much ado about nothing is what I heard.

Up to 1 min 30
"club has let players go"
"buzz saying dogs have no cap space".
"Blocker saying club has no strike player"
"Toovey questions where the money has gone"

1 min 31 to END
Buzz then questions why the board extended Pay, given they were critical of the old board doing the same with Hasler, and states the club won't attract any players.

Hughes fires back that they don't have any money in the cap.

HOWEVER coaches aren't included in the cap, so sacking the coach makes no difference to our cap situation, but does make the club a more attractive prospect (the point Rothfield is making).

CLIP ENDS

I honestly think Hughes has as much idea about the clubs financial status, as Buzz Rothfield, and neither are remotely close.

You can't release players from a cap (and not pay them) and yet be so close to the cap. If we are making assumptions based on that, and releasing those players STILL being on the cap, then we'd be WAY over the cap if they stayed.

Sorry... I don't buy it.

If anything it's Hughes making excuses for his mates because they've fucked up. He knows it but won't admit it.

Hughes literally says fuck all.. and I watched it twice?

Yup lots of assumptions being made in this thread.

 

[Trafford10]

I'm not buying the narrative of let's write off 2020 already and there's nothing the board can do... I'm aware of the massive backended contracts and Foran etc, but no one told them to waste 500k plus on Napa that we didn't have to spend.

They can still get creative in generating space for next year. Even if the worst case scenarios are true with Tolman, Hoppa and Jackson, they could all be paid half of their salary by us and half by another club and that would generate $1.5 million in cap space...

Or the board could arrange TPA's for current or new recruits to ease the burden. They can't play this "mess we inherited" tune forever. Two years is enough, especially after releasing half the team and finishing in the bottom four both years. They have to start accepting responsibility that they knew they job they took on and could do better with what they can control....

How much do you think Tolman & Hopoate are on?

 

[Vek]

hate to say it but buzz is 110% right.

Club needs to stop with salary cap excuses. We were playing against a reserve grade raiders side and still lost, they were missing like $3mil of cap in that match.

 

[Memberberries]

So which coaches are available now, who are here in Australia?

Hook
Toovey
?

You serious? The NRL don't have coaches anymore?

Bring back the captain-coach.

 

[James zac]

Nothing to look forward atleast in 08 we had 09 to look ahead too just forfeit 20 all togeather fucking joke

 

[_G-Dog_]

hate to say it but buzz is 110% right.

Club needs to stop with salary cap excuses. We were playing against a reserve grade raiders side and still lost, they were missing like $3mil of cap in that match.

Thats definately true.. Raiders had 7 first choice out..

 

[Mr Invisible]

I want to know the answer to Tooveys question. WHERE HAS THE MONEY GONE? Because it sure hasn't gone on players.

 

[Dogna88]

I am pretty sure Hughes says im the interview that they are signing Israel Falaou on 300k a season for 3 seasons

 

[Dogtime]

And tooves was spot on. Why release woods and mbye ffs. And wheres the fkn money freed up...did psy spend it on sue and meaney fuck me

Remember a team must nominate 30 players within available cap plus sanctioned TPA's. Before we let Woods and Mbye go last year we only had $245k odd to spend on 6 players so YES letting these guys go allowed us to sign Okunbor, Harper Sue etc etc to registerable contracts PLUS free up around $1m to spend on possibly an Oates or Pangi Jnr but both of these guys wanted to stay with Bennett. They both now have egg on their face as Bennett left. We still have close to $1m but theres nobody we want available. BTW we wanted both Morris boys to go...they are hard to deal with.

Ive said it before. All NRL contracts once registered with NRL should be published for transparency reasons...just like all USA professional sports contracts in NFL MLB NBA and NHL. Fuck the privacy bullshit. Every stakeholder deserves to know the salaries each player is on...it creates a far more level playing field because ATM player managers can bullshit their player clients and clubs by sprouting false salaries to talk some players up and others down for competitive advantage reasons. Publish the fucken salaries NRL. Then we can see which clubs backend deals and which clubs dont and openly compare players club to club. Publishing salaries is the biggest step in creating a truly level playing field.

 

[Bulldog_NJ]

Geoff Toovey is a legend! He's saying exactly what everyone else is thinking. How can you still be under cap pressure if you have offloaded Klemmer, Woods, Mbye, Morris, Morris, and have replaced them with riff raff. It does not make sense. What if Mbye and Klemmer, and Woods were all still there, and the Morris boys accepted their shorter deals to stay as well? Big load of BS.

The truth of the matter is that this current board has nothing in the way of attracting third party deals, and Dean Pay has nothing as a coach, both tactically, and in attracting any quality players to play under him.

 

[B-Train]

How much do you think Tolman & Hopoate are on?

No idea. Who knows with Des' shifty backending and ratchet clauses? I reckon a more realistic figure would have Tolman, Hoppa and Jackson on about 800k each next year due to backending in the last year of their deal but that's a pure guess.

To my original point, even if you paid half of that for next year, I'm sure you could find clubs to sign each of those guys at 400k for next year. That frees up $1.2 million to spend on three players for next year and that's overestimating how much freight they'd have to pay to get clubs interested.

Either way, the club have more cap space and options to generate space than they're letting on.