Alex Hunter
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Headline in the Daily Telegraph but I don’t have a subscription to open...
News Dogs to bare teeth with $8.5 million war chest
- Thread starter Alex Hunter
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Bulldogs to exploit salary cap to attract NRL’s biggest stars
Canterbury will have an unprecedented $8.5m war chest to chase some of the NRL’s biggest names — including the Trbojevic brothers and Kalyn Ponga — after next season.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal the Bulldogs have just two senior players signed beyond the end of next year — prop Dylan Napa (2021) and forward Corey Harawira-Naera (2022).
While club officials expect success to be difficult over the next 18 months, Canterbury is planning to totally reinvigorate their playing roster in a desperate attempt to become a rugby league powerhouse once again.
Virtually all the current playing roster will either come off contract or be shopped around over the next year-and-a-half.
That would leave Canterbury with a war chest of between $8m to $8.5m to hunt down some of the game’s elite. The club will have the financial muscle to target any superstar player.
And no other NRL club will have such an extraordinary amount of space under their salary cap.
Canterbury players coming off contract over the next 18 months include Kieran Foran, Josh Jackson, Adam Elliott, Raymond Faitala-Mariner, Marcelo Montoya, Will Hopoate, Lachlan Lewis, Reimis Smith, Jack Cogger, Rhyse Martin, Sauaso Sue, Aiden Tolman and new recruit Dallin Waetene-Zeleniak.
Bulldogs players will play Monday afternoon’s game against St George Illawarra at ANZ Stadium aware they must perform or perish at Belmore.
Canterbury is closely monitoring the futures of Newcastle’s Ponga and Manly’s Tom and Jake Trbojevic. The Bulldogs know they urgently require a marquee player.
The Trbojevic brothers are free agents from November 1 and come off contract after next season.
Sea Eagles officials will be absolutely desperate to lock both down before the pair have an opportunity to test themselves on the open market where massive offers would await.
NRL recruitment and list managers believe Jake would be worth $700,000 a season while Tom could attract offers around $850,000 a year.
Ponga still has two-and-a-half years remaining on his current deal but has become the hottest property in the game.
Newcastle still hasn’t upgraded Ponga, the player and club not having discussed the matter for the past three weeks.
The Bulldogs can’t legally make offers to the Trbojevic brothers or Ponga but the players have been quietly discussed inside the club’s Belmore bunker.
One well-placed source close to Canterbury said: “The Dogs will be very active. There isn’t a lot the club can do before 2021 but come the end of 2020, there is a lot they can do.
“The Bulldogs will be as active as anyone else in the market. Canterbury has a winning DNA. Coming last — where they sit now — doesn’t sit well at Belmore. They will have as much money as any other club — if not more.
“There will still be some tough days ahead over the next year-and-a-half — there isn’t a lot the club can do about that — but then they will have a huge chunk of money on their books.”
Insiders close to Canterbury suggest every NRL club would be observing the Trbojevic situation.
Lesser known Canterbury players Christian Crichton, Nick Meany, Jayden Okunbor are also contracted until the end of 2021.
Bulldogs chief executive Andrew Hill could not contacted for comment.
Canterbury will have an unprecedented $8.5m war chest to chase some of the NRL’s biggest names — including the Trbojevic brothers and Kalyn Ponga — after next season.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal the Bulldogs have just two senior players signed beyond the end of next year — prop Dylan Napa (2021) and forward Corey Harawira-Naera (2022).
While club officials expect success to be difficult over the next 18 months, Canterbury is planning to totally reinvigorate their playing roster in a desperate attempt to become a rugby league powerhouse once again.
Virtually all the current playing roster will either come off contract or be shopped around over the next year-and-a-half.
That would leave Canterbury with a war chest of between $8m to $8.5m to hunt down some of the game’s elite. The club will have the financial muscle to target any superstar player.
And no other NRL club will have such an extraordinary amount of space under their salary cap.
Canterbury players coming off contract over the next 18 months include Kieran Foran, Josh Jackson, Adam Elliott, Raymond Faitala-Mariner, Marcelo Montoya, Will Hopoate, Lachlan Lewis, Reimis Smith, Jack Cogger, Rhyse Martin, Sauaso Sue, Aiden Tolman and new recruit Dallin Waetene-Zeleniak.
Bulldogs players will play Monday afternoon’s game against St George Illawarra at ANZ Stadium aware they must perform or perish at Belmore.
Canterbury is closely monitoring the futures of Newcastle’s Ponga and Manly’s Tom and Jake Trbojevic. The Bulldogs know they urgently require a marquee player.
The Trbojevic brothers are free agents from November 1 and come off contract after next season.
Sea Eagles officials will be absolutely desperate to lock both down before the pair have an opportunity to test themselves on the open market where massive offers would await.
NRL recruitment and list managers believe Jake would be worth $700,000 a season while Tom could attract offers around $850,000 a year.
Ponga still has two-and-a-half years remaining on his current deal but has become the hottest property in the game.
Newcastle still hasn’t upgraded Ponga, the player and club not having discussed the matter for the past three weeks.
The Bulldogs can’t legally make offers to the Trbojevic brothers or Ponga but the players have been quietly discussed inside the club’s Belmore bunker.
One well-placed source close to Canterbury said: “The Dogs will be very active. There isn’t a lot the club can do before 2021 but come the end of 2020, there is a lot they can do.
“The Bulldogs will be as active as anyone else in the market. Canterbury has a winning DNA. Coming last — where they sit now — doesn’t sit well at Belmore. They will have as much money as any other club — if not more.
“There will still be some tough days ahead over the next year-and-a-half — there isn’t a lot the club can do about that — but then they will have a huge chunk of money on their books.”
Insiders close to Canterbury suggest every NRL club would be observing the Trbojevic situation.
Lesser known Canterbury players Christian Crichton, Nick Meany, Jayden Okunbor are also contracted until the end of 2021.
Bulldogs chief executive Andrew Hill could not contacted for comment.
Hi All my first post. I found this article says we are after a hooker and prop for 2020. Just what we are missing in my opinion.
Enjoy.
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I wouldn’t say this is really shocking news it’s pretty easy to look at the players contracted post 2020 and work it out.
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Yh but I'm not sitting through another season of this garbage next year with Pay fucking shit up once again. Club needs to sort this asap.
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We have a future gun prop playing reserve grade but pay the dud wont pick him
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Yeah dean Ritchie has read this forum and whipped this together lol. Gotta add in the Manly boys to give his mate Des a heads up... those boys will never leave Manly
Squash the Berries!
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My despondency is starting to decrease.
B-Train
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2021 is a year and a half away and the media are already trying to drive up the price of every target because we have an endless "war chest". I know we're negotiating but articles like these won't help keep things low key.
You have to love how often the media change the narrative to suit them. Just a month ago we were missing out on targets and they went on about our cap issues. Now we're the cashed up Sultans that can sign any player.
You have to love how often the media change the narrative to suit them. Just a month ago we were missing out on targets and they went on about our cap issues. Now we're the cashed up Sultans that can sign any player.
B-Train
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Yeah exactly. That amount of cap space is almost unheard of in the modern game and would be enticing to any coach. It just has to be the right coach who uses it wisely.
As Des the Destroyer has proven, If that type of power and cap space gets in the wrong hands it can be disastrous. But Pay should be booted as soon as possible so that whoever it is can take control and start planning properly.
Kurrupt78
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Yeah most likely. Prob why we should ease up publicly asking inside info. I can see the reason why now. There should be a private page where certain members can log in for sensitive stuff.
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Surely our club isn’t wait till 2021 to be competitive
Kiwipup
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What do you propose
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Pay will spend half the war chest on a 10 extension for Elliot.
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They made two signings already this week it’s not like they are sitting on their hands till 2021!
GrogDog
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The priority should be the main signing first, this would reduce the amount we pay for other's as they will want to be involved in the revival. 18 months is a long time to wait after about 4 years already but what choice have we?
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Moving players on like most clubs do it aint rocket science and im not so sure our cap is as bad as people are making out