An excuse? I’m not going to claim to know what Foran is on like some of our cap expert brethren, but it’s fair to say it’s close enough to 10% of the cap for 2020? 10% of your cap sitting on the sideline for let’s say at least 50% of the season is hardly what I’d call an excuse. It’s a combination of previous bad management (signing a broken player on massive dollars) and bad luck (said broken player proven to be broken ongoing). The fact remains that 2020 is the final year of cap pain where we still have one hand tied behind our back due to previous decisions. So yes, whilst 2020 is not as bad financially compared to 2018 and 2019, it’s still not blue sky...
You're right every season there are teams that do better or worse than expected. If we start strong the bookies will change too (look at Manly last year). At the moment it looks like we have a mental block when the pressure is on regarding ladder position/finals contention (I also think we lack talent across the field compared to the majority of the other teams and if we lack effort as well we're no chance). Going into the season my expectations are what I've stated (combination of bookies and my own thoughts) but I will reassess as the season progresses. We also need to remember if we didn't sign DWZ mid season and he didn't have the impact we had we most likely would of finished wooden spooners or second last. Our most creative Half on 10% of our salary cap is out for the majority of the season too.
Wheeling excuses out before a ball has been kicked has been way too easy for the club in the last few years. Sure some has been valid but it’s got to stop. What percentage of the cap Foran takes up is a moot point once the 17 is on the field and it was shown last season the team can win with out him. It’s not one hand tied behind our back anymore the club has made recruitment decisions with this current roster that they now have to live by. As I said before theres no excuses to not be ultra competitive and winning our fair of games when money is on the table. Top 4 and winning comps isn’t happening yet because of the previous cap management but using that as a excuse for anything else is a cop out as far as I’m concerned.
Take Cameron Smith out of the Storm and replace him with B. Smith or Grant (both good replacements to be fair we don't have that luxury) they scrape into the bottom eight for a team expected to finish second. You can apply this to many teams. If you think competing without 10% of your salary cap (even more for us due to back ended deals and paying players elsewhere) isn't an excuse I don't know what to tell you. It doesn't mean we throw in the towel and give up but you can't expect a miracle.
Agree to disagree. We aren’t as affected this year but it’s definitely still an important factor and cannot just be forgotten when weighing all factors up
Incorrect.
We are paying Foran ridiculous overs so comparing him to Smith who is value for his 10% is a bad example. Foran hasn’t been involved enough since he joined the club to be that much of a major factor that he is missing again. The Storm missing Smith leaves a much bigger hole to file then Foran does for us.
Sorry 14 haha
Foran is still our best player. He's on 10% of our salary cap (add that with our other issues) which prevents us from spending it elsewhere on the squad (we're competing millions under the salary cap). I'd say it's much worse for us than Storm that have a much better team across the field than us. They also have better replacements than we do. You can't deny it's an excuse and hinders our chances.
Spending the money elsewhere certainly is a factor I’ll give you that. Foran has never produced value for money even when fit. That’s why I don’t see it being that big of a excuse. A player on Foran’s money should be dominating games week in, week out and he doesn’t do that so the hole he leaves isn’t as big.
"(add that with our other issues) which prevents us from spending it elsewhere on the squad (we're competing millions under the salary cap)."
Foran is or almost is our best player every time he's on the field? He has done more than all of our halves combined and he played 14 games (and didn't finish all of them) last season. If Foran was injury free last season we make the eight (I still think he's one of the best five-eighths in the game and that isn't why you don't get bang for buck with him).
No one knows the exact figures but Tolman, Hoppa, Elliott, Jackson, Foran, Holland and Montoya could all be possibly on backended deals as they signed contracts while the old administration was in charge.
We're spending all of our cap but we're still carrying players on back ended deals (including Foran who isn't going to feature much if at all next season, Hopoate, Tolman and a lot of the players we still have from Des' time). I'm not exactly sure who and how many players we're paying to play elsewhere but there are some of them and this* year is the last year for that too (Mbye would almost be a certainty).
The rest of our team and specifically the halves are rubbish he should be the best player but he still doesn’t do enough to demand that money. He might do one or two nice plays a game but should be dominating and be doesn’t.