Opinion My take on the 3 wooden spoons

Wahesh

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These are my thoughts on the wooden spoons received over the years and my take on them:

2002: We saw the Roosters win the 2002 premiership, after which it was found out that they were over the salary cap by $150,000. The Roosters walked away completely unpunished, kept their premiership in hand, and prize money of $400,000. The Bulldogs were allowed to keep accruing points, however were automatically put in a situation into the wooden spoon position with 3 rounds remaining, and we were given no way of avoiding it. In seasons since, teams like the Warriors and Eels who also had salary cap breaches were allowed to accrue points AFTER they got their papers in order. We were not afforded that luxury.

I'll also add that were didn't deserve to win in 2002, however we certainly didn't deserve the wooden spoon either.

My verdict: Not Valid.

2008:
Not valid. Now this was a train-wreck of a season. In the off-season before 2008, Willie Mason left our club and went to the Roosters. The Roosters released Danny Williams to make room for Mason in their cap. Now, if that wasn't bad enough, Sonny-Bill Williams leaves midway through 2008 over pay. David Gallop fronted the media and said what Sonny-Bill Williams had committed was border-line fraud. Whether or not that was the case, the NRL did not support us in any way, not even salary cap exemptions to sign anyway midway through 2008 and saw us stumble to the wooden spoon.

Since then, it has become standard practice that the NRL allows players to transfer mid-season as long as salary cap space is agreed upon. Furthermore, the NRL allowed Sonny-Bill Williams contract to be registered for 2013 less than 5 years after he committed this fraud against the code. Yet another time the NRL has screwed the club over.

My verdict: Not Valid.

2021:
What a train-wreck of a season this was. It was one of those seasons where the ending couldn't come soon enough, but let's take a close look at what lead to this wooden spoon... and we have to rewind a fair bit. In 2017, Des screwed the teams salary cap space by signing broken half Foran to a million a season, effectively putting a big strain on our cap. Keiran wasn't effective and spent more time on the sideline. Again, the NRL did not give us any cap assistance. Sure, players get injured but when your biggest signing gets injured the NRL has a duty of care to mandate the competition, not screw teams over. Fast forward 3 seasons to 2020, Des was gone, and we had cap space to sign players for 2021. There was one little problem... there were no good players to sign. It was almost as if Des timed this to a tee and planned it from the start. Not only that, but, the management of our club gave Des 100% control of the team which something our club has never allowed for a coach. He's simply meant to coach the team. This is NOT the roots of our club and it was evident when Raelene Castle, the worst CEO our club has ever had, and one of the worst in the history of Australian sporting clubs, was shown the door. The wooden spoon for 2021 is on Des Hasler, not the club.

My verdict: Not Valid.
 

bradyk

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Not valid? 100% valid this year. You can't blame Dib and Castle for this year. We also deserved the wooden spoon last year (lucky to get away with it).
 

Spoonman84

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What are you on about every wooden spooner has a certain set of circumstances fall in to place that caused them to run last. Only 2002 isn’t valid the other two certainly are and were deserved. If anything we deserved more than one on the last 5 years and I’m glad we only got one.
 

LucasFitzo

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Definitely deserved to win in 2002, still not over that. Our punishment far exceeds any other breach from any other club. Should of won 3 comps during that period. 2002, 2004 and 2006 (Broncos Prelim, still burns too).
 

Wahesh

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A lot of people say we deserved it this year.

Did we, or did Des's incompetent management of the cap from 2017 sting us hard until this point in time?

I think the answer if obvious.
 

alchemist

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in 2002, I do think the club overpaid our players (eg. from memory, Anasta, who was only in his second season of FG was getting about $450K a season when the cap was $3.25 million a season = 14% of the cap) and I think that is obvious when you compare our squad that year to that of the Dragons, Broncos, Roosters etc... but it was demonstrated that we systematically breached the cap and deserved to have our points stripped... for example, Lance Armstrong justified himself by claiming that everyone else was doping, too, and hence he got no advantage and thus, was not cheating... not good enough

2008 was the culmination of the mismanagement of the FG squad from 2004 onwards, the overly punishing provisions of a salary cap that did NOTHING for development clubs and players they produced, that we were at the end of our run, the chaos of the SBW departure who we prioritised over the likes of Asotasi, Myles etc... well deserved even though I had hoped that we could pip the Knights to second last

as for this year, we are the worst team by a distance... not only are we deserving of the wooden spoon, it should be gilded to really ram home how poor we have been and become... the club has been thoroughly mismanaged since 2013
 

bradyk

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A lot of people say we deserved it this year.

Did we, or did Des's incompetent management of the cap from 2017 sting us hard until this point in time?

I think the answer if obvious.
Des made some bad signings/retention/decisions but we're mainly in this mess due to the higher ups, Castle and Dib, telling Des to play to a higher salary cap that didn't exist yet trying to get an advantage in recruitment being on the front foot, which didn't eventuate. We still haven't recovered from that decision but after 2020 I don't think you can blame that piece of history as the main reason anymore. The Andersons were also a joke.
 

chisdog

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1. 2002 I was told by 2 player managers at the time that the Roosters were over the cap more than we were & if you look at the squads that year at the beginning of the season we were predicted to come about 5th or 6th, but 17 straight wins means we would have won it. The game V the Raiders where we lost 38-34 the players were out at local clubs till at least 3am the day of the game & we didn't put in much of an effort in the first half. Agreed - invalid, we did not deserve it. Why didn't the Raiders of 1990 have their premiership stripped when they were double the salary cap?

2. The whole 2008 season is solely to blame on SOB Williams. It ripped a huge hole in the club & we wouldn't have finished last he he had been a man & lived up to the contract he signed. If he wanted to blame anybody, he should blame his manager. We only won it on points differential.

3. This year, well I think this one gets back to the salary cap debacle & the big question is how did the NRL allow the contracts of Foran & Woods after they said that they wouldn't be approved unless they could prove we could get under the cap. How did we do that? I just cannot see how it SHOULD have been approved. It seems to me like a set up with Hasler & Greenberg & I blame them the most.
 

jpneves

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Definitely deserved to win in 2002, still not over that. Our punishment far exceeds any other breach from any other club. Should of won 3 comps during that period. 2002, 2004 and 2006 (Broncos Prelim, still burns too).
2006 burns me also. The pass from Hodges to Berrigan was forward. A few other calls also were very dubious
 

Dognacious

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2002 wooden spoon, 2003 we lost prelim final. 2008 wooden spoon, 2009 we lost prelim final. 2021 wooden spoon...? Id be happy to even make finals let alone a prelim.
 

jpneves

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These are my thoughts on the wooden spoons received over the years and my take on them:

2002: We saw the Roosters win the 2002 premiership, after which it was found out that they were over the salary cap by $150,000. The Roosters walked away completely unpunished, kept their premiership in hand, and prize money of $400,000. The Bulldogs were allowed to keep accruing points, however were automatically put in a situation into the wooden spoon position with 3 rounds remaining, and we were given no way of avoiding it. In seasons since, teams like the Warriors and Eels who also had salary cap breaches were allowed to accrue points AFTER they got their papers in order. We were not afforded that luxury.

I'll also add that were didn't deserve to win in 2002, however we certainly didn't deserve the wooden spoon either.

My verdict: Not Valid.

2008:
Not valid. Now this was a train-wreck of a season. In the off-season before 2008, Willie Mason left our club and went to the Roosters. The Roosters released Danny Williams to make room for Mason in their cap. Now, if that wasn't bad enough, Sonny-Bill Williams leaves midway through 2008 over pay. David Gallop fronted the media and said what Sonny-Bill Williams had committed was border-line fraud. Whether or not that was the case, the NRL did not support us in any way, not even salary cap exemptions to sign anyway midway through 2008 and saw us stumble to the wooden spoon.

Since then, it has become standard practice that the NRL allows players to transfer mid-season as long as salary cap space is agreed upon. Furthermore, the NRL allowed Sonny-Bill Williams contract to be registered for 2013 less than 5 years after he committed this fraud against the code. Yet another time the NRL has screwed the club over.

My verdict: Not Valid.

2021:
What a train-wreck of a season this was. It was one of those seasons where the ending couldn't come soon enough, but let's take a close look at what lead to this wooden spoon... and we have to rewind a fair bit. In 2017, Des screwed the teams salary cap space by signing broken half Foran to a million a season, effectively putting a big strain on our cap. Keiran wasn't effective and spent more time on the sideline. Again, the NRL did not give us any cap assistance. Sure, players get injured but when your biggest signing gets injured the NRL has a duty of care to mandate the competition, not screw teams over. Fast forward 3 seasons to 2020, Des was gone, and we had cap space to sign players for 2021. There was one little problem... there were no good players to sign. It was almost as if Des timed this to a tee and planned it from the start. Not only that, but, the management of our club gave Des 100% control of the team which something our club has never allowed for a coach. He's simply meant to coach the team. This is NOT the roots of our club and it was evident when Raelene Castle, the worst CEO our club has ever had, and one of the worst in the history of Australian sporting clubs, was shown the door. The wooden spoon for 2021 is on Des Hasler, not the club.

My verdict: Not Valid.
2002 well we should have won the comp … only a sneaky journo as Oasis project got hold of info and that was the end of that season. I think Melbourne keeping 2 books for a few years and rorting the cap for that length of time and being stripped of 2 premierships, world club challenge and minor premierships and having to pay the prize money back was a little bit more then our cap rort. I do think no one would have beaten us in 2002 we made a grand final qualifier so potentially may have made another gf and won and still won in 2004 so effectively we could have done a 3-peat in the NRL era

2008 The SBW saga ruined the season but I do remember that we did allow SBW to come back for the roosters within the 5 years (we were financially compensated if I remember)

2021 Well we just were awful. The thing with the history our wooden spoons in my lifetime is we make the finals the following year so fingers crossed we do in 2022
 

habs

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2006 burns me also. The pass from Hodges to Berrigan was forward. A few other calls also were very dubious
We still haven’t recovered from that loss. We would have smashed melbourne in the grand final.
 
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