Opinion The future and team rebuilding.

[blue & white blood]

So basically the 28 players we signed, resigned or debuted was a waste of 2 years of team rebuilding. I totally agree.

Yes! not just time but money, If our patron - saint "BULLFROG" was still with us I have no doubt that our spine at the moment would contain -
1. - Tedesco
6. - Meloney > who where of contract at the same time.
7. - Cronk
9. - Cook > who we had, & let him go
and probably the Moz boys on the left fringe
They would have soaked up most of the cap and we just add a couple of lesser paid descent forwards.
and we would be top of the Comp
& under the Cap. and probably having a different type of discussion right now on topics like - how much we will Beat the EEls by tomorrow or Which Jersey should we wear for the celebration night in the streets of Belmore in October. That's my opinion,

 

[TwinTurbo]

Yes! not just time but money, If our patron - saint "BULLFROG" was still with us I have no doubt that our spine at the moment would contain -
1. - Tedesco
6. - Meloney > who where of contract at the same time.
7. - Cronk
9. - Cook > who we had, & let him go
and probably the Moz boys on the left fringe
They would have soaked up most of the cap and we just add a couple of lesser paid descent forwards.
and we would be top of the Comp
& under the Cap. and probably having a different type of discussion right now on topics like - how much we will Beat the EEls by tomorrow or Which Jersey should we wear for the celebration night in the streets of Belmore in October. That's my opinion,

You’re both right and wrong. I have no doubt that the Bullfrog would not have let us get into the situation that we found ourselves in last year, that being the prospect of starting 2019 around $3m over the Salary Cap. But you are wrong in that even he couldn’t have fixed it any faster. We weren’t supposed to be able to get out of the shit hole for 3 years and been in the market for players until 2022. But with clever management and a solid streak of Bullfrog ruthlessness we are going to have serious cap available 2 years early. Next year we have cap space, enough cap space to seriously get into the market.

Go Dogs

 

[LordSidious66]

Players we had coming up through our junior ranks in the early 2010-2014 era were

Barba
Finucane
Jackson
Taupau
Kasiano
Reynolds
Klemmer
Mbye
Sezer
Latu

When it came to recruiting young players, some of the ones which slipped through our hands were Munster, Watson & Mitchell.

The salary cap fiasco was always going to bite us in the ass, sooner rather than later. I am not so much bothered by it, because i knew it was coming, but the fact that our junior development and scouting of good young players has really gone backwards.

The current philosophy of the Melbourne Storm as a club is the old Bulldogs, which was brought over to them by Chris Anderson and further enhanced by Bellamy.

Kevin Moore wasnt the greatest of coaches, but fuck he had a nose for recruiting good young prospects as well as established players. Surely he should be considered to come back in a recruitment roll.

Yeah man. I am surpised he is not even on board in the recruitment department considering he built two top 4 teams (2009 and 2012) and nsw cup won a couple of grand finals while he was coach. Least under him we recruited well in comparsion to that moron Hasler. Hope we get some good prospects in the years to come.

 

[Jean-Claude Juncker]

I'm quickly losing faith in the administration. They seem to be taking an extremely long-term view of things. Happy with the renewed focus on development in the regions; maybe it'll pay off in the next 5-10 years. But what the fuck is happening in the present. In the last couple of years, I've indulged in the nostalgia of the past having seemingly sprung back to life as much as anyone. Increasingly it's starting to feel like a mere simulacra of it; lots of signs and symbols that we're the club we used to be, but actually we're lost.

 

[bowleggedwog]

Spot on bro, every player's manager have already sharpened their pencils and have already taken advantage of us, for we must have paid crazy money.

In 2019 the basic wage is $105,000 for 26 players and $72,500 for 4. We only should have three players on decent coin, JJ, Foran and Napa. With all that in mind, how the hell did we fill our $9.6 mil salary cap ( $9.1 if the media rumors are correct and we are $500,000 under the cap) with the squad we've got ?

Hoppa was re signed for decent coin. CHN and Mariner would be in the 300k mark. Tolman was a dessie fav he would be up around the 400k. Our front row would be around the 1 -1.2 million mark. Back row would push 1.5mill. 6 players 2.5 million . Add foran , hoppa close to 4 million now. 8 players almost half cap there. I don't know, i just know dib n dessie fucked us.

 

[doggieaaron]

Ive found the issue with our club over the years is not paying enough to keep star players such as jt/sbw/barba etc but then pay massive overs for duds our talent identification seems poor

 

[Trafford10]

Hoppa was re signed for decent coin. CHN and Mariner would be in the 300k mark. Tolman was a dessie fav he would be up around the 400k. Our front row would be around the 1 -1.2 million mark. Back row would push 1.5mill. 6 players 2.5 million . Add foran , hoppa close to 4 million now. 8 players almost half cap there. I don't know, i just know dib n dessie fucked us.

We would only have 3 players over $500k being Foran, Jackson & Nappa.
I suggest that most clubs if not all would have more players on more than $500,000 than us.

 

[bowleggedwog]

We would only have 3 players over $500k being Foran, Jackson & Nappa.
I suggest that most clubs if not all would have more players on more than $500,000 than us.

Hoppa re signed on decent coin. I'm sure over 500k. Foran 1m
Jacko 700k
Nappa 600k
Hoppa 550k(ish)
Tolman 450k
If these numbers are close than you see how 9.6mill with no tpa can get swallowed up quickly.

 

[Spoonman84]

I'm quickly losing faith in the administration. They seem to be taking an extremely long-term view of things. Happy with the renewed focus on development in the regions; maybe it'll pay off in the next 5-10 years. But what the fuck is happening in the present. In the last couple of years, I've indulged in the nostalgia of the past having seemingly sprung back to life as much as anyone. Increasingly it's starting to feel like a mere simulacra of it; lots of signs and symbols that we're the club we used to be, but actually we're lost.

Whats the quick fix then? Unfortunately the only solution is long term. The junior work has been incredible in such a short space of time and its the only way forward in today's NRL environment.

Do I like where the club is presently on the field? Not at all. You can't fix the damage overnight and have to be patient.

 

[Trafford10]

Hoppa re signed on decent coin. I'm sure over 500k. Foran 1m
Jacko 700k
Nappa 600k
Hoppa 550k(ish)
Tolman 450k
If these numbers are close than you see how 9.6mill with no tpa can get swallowed up quickly.

Agree about the mark.
I think Hopoate woukd be more like $450k.
But look at other clubs, when Melbourne had Smith, Cronk & Slater they had 3 players at $1m.

Look at the Roosters or Souths now, how many players do they have on $500k plus?

Point is the club has plenty of room within the salary cap to manage the top 30.
In fact, how our roster evens gets to 95% of the salary is beyond me.

 

[Canis Maximus]

Too early to tell if this team can mature into future premiership winning team. How can you compare apples with apples? Lets put it into perspective:
Take our team from round 1 and 2. Same team yet so different from 2018. Hopoate and Jackson started 24 games, Lichaa 20 starts, Elliott 19 and JMK 18 starts. Crighton, Napa and CHN new to team and the rest started 15 games or less. It takes time to perfect the right combo’s. Stability to drill them over and over again and decide if the correct players in the correct position.

Forget the past – we released those who were overpaid, those who didn’t want to be here and even those toxic to our culture.
Moving forward - We sourced what we could from the pool available at the time. Money well spent?- only the board truly knows, the rest guess.

I feel the foundations are there. This board feels right, the coach needs time.

As for the next few years suffering in silence – when have the Bulldogs fans or The Kennel ever been silent?

Go dogs!

 

[bowleggedwog]

Agree about the mark.
I think Hopoate woukd be more like $450k.
But look at other clubs, when Melbourne had Smith, Cronk & Slater they had 3 players at $1m.

Look at the Roosters or Souths now, how many players do they have on $500k plus?

Point is the club has plenty of room within the salary cap to manage the top 30.
In fact, how our roster evens gets to 95% of the salary is beyond me.

I think you will find Brisbane Melbourne roosters are close to 11million plus cap with tpa.

 

[mr j]

We’ve established a culture right throughout our organisation of taking on and keeping blokes who ‘aren’t quite good enough but they’ll do’

Through continual selection of blokes that fail to get the job done we’ve actually embedded a culture of shitness into the whole club and need a complete overhaul if we want to achieve anything.

So glad I didn’t buy into any of the bullshit around the club this pre-season because if you think this coaching staff and playing list has the testicular fortitude to deliver when the heat goes up to that next level then you’ve got another thing coming.

 

[Kempsey Dog]

I would sign Robson, Staggs and Welch for next season and thats it.

 

[liljohny]

Can't move forward until we get a decent coach

 

[liljohny]

This is an embarrassment... Dean Pay must go for selecting this team

 

[bowleggedwog]

Sign willie and Reni to coach for the rest of the season . Fuck I'm glad I didn't buy season membership.

 

[Dogsarnthavingaparty]

No one really knows the true extent of the back-ended fiasco, I'm not even going to bother speculating. It's over now we're getting through it, time to move on imo

Its not over it hasn't even started open your fucking eyes ive supported bulldogs for 40 years never to witness this embarrassment they arnt good enough to be in 2019 competition truly spoon for us this year

 

[Stoofy]

Even Josh Renolds can't get a start with the Tigers. He would be a star in our side. That's how bad we are.

 

[The_Chimpster]

Its not over it hasn't even started open your fucking eyes ive supported bulldogs for 40 years never to witness this embarrassment they arnt good enough to be in 2019 competition truly spoon for us this year

You've supported the dogs for 40 years, good for you buddy. I never said we were good enough in 2019, far from it. What I meant was we're slowly working though it. Just being reminded of how shit we are and will be and moaning about the past isn't going to help