Heads should be banged over our cap management

[TheLoneRooster]

2 things.
we will struggle in the first 3-4 rounds.
its the 1st time in 10 years that we have been under or on the salary cap
we just finished last season,paying off,FLANNERY,tODD pAYTEN,Brett Firman etc etc etc.
its the first time that we have started on an even keel.
Just remember that we will not go anywhere the premiership this year.
maybe 2010/11

Just finished paying off Flannery, Payten and Firman? Doesn't sound right.
Very interesting but I'm curious how you know these things?

I agree with your sentiment that "we will not go anywhere [near?] the premiership this year" and that 2010 or 2011 may be successful. More likely 2011 as a larger portion of these 18/19/20 year olds mature.

[Guest]

Good on the Strangler for getting a ring.
Dessy got him a lot fitter than we did, but i don't think he did much to win them the comp. I think that Kite, Watmough, Williamson, Beaver, Stewart x 2, Orford, Matai, Lyon had a bit more to do with it.

Well ask Dessy if he wants to swap him for one of our No.9's and you'll get a "thanks, but no thanks". Man of few words Dessy, mostly the right ones though.

[Pass the Ball]

Our current line-up would put fifty on the 17 players listed that we have "lost"...

Toops is a huge loss in my mind though..

[Guest]

I have kept my silence over my thoughts on our chances in the 09 season but after reading the following article this morning I could no longer do so.

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegrap...006066,00.html

Roosters' Fitzgibbon insult
By Andrew Webster | January 31, 2009 12:00am

DISTURBING whispers have come out of Bondi about Craig Fitzgibbon and Nate Myles taking pay cuts in the Roosters' bid to snare Reni Maitua.
Maitua signed with Cronulla because he wanted to be close to coach Ricky Stuart (and presumably to Northies).
But we can understand if Fitzgibbon was filthy, given he (a) played for NSW and Australia last year (at the age of 31), (b) they ripped the captaincy off him, and (c) he's taken several pay cuts in recent seasons so they could keep and sign other players.

Some of the decision makers at the Roosters need their heads banged together before it is to late. I mistakenly thought that when Tupou and Roberts were allowed to leave for greener pastures (bigger dollars) that some commonsense had entered the room and that suitable more bang for your buck replacements would be purchased. How wrong could I be all we got was a young pom who in all likely hood be of little or no benefit to the team. Some people were saying that we were keeping our powder dry so that we could be a major player in the market for next season.

So why if true were we asking our longest serving most loyal player Fitzy to yet again take another pay cut?
Wtf has the money gone?
Look at the team you could pick from the players we have lost in the last 18 months or so.
1.Foley
2 Roberts
3 Monaghan
4 Flannery
5 Williams
6 Wing
7 Soward
8 Shillington
9 L’estrange
10 M.Paea
11 Tupou
12 Plum
13 Harrison
Reserves
D.Williams
C.Beattie
D.Nutley
J.Lewis
Fair side that, could certainly give our current side a run for it’s money.

So given we are skint
Where the hell has our cap gone?
Looking at our current squad for 2009 it appears imho to be weaker than our 2008 and our depth appears to be paper thin especially when Freddie says that a 16 year old Boyd Cordner could get a run if injuries hit. I’m sure we will go backwards this season and I’m concerned how far as our ability to score points will be sorely tested. If we get hit hard with injury I can see us falling into the bottom 4 and if we are lucky with injuries we can battle it out for the lower rung places in the 8. Hopefully we might get lucky and Williamson may have a debut season like Folau, Hayne or Inu had a few seasons back but I think that is expecting a bit to much from a kid who only had a handful of NYC games last season.
5 of the following Rookies must be in our top 25 going by the 32 profiles listed on our website.
Cordner,Jones,Natealofa,White,Hall,Kennedy,Ahern,W illiamson,Masoe,Sisa Waqa,Tuigamala and Stan Waqa.
Some of these players will be struggling to get a game for Newtown let alone pushing for 1st Grade

Well well well sadly I was right although I wish I'd been wrong

[Kingbilly]

Williamson will be better then Monaghan by the end of this season.

At the moment he isn't even on the radar as far as first grade goes, so I doubt it will be this year.