Gus on our squad and the salary cap

[Frozen Chook]

As for Kent rarely find anything he says illuminating about football - can’t remember him banging on in 2012 as we finished 13th about why NRL clubs weren't fighting each to sign up Moa and O'Donnell, or earlier on in the piece, hurry up and pick up the young Kiwi back SKD when he turned up at Clovelly, or the Parra unwanted in Tupou, or praising the rising youngsters such as Cordner, Guerra, Friend, JWH or RTS as many of them played in our younger grades.

As he said “Now, I assumed it would have been fairly easy to recognise most players, at schoolboy level, with the potential to go on and play rep football at NRL level”.

Apparently it isn't that easy for everyone to quote Kent himself "“but then what would I know?”"

[Frozen Chook]

Interestingly Brian Canavan enters the club at pretty much the same point in the cycle.

[Frozen Chook]

I know many on here as I have continued to try and expose the well-worn story that sports hack masquerading as journalists have trotted out since the 1970’s about Easts buying premierships.
It has been Easts approach since the end of the Gould era that we will develop squads largely as young players with a few key signings look at the 2000 grand final squad where the large percentage of the squad was under 23 led by Fittler and Lam and a few mid-career forwards. Went onto win the 2002 Grand final.

A similar pathway was followed leading up to the 2013 Grand Final with a relatively young squad boosted by the key signings of Jennings, SBW and Maloney joining Minichello who was the youngster in the previous decade’s rising squad. Add to that a couple of ex NRL super league players in Moa and O’Donnell and a quality coach and we have another grand final win.

[2026]

Gus has an incredible footy brain.His articles are always interesting. However, he shouldn't commentate!

[Frozen Chook]

Nice to see Football Gould out and about instead of Clown Gould

Agreed KB. Phil can and is a very interesting and knowledgeable person to listen to about football, but when he switches the Vaudeville on for the telly well that's another matter.

[Spirit of 66]

I think he's suggesting that we shouldn't be allowed to recruit young talented players and develop them. It's unfair.

[Spirit of 66]

But Paul Kent today has dismissed Gould's arguments:

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/spo...-1227288284425

[kakaruk]

Kent is a maggot.He is a cunning little merkin though.He is careful never to cross that line to the point that he could be sued .Hes just a grub imo.

[Hollus]

i don't even know what his point was, was he insinuating we are cheating?? We've been good for 2 years ffs, after close to 10 years of being crap with a couple of half decent seasons thrown in. How long did it take Manly to start losing players?? They've made the top 8 the last 10 years for crying out loud and only now are they starting to feel the affects.

Such BS!

[Johnny Tobin]

What about that idiot Kent on NRL 360 saying Gus was wrong. And he cites recent contracts as the proof. What a goose. The recent contracts are for following years.

[zac]

Would we still have a club if he hadn't come here in the 90s?

[Johnny Tobin]

No doubt about it.

[John Corey]

Actually he often writes positive things for us in his set of six.

I agree. I don't know why people think Gus has a dislike for the club. I often see him write good things about the Chooks and I have no doubt he has a soft spot for the club.

[ism22]

...Their roster is one primarily developed from within: 11 of their best 17 players made their NRL debut at the Roosters. Three others played a total of less than 10 first-grade matches between them at other NRL clubs.

Only James Maloney, Michael Jennings and Blake Ferguson joined the club as established NRL players. Their oldest player in that best 17 (Sam Moa) is just 28, while their youngest (Roger Tuivasa-Sheck) will be 22 in June.

If you can identify talent at an early age and back those players to develop into quality first-graders, your players' valuations will nearly always be rising. As a result, players who sit in your cap on contracts signed years earlier will always be in the cap well below their market value. If you want a playing roster like the Roosters, then you need to develop it, because it's far too expensive to buy...

[Kingbilly]

Nice to see Football Gould out and about instead of Clown Gould