Suney_J said:
it wouldnt mean a thing if they were all still playin with the club, but the fact that 8 of those 12 overpaid players no longer play with the club is very significant! combine them with the other players that also left, and together it made it possible for the club to keep its players
Kind of my point, will be explained below.
Suney_J said:
first you said there was no way the Bulldogs could assemble their squad if they didnt cheat, and now you're saying they were being paid above their market value? these two statements contradict eachother, and just shows your talkin BS, and also shows even if we didnt cheat it was still possible to assemble our current sqaud because as i said above 8 of the 12 overpaid players left aswell as other players, and that wouldve even made it possible to stay under the cap in 2002
No, there is no way you would have been able to assemble your current squad (2004 squad which includes Price, Thurston, Scott, Hutch etc). Yes, during the time you were cheating the salary cap you were paying players above their market value. Because of that, you were able to keep them even after you actually stopped cheating, because they had already gotten more money than they would have anywhere else and therefore were willing to accept reduced deals. Why wouldn't a club like Souths do the same thing? Build a strong squad through cheating, paying all players more than they would get elsewhere. Then, if they get caught, they sacrifice that year and win the premiership 2 years down the track. They do this by keeping virtually all their top players on 'reduced' contracts and then cut any un-needed players and reserve graders. Sounds better than fighting off the wooden spoon every year.
My main 2 points are:
1) Bullcheats were not effectively punished by the NRL as they won 2 years later with virtually the same squad (even though you tried to claim it was a completely different team)
2) The Bulldogs squad would not have been assembled if they didn't cheat the cap. The talent at the club would have probably been spread amongst 4 clubs.
I don't see how you have disproved either of these points? You keep saying you sufferred because you lost all these players (you always seem to include Price even though he was there all year) but not many other sides except possibly the Rorters could have a Kiwi international running around in PL for most of the year, as well as Thurston. Not bad for a side struggling to hold onto players after being caught cheating! The cap will start to bite next year (surely you can't resign a back row of Willie Mason, Andrew Ryan AND Sonny Bill), although you already have your premiership, so it was all worth it.
Suney_J said:
oh please, sonny bill was playing Flegg, there was no was he in the top 25 paid players in 2002, the same goes for maitua, and we gained tonga at a low price (as you mentioned earlier)
Your point?
Suney_J said:
i break up your sentences so i can show exactly what im replyin to! Tonga made himself WELL-KNOWN this year (it really took-off in rd 13 against the roosters when he gave hodges a footy lesson), if you compare his popularity last year to this year you will understand my point, and because people knew of him last year but wasnt WELL-KNOWN the Bulldogs were able to offer a relatively low offer (as you mentioned earlier and was my whole point)
A little pedantic and a little off topic. Although I agree, he is more popular this year. He obviously didn't give Hodges the best lesson because he still has no idea. Perhaps more an exhibition? I'm sure we could go on picking one word out of each post but who can be bothered?