Ryan link said:
[quote author=clontaago link=topic=184862.msg287560#msg287560 date=1282813271]
Like Farrar was ever going to get a gig next year Ryan. Our recruitment dept should be praised for doing the swap in the first place. Look at our backs next year, he's not required.
Stewart
Williams
Matai
Lyon
Robbo
Williams
Whare
Oldfield
Try our biggest area of need though Doug - forwards.
And Kiwi, Choc, Stewart & Lyon were all already re-signed, but the announcements were held over to make Graham Lowe look good.
Also, we have NOT signed Foran / Matai. They could just as easily accept a rugby union contract on $500k. I heard that Tasi, JWH and Mitch Pearce are still trying to coax Foran over to The Roosters. It was from a nuffy on the piss, but I heard it none the less.
We've signed nobody, have told Beaver we can't sign him, and Lowe / Crusher / whoever has not signed anyone in his tenure except Harrison.
Add that to the fact we have lost our major sponsor, and a few silver sponsors.
If anyone thinks our forward packs looks unfit, old & injury prone now, imagine what they'll look like with an additional year under their belts. I have to agree with Darren in this respect.
Gone are the days where if we wanted to keep a player, they stay. Over 12 months ago, their appeared a loyalty pact amongst the group. This Lowe era has completely changed that in my opinion.
Sorry if that puts anyone off - I'm still not a fan, and are still yet to see ANY value add from Lowe (I'm excited to see what our membership numbers look like next year with him on board).
Again - he has done great things in NZ (I guess???), but in Australia - he's done nothing...except attend "events", and tell people what he CAN'T do. It's Chalk and cheese between him, and a young, innovative guy like Greenberg (who everyone is now saying may be rorting the cap due to his ability over the past 24 monsth to lure big name players like Pritchard, Morris, Ennis, Stagg, Eastwood & co. to his shores.
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I agree with quite a bit of what you have said but you have to concede that the salary cap is also impacting on our ability to sign players. We won a premiership 2 years back, players values went up and we had to upgrade a number of contracts. Whilst I am far from convinced on Lowe it is not all his fault we cannot sign or retain all our players when you have to work in the cap. Especially with what happened to Melbourne this year, everyone would want to be above board with their contracts.Â