Big name signings and Manly

[Tragic Eagle]

Lets get things back in perspective. As a club were on death row two years ago. We have done well to retain our core talent after having been well and truly screwed. We were just getting back into the game financially and corona virus struck. Hopefully we will continue on the up and I hope by 2021 we will keep growing. Until then I don't expect any big name signings from outside the club. However, our current squad has over the past two weeks under performed and the natural instinct is for us (this forum) to look outside of the squad for reinforcements. We have enough talent but but lack form and execution. We tend to respond well to adversity so I hope that response is as close as our next game. As a side note I envy clubs that can throw young stars into the fray with great results. Lucky we make sure they are ready first.

 

[47MVEagle]

Come on now, it's a long-running joke that teams like Roosters, Broncos & Storm have salary "sombreros" instead of caps due to their circumvention of salary cap & TPA restrictions.

The rest of the clubs dont have such luxury & it shows in who are perennial top 4 teams.

We've had hard times since the late 90s - the JV with Norths, the division within our team due to the whole Foran & DCE retention mess, the Barrett & Bozo division, match fixing allegations & subsequent police investigation closely followed by the TPA "arms length" investigation & penalties, refusal of medical retirements for Snake & Matai, etc etc etc.

Yet in that period we've won 2 premierships.

What other "non-favoured" club has achieved that?

We'll come good again.

I personally think Des is looking at 2020 as simply a season to try out various combos & give the players he sees as successors to the likes of Thompson, Elliott, etc. a chance to gel.

 

[nightster]

Hindsight question could it maybe have been better for the club if we had got rid of DCE and kept Hastings instead?

Well thats another story I don't think it was that DCE wasn't moved on but that the club (Baz), treated JH so unfairly ..... but interesting point

 

[Bomb Voyage]

All jokes aside Manly have a problem with DCE.

He is not worth 1.25m a season now and if this has to go on till 2023, he surely isn't going to be getting any better in those 3 years
So a big chunk of the salary cap will be taken by a player past his prime and probably only worth 60% of what he is getting paid. (i.e. 800k max)

How do we overcome that, and build a team and get a decent half for the future with DCE bleeding the cap? Serious question.

totally agree with you. Answer is a series of very hard conversations between the club And DCE

 

[Peter C]

totally agree with you. Answer is a series of very hard conversations between the club And DCE

Agree also , but then again we're not getting much value from Tom T lately, certainly not from Walker

 

[rifraff]

Missing 3/4 of your spine doesn't help. Neither do our replacement spine players who are all on next to nothing contracts and not good enough to attract offers from anyone else.

Give us our spine back, our attack comes back. We are then top four or very close to it..

Yeah yeah yeah injuries happen. To three at the same time though. Where else if not from DCE can we create attacking opportunities. There is nothing there.

 

[Nordburg]

Missing 3/4 of your spine doesn't help. Neither do our replacement spine players who are all on next to nothing contracts and not good enough to attract offers from anyone else.

Give us our spine back, our attack comes back. We are then top four or very close to it..

Yeah yeah yeah injuries happen. To three at the same time though. Where else if not from DCE can we create attacking opportunities. There is nothing there.

The problem is that even when TomT and Walker were playing this season they struggled to score points,barring a blow out against the struggling Dogs.Not sure if Des has gone back to his Canterbury attack days but he hasn’t been helped by DCE having a slow start to the season and no Fainu.Levi makes Lichaa look like Cam Smith

 

[rifraff]

The problem is that even when TomT and Walker were playing this season they struggled to score points,barring a blow out against the struggling Dogs.Not sure if Des has gone back to his Canterbury attack days but he hasn’t been helped by DCE having a slow start to the season and no Fainu.Levi makes Lichaa look like Cam Smith

Struggled to score sure, but still win. The resilience of the team to come back against the Eels and Broncs was great. I would actually take Lichaa over Levi. Apart from maybe some defense, I can't think of any time where I have watched Levi and thought, that was good..

 

[Nordburg]

Struggled to score sure, but still win. The resilience of the team to come back against the Eels and Broncs was great. I would actually take Lichaa over Levi. Apart from maybe some defense, I can't think of any time where I have watched Levi and thought, that was good..

Definitely not questioning their resilience but in two of their games they only conceded 14&19 but still lost.Fainu is the big loss.I stand to be corrected but I’d bet they’ve scored more points with Croker/Cust at dummy half than Levi

 

[rifraff]

Definitely not questioning their resilience but in two of their games they only conceded 14&19 but still lost.Fainu is the big loss.I stand to be corrected but I’d bet they’ve scored more points with Croker/Cust at dummy half than Levi

Fainu is a massive loss. Api with a bit of hindsight is a massive loss. Hoping this week Cust gets a start either at 6 or 9 or at least a little more game time. Bit more spark in him than Croker or Levi

 

[Nordburg]

Fainu is a massive loss. Api with a bit of hindsight is a massive loss. Hoping this week Cust gets a start either at 6 or 9 or at least a little more game time. Bit more spark in him than Croker or Levi

Spot on assessment of Cust.He has an error or two in him but that can be ironed out over time and looks like he isn’t afraid to take the game on and override DCE at times

 

[Chip and Chase]

we are 5 years into the 8 year DCE contract. For it to have been a worthwhile investment we need a premiership to justify that sort of commitment to one player IMO.

The way we finished last year I was bullish about our chances this season. Since then we had Fainu decide to pack some steel at a church dance, tom’s hammy gave way again, phantom got injured and Ted DiBiasi has forgotten how to play. There’s your spine looking like a limp piece of spaghetti now. 2020 looking gone on current form.

that leaves us 3 years to get our payday.

 

[Ryan]

To be fair to DCE, he's had a raft of 1, 6 & 9's to get accustomed to over the past few years. Walker, Turbo, Garrick, Croker, Cust, Elgey, Levi, Korisou, Fainu, Elliott (to name a few). I even remember last year Waddell slotted in at hooker during a game.

When he had even a SMALL snippet of consistency, with Stewart, Foran and Ballin, we attained premierships.

He's the current Queensland and Australian halfback. He's the captain of our club. He's always under the scrutiny of everyone.

Lastly, in regards to his cap hit, Graham Lowe stated DCE is our listed marquee player. At that time, there were allowable club guaranteed, third party allowances of up to $600,000 per year in marquee player allowances that aren't included in the cap. That, on top of up to $200,000 veteran and developed player allowance (that he qualifies for), $100,000 (be it shared among the group) motor vehicle allowance, and other small incentives like educational costs, I'd bet people would be very surprised at what his actual cap hit versus what he is paid is like.

He is very fair value for money. We are just struggling because 30-40% of our cap is on the sidelines. Like most teams would.

So glad he's on our team.

 

[SeaEagleRock8]

we are 5 years into the 8 year DCE contract. For it to have been a worthwhile investment we need a premiership to justify that sort of commitment to one player IMO.

The way we finished last year I was bullish about our chances this season. Since then we had Fainu decide to pack some steel at a church dance, tom’s hammy gave way again, phantom got injured and Ted DiBiasi has forgotten how to play. There’s your spine looking like a limp piece of spaghetti now. 2020 looking gone on current form.

that leaves us 3 years to get our payday.

This year's not done yet. Chooks are starting to rack up an injury toll, wouldn't surprise me to see them street the field but then run out of gas by October. Don't forget the Raiders were flavour of the month a few weeks ago but that is not going well. If Tom and Walker get back a few weeks before the finals, who knows what can happen!

 

[Kiwi Eagle]

Have I wandered into the asylum here ? Questioning the output and value of Jake Trbojevic ? LOL

All the chat about players worth is really moot point when you consider nobody has a clue what what they are actually on, or how much of the deal is a TPA, or how much is part of the marquee players allowance