Bulldogs pay $1m to free up cap for 2009 Daniel Lane | March 2, 2008 http://www.leaguehq.com.au/news/news/bulldogs-free-up-cap-room/2008/03/01/1204227050679.html AN UPFRONT payment worth more than a million dollars to Andrew Ryan and Luke Patten has cleared the decks for the Bulldogs to go on a massive spending spree to help rebuild the club as an NRL superpower in 2009. The Bulldogs hierarchy, ousted in the wake of the recent board elections, paid Ryan a reported $350,000 a year for two years and Patten $225,000 a year for two seasons. The pair enjoyed generous salaries for two reasons - the departure of international forwards Willie Mason and Mark O'Meley to the Roosters freed up lots of money, and the old hierarchy thought shovelling the money to Ryan and Patten was good business because it would give the Dogs more money to spend under the 2009 salary cap. Members of the new Bulldogs faction would have preferred the old regime to have used the cash to buy forwards, but they've now focused their attention on buying the cream of the crop coming off contract. Melbourne Storm's teen sensation Israel Folau has already been sized up for a Bulldogs jumper and the money he is demanding shouldn't be a concern. North Queensland enforcer Carl Webb is also on their hit list. "We've lost Mason, we'd take him back tomorrow if we could," said one of the new board's backers. "Now we have to look around and buy players of a similar quality back." The Bulldogs on Friday appointed deputy chairman Peter Cassilles as interim chief executive of the NRL club following the resignation of Malcolm Noad after the rival ticket seized control of the Bulldogs board. The club will not advertise for a new CEO after it received 15 "top-shelf" applications, of whom two are said to come from top management at the Olympic Park precinct. Chairman George Peponis said Cassilles, a former player and life member, would hold the position until a permanent replacement for Noad was appointed. The Bulldogs have postponed Wednesday's summit to broker a peace deal between the warring factions following the spiteful build-up to the football club elections. "The club is moving to Sydney Olympic Park this weekend and is in the process of looking for a new CEO and media manager," Peponis wrote to selected supporters. "As such, the club feels it is best to defer the summit until a more appropriate time." Noad's departure is said to have been explosive. The self-titled 'Top Dog' was meant to oversee the move to Homebush Bay and was incensed to be instructed by Peponis to sign a document that he was resigning from the football and leagues clubs. Noad had not planned to step down as a director of the leagues club, a position which pays a $40,000 honorarium. There is a suggestion life member Graeme Hughes, who ruled himself out as a CEO candidate, was interested in applying for a role to manage media, marketing and events. Meanwhile, the club has employed investigators to try to prove Chris O'Brien did not act alone in sending out emails that attempted to discredit director Ray Dib and unsuccessful candidate Hughes before the election. "The initial investigations would suggest one or two people should be very nervous," said The Sun-Herald source. Source: The Sun-Herald
