Continued success in the salary cap era

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MadMarcus

Toovey for NRL CEO
The difficult decisions we have had to make lately got me thinking about what it takes to remain successful for an extended period under the salary cap.

I think the first thing you need to do is continually bring new talent into the top grade. In 2011 we unearthed DCE and Hoppa Jr. It is no coincidence that we won the comp that year. DCE was probably one of the lowest paid halfbacks in the comp, but he was already one of the best. Hoppa Jr was a star from the moment he made his debut. Having these low paid but exceptionally talented stars in your team sets you apart from the clubs who have to pay market value for everyone on their roster.

While stars like DCE and Hoppa Jr do not come around often, I think the signs are good that we will be able to continue to generate a solid level of new talent over the coming years. Players like Gutherson, JSL, Lui, Hodges and Littlejohn all exceeded my expectations this year and - while not all of them will make it - some of them will go on to be the stars of the future - and I'm sure we will unearth more next year.

The other side of the equation is that you also need to let go of the guys who are past their prime and probably not really worth to us what they command on the open market. This has been a critical part of our success as a club for a long time. Brent Kite and even the great Beaver fell into this category in recent seasons. Going back further you could look at Fatty and Des himself as examples - and even Cliffy got a tap on the shoulder at the end. I think most people would say both Choc and Gift fall into this category today (and I don't mean any disrespect to either of them in saying that - look at the company they are in).

I guess the upshot of all that is that, while the club is making tough decisions and not everyone likes them, they are in my view doing what needs to be done for the club to remain successful. Gift seemed to be very aware of that in his interview, which was pure class. Unfortunately Choc appears to have taken it harder, but I suppose that's footy.
 
Cliffy actually got called back into the team at the 37 years old.

As for the rest, well yes, they all got to a point where it was time to hand the baton over to the younger guys. My issue is the way the club handled the situation. They should have made a decision on Glenn Stewart early in the piece, told him what was happening, and live by it. I think the reason why some of the players got pissed off, was not because Glenn didn't get a contract, but because they dragged the situation out over the space of nearly an entire year, and wound up offering him nothing anyway.
 
Snake said:
Cliffy actually got called back into the team at the 37 years old.

As for the rest, well yes, they all got to a point where it was time to hand the baton over to the younger guys. My issue is the way the club handled the situation. They should have made a decision on Glenn Stewart early in the piece, told him what was happening, and live by it. I think the reason why some of the players got pissed off, was not because Glenn didn't get a contract, but because they dragged the situation out over the space of nearly an entire year, and wound up offering him nothing anyway.

I can understand why the decision took time with all the moving parts of constructing a football team, but I do think that Glenn, who in any other job would be past the Long Service Leave stage, deserved the respect of being informed of the employers position throughout the process.
 
I do agree that it would appear that the situation could have been handled better, but my point is that ultimately I do think the right decisions are being made (and Gift was one of my favourites for a long time).

ps. Cliffy was called out of retirement as an act of desperation because Craig Field was rubbish - I think those were exceptional circumstances!
 

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