Nick and the Sombrero

  • We had an issue with background services between march 10th and 15th or there about. This meant the payment services were not linking to automatic upgrades. If you paid for premium membership and are still seeing ads please let me know and the email you used against PayPal and I cam manually verify and upgrade your account.
But what he omits to say is that they bought the best 18 to 20 year olds from others clubs and have kept them by paying them (or their families) secretly outside the salary cap.
As for buying established players, he conveniently forgot Morris and Hall - even JWH.
So, let's look at the roster comparison with Manly, which always seems to be under pressure.
Our best players are the Turbos, who are locals, and DCE who has been with us for almost a decade.
The established players we've bought are: Kapow, Walker, Sironen, Thompson, Api and Elliot....
Hardly compare to Tedesco, Cronk, Keary, Crighton, JWH, Morris, Hall....
Anyway, Easts are the one club that can have by far the best roster with only one local (to my knowledge, Radley). Somehow, clubs with a heap of juniors have more trouble keeping within the Cap than Easts.
They obviously are 'smarter' than all other clubs.
 
But what he omits to say is that they bought the best 18 to 20 year olds from others clubs and have kept them by paying them (or their families) secretly outside the salary cap.
As for buying established players, he conveniently forgot Morris and Hall - even JWH.
So, let's look at the roster comparison with Manly, which always seems to be under pressure.
Our best players are the Turbos, who are locals, and DCE who has been with us for almost a decade.
The established players we've bought are: Kapow, Walker, Sironen, Thompson, Api and Elliot....
Hardly compare to Tedesco, Cronk, Keary, Crighton, JWH, Morris, Hall....
Anyway, Easts are the one club that can have by far the best roster with only one local (to my knowledge, Radley). Somehow, clubs with a heap of juniors have more trouble keeping within the Cap than Easts.
They obviously are 'smarter' than all other clubs.

Well connected , well run , and well over the cap!!
 
But what he omits to say is that they bought the best 18 to 20 year olds from others clubs and have kept them by paying them (or their families) secretly outside the salary cap.
As for buying established players, he conveniently forgot Morris and Hall - even JWH.
So, let's look at the roster comparison with Manly, which always seems to be under pressure.
Our best players are the Turbos, who are locals, and DCE who has been with us for almost a decade.
The established players we've bought are: Kapow, Walker, Sironen, Thompson, Api and Elliot....
Hardly compare to Tedesco, Cronk, Keary, Crighton, JWH, Morris, Hall....
Anyway, Easts are the one club that can have by far the best roster with only one local (to my knowledge, Radley). Somehow, clubs with a heap of juniors have more trouble keeping within the Cap than Easts.
They obviously are 'smarter' than all other clubs.
As I have mentioned before, in the 2013 GF the only Roosters local product was Tom Symonds
 
giphy.gif
Nick when he needs to win a hole
 
"We're very good at developing players"........

Translation: We're very good at buying the best players other clubs develop through their juniors then telling everyone that we developed them because they played in our 18s and 20s.

One of their senior recruits I always point to with how do they manage it in their cap is that at the end of last year they lost Blake Ferguson, who they always claimed was on a bargain basement deal. Yet who did they sign to replace him? Brett Morris AND Ryan Hall.....arguably the best Aussie and best Pommy wingers of the past decade. And neither would have been cheap, especially Hall.
 
Last edited:
"We're very good at developing players"........
One of their senior recruits I always point to with how do they manage it in their cap is that at the end of last year they lost Blake Ferguson, who they always claimed was on a bargain basement deal. Yet who did they sign to replace him? Brett Morris AND Ryan Hall.....arguably the best Aussie and best Pommy wingers of the past decade. And neither would have been cheap, especially Hall.

Always the same line comes out from the Roosters.

We signed player X on the cheap but when he leaves they can afford players Y+Z because player X was on a million per-season.

I am related to an ex-player who played for them and he laughs about it, said they where all signed as reported but are looked after well in other ways (he won't say how but does with a grin on his face)
 
This really stinks and angers me. As a fan I feel cheated as we fuel this corruption with our hard earned.
The game needs a broom through it and it needs to start with the Turd. I say he is probably getting a piece of the pie as Uncle Nick has his ways.
It’s ridiculous and a slap in the face how the Roosters go about their business. Countless admissions and accusations being made all swept under the carpet.
The NRL really need to get on top of this if they want a product with interested fans. I highly doubt this will happen under the current powers as it will be their undoing of corruption.

I absolutely love my club Manly but it’s horrible it’s apart of a crooked game.
 
Nick Botoxitis approached Manly re: a merger back in ‘99 - looking to get his hands on Manly juniors like Steve Menzies, Geoff Toovey and Daniel Gartner and those that followed.

Luckily nothing came of it. I wonder if he still lives on the Northern Beaches?
 
Always the same line comes out from the Roosters.

We signed player X on the cheap but when he leaves they can afford players Y+Z because player X was on a million per-season.

I am related to an ex-player who played for them and he laughs about it, said they where all signed as reported but are looked after well in other ways (he won't say how but does with a grin on his face)

That last paragraph pisses me off. It’s informative but pisses me off. It’s turned into a joke how brazen it is.

If the salary cap really works the Chooks and Storm can’t be on the top every year
 
My favourite technique of Uncle Nick is that whenever they need to get rid of someone, that player miraculously develops a drug problem and can have his contract terminated without any penalty to the Roosters. They don't shop players around and offload them to other clubs and pay some of their freight - they plant a baggie and wipe the slate clean.
 
My favourite technique of Uncle Nick is that whenever they need to get rid of someone, that player miraculously develops a drug problem and can have his contract terminated without any penalty to the Roosters. They don't shop players around and offload them to other clubs and pay some of their freight - they plant a baggie and wipe the slate clean.

They are masters at every Rort possible and I get really amused when their fans get so protective.

If we had a fair dinkum commission they’d fix this Rort , but of course they are behest to Nein / Fixtel.

The smirk on his face does me!!
 
The only way to get rid of rumours of clubs cheating the cap is to publish all contracts for all to see. Like some American sports do.

No doubt old Uncle Nick would be completely against that..
 
The only way to get rid of rumours of clubs cheating the cap is to publish all contracts for all to see. Like some American sports do.

No doubt old Uncle Nick would be completely against that..

No I think he’d be fine with that as it’s not the contracts that are the issue.

I have zero inside info and it’s just conjecture but it’s impossible to see how they can put a side of that quality ( with reserves) on the paddock and stay within the cap so I’d be thinking ( again more conjecture) that a lot of players wives , family might be getting paid for not doing anything and it’s very easy to “ do deals” on things like cars , boats , houses , units.

You buy a brand new Mustang GT, it’s worth $85k, you pay $55k.

You want a nice boat, well that’s worth $145k you pay $75k.

Guess what , there’s $100k just like that!.

You want a unit in Bondi, boy do we have a deal for you? Normally $950k but for you a run out offer of $450k.

There’s $500k just like that.

It would be SO easy to hide these items if they were just looking at the players incomes.

They need forensic accountants looking at every angle BUT bet they never have that.
 
Last edited:
They manage their salary cap well. The first management decision the make is to not pay the players out of the salary cap. That way there’s always plenty of money left over. Pretty smart really.

What a lot of people don't realise is that TPA's don't actually count to the salary cap. Only what the clubs themselves pay their players counts to it. And the clubs that can (such as the Chooks) will basically only pay their players the bare minimum that the NRL values them at with the rest, especially for the headliners, topped up with multiple TPA's. For example, Cronk is on $1m per year, but the Chooks would probably only pay him around $700-800k of that at best and its that money that is counted to the cap and not the full million. Same with Tedesco and his million per year

Plus there are various other ways that clubs like the Chooks can pay their players without it being noticed such as their relatives (parents etc) getting new cars from City Ford (that they never paid for or they buy at a greatly reduced cost) or putting bets made at Royal Sydney.

The worst thing that happened to the salary cap was the introduction of TPA's in player contracts, but it was seen as necessary. That allowed certain clubs to be able to offer higher contracts to the better players while still staying under the cap. And its the same clubs we see each year who sign the big name players and who dominate the competition. And the reason we have TPA's?? A legacy of the outrageous contracts that were given out by the ARL and Super League during the Super League War. Players and their managers wanted to keep earning the high $$$ they got during that time but couldn't under the re-introduced cap. A way had to be found because at the time especially, cashed up rugby union which had gone professional was able to offer that sort of money. Thus to prevent an exodus of players to either union or to Super League in England, we have TPA's.
 

Latest posts

Team P W L PD Pts
3 3 0 48 6
3 2 1 45 4
3 2 1 28 4
3 2 1 22 4
3 2 1 15 4
3 2 1 14 4
2 1 1 13 4
3 2 1 10 4
2 1 1 6 4
3 2 1 -3 4
3 1 2 0 2
3 1 2 -5 2
3 1 2 -15 2
3 1 2 -22 2
3 1 2 -36 2
2 0 2 -56 2
3 0 3 -64 0
Back
Top Bottom