The Daly Cherrygraph

[manly al]

Club still might be not particularly pleased with some of the D C E going ons from a couple of months ago but really could not see how they would even contemplate releasing him at any stage during the rest of this season .
Especially taking into account one of the most open seasons ever or at this stage .
Any club with a half decent roster right now could not be ruled out in the general sense and team stability can only be real priority right now and certainly including the Sea Eagles

 

[Brookie1973]

General question. How come the roosters can wheel and deal players like they were expandable second hand cars, but we seem to be constantly constrained by salary caps, top 30 requirements, contracts etc etc. When was the last time Manly “cleared the decks” by moving contracted players around mid contract, or indeed, did anything meaningful mid season? Seems like we are playing a different game sometimes - monopoly vs checkers.

 

[Heckenberg]

Let him go. He is going to play origin and after last years series he looked very jaded.

Easiest way to relieve him of the captaincy sooner

I think we should let him go and play Jake Arthur at half this year. Frontload a few other contracts with the money saved and sign a top line prop for next season.

 

[Pete W]

Club still might be not particularly pleased with some of the D C E going ons from a couple of months ago but really could not see how they would even contemplate releasing him at any stage during the rest of this season .
Especially taking into account one of the most open seasons ever or at this stage .
Any club with a half decent roster right now could not be ruled out in the general sense and team stability can only be real priority right now and certainly including the Sea Eagles

If Roosters really do push for a mid season transfer, say, with an opportunity too good for DCE to refuse, then the issue will be by how much does a sulking DCE further derail our season?

It's not like DCE would ever threaten to stop training if his demands were not meant, right? Come on, that's just not his go. Anyway, he's our captain who always puts club before self

 

[manly al]

General question. How come the roosters can wheel and deal players like they were expandable second hand cars, but we seem to be constantly constrained by salary caps, top 30 requirements, contracts etc etc. When was the last time Manly “cleared the decks” by moving contracted players around mid contract, or indeed, did anything meaningful mid season? Seems like we are playing a different game sometimes - monopoly vs checkers.

Not real high profile but Ben Farr and Michael Bani going back a bit , Tom Symonds and think the Lawman came in after the 21 season progressed a bit and releasing Nate Myles but not worth going there

 

[Brookie1973]

Not real high profile but Ben Farr and Michael Bani going back a bit , Tom Symonds and think the Lawman came in after the 21 season progressed a bit and releasing Nate Myles but not worth going there

Fair enough. We just seem a lot more passive in regards to player movements. We have things done to us, rather than us doing the doing, like in Arko’s day. Sometimes wish the NRL was more like MLB in the US, where GMs are constantly trading players up down and sideways. Probably not great for player/fan engagement, but would avoid the frustration of having to wait for contracts to run out before moves are made. Unless you are the roosters of course.

 

[The Royal Soup]

Its ALWAYS about money with him. He is going to the roosters to secure his job in the media. CH 9. Which is fine. Look after your family.. but i never liked him since the back flip for these reasons. Never took unders to get a better team around him. I always said we will never win another comp with him since he signed his big deal. We over paid massively for him and this is what we get.. complete disrespect. I just wish we can release him now. Sick of the sight of him.

yep spot on

greedy wanker , DCE first never team

 

[Disco]

If DCE goes early we are short an NRL standard half for the rest of 2025. Neither Arthur or Wakeham are the answer in my opinion. We wont see Fogarty until 2026. Sandon Smith could fill that gap on a loan deal that forms part of the DCE release. Roosters cover Smiths contract so no cost to us. The money we save this year on the balance of DCEs inflated contract, then goes to a good young forward to bring our squad numbers upto 30 for 2025.

We control if DCE goes early.

So we dont allow it.

 

[manly al]

Fair enough. We just seem a lot more passive in regards to player movements. We have things done to us, rather than us doing the doing, like in Arko’s day. Sometimes wish the NRL was more like MLB in the US, where GMs are constantly trading players up down and sideways. Probably not great for player/fan engagement, but would avoid the frustration of having to wait for contracts to run out before moves are made. Unless you are the roosters of course.

Certainly was not trying to be a bit patronizing with the post and take your point how some clubs seem to be almost in the protected species category with contract flexibility at any stage of a season .
Not to mention what seemed like double standards with Gifty Stewart "s contract value previously as opposed to Ben Hunt "s current Bronco arrangement .
Even the Turbo offer to seek a reduction on his contract value which was in all likelihood , a genuine proposal .
And even the Dylan Walker 3 rd party witch hunt type investigation some years ago
.Think the anti Manly agenda still lurks in the background out there somewhere in different quarters

 

[manlyfan76]

Its ALWAYS about money with him. He is going to the roosters to secure his job in the media. CH 9. Which is fine. Look after your family.. but i never liked him since the back flip for these reasons. Never took unders to get a better team around him. I always said we will never win another comp with him since he signed his big deal. We over paid massively for him and this is what we get.. complete disrespect. I just wish we can release him now. Sick of the sight of him.

Here we go again, again.
He agreed to "unders" ($700) club said no so he went to titans.
Foz screwed us so we threw a big deal at DCE as we had no half.

 

[Chunkytuna]

If he's going to tank the season in protest if we don't let him go, or pull another ridiculous stunt like refusing to front up to training, then just release him now.

If he's willing to commit to doing his best for the rest of this year then we should keep him.

I can’t see him tanking this year. In fact watching him closely since he’s announced his departure, he seems to have upped his intensity and effort, from my perspective. Not that it’s helped for much of the time, but I do think he’s dignified enough to play out this season to his best potential.

 

[Eagles4Life]

We control if DCE goes early.

So we dont allow it.

Yeah I get it @Disco DCE should not have put the club in the position that we are even talking about it right now. Personally, I think we are damned if we do and damned if we don't. Pragmatically, if we do let him go, we have to do so on terms that are highly favourable to us. What value are we going to get from him by not releasing him? His lack of interest in bringing his best game each week was obvious in some of our more recent games (at least to me, and the Panthers game excluded). Is that what we have to look forward to until seasons end? Let's say we don't allow it. That's fine but let's let him sulk in NSW Cup and not in first grade.

 

[Ohgeez]

If DCE goes early we are short an NRL standard half for the rest of 2025. Neither Arthur or Wakeham are the answer in my opinion. We wont see Fogarty until 2026. Sandon Smith could fill that gap on a loan deal that forms part of the DCE release. Roosters cover Smiths contract so no cost to us. The money we save this year on the balance of DCEs inflated contract, then goes to a good young forward to bring our squad numbers upto 30 for 2025.

There is just 0 chance DCE is leaving this year

 

[47MVEagle]

General question. How come the roosters can wheel and deal players like they were expandable second hand cars, but we seem to be constantly constrained by salary caps, top 30 requirements, contracts etc etc. When was the last time Manly “cleared the decks” by moving contracted players around mid contract, or indeed, did anything meaningful mid season? Seems like we are playing a different game sometimes - monopoly vs checkers.

Good question & very symptomatic of the perceived favouritism Uncle Nick's club gets from the NRL.

I've been running some numbers trying to work out how they can do it too.

Given that Brandon Smith was off-contract & had already signed with souffs for next season, the fact the roosters have agreed to release him early indicates they're trying to free up some cap for the remainder of this season (which further indicates they're looking to bring someone else in for the rest of 2025). I've heard Smith was on $800k & that souffs have paid $140-180k to the roosters for the early release, which by my calculations frees up ~$220-260k for the rest of this season.

Dominic Young is apparently on $450k a year for his 4 year deal, 2.5 years of which remain, so he's entitled to ~$225k for the rest of this season & $450k for each of 2026 & 2027. If his new club tip in half of his remaining salary, that frees up another ~$110k for the rest of this season & $225k for 2026 & 2027.

That brings up a total of ~$330-370k freed up for the rest of 2025.

Who can they get in for the rest of 2025 with that? Considering they have to use a minimum of 97.5% of the cap & have 28 top 30 players registered by round 1, with another 2 registered by 30/06/2025? I don't believe the 28 players they already have signed are that far under the cap that they've got enough lying around to pick up DCE or Fifita for the rest of 2025.

So if either DCE or Fifita do end up there for the rest of 2025, I' be very suspicious of the roosters accounting practices, to have had enough cap left to be able to attract them.

 

[jbb/james]

Good question & very symptomatic of the perceived favouritism Uncle Nick's club gets from the NRL.

I've been running some numbers trying to work out how they can do it too.

Given that Brandon Smith was off-contract & had already signed with souffs for next season, the fact the roosters have agreed to release him early indicates they're trying to free up some cap for the remainder of this season (which further indicates they're looking to bring someone else in for the rest of 2025). I've heard Smith was on $800k & that souffs have paid $140-180k to the roosters for the early release, which by my calculations frees up ~$220-260k for the rest of this season.

Dominic Young is apparently on $450k a year for his 4 year deal, 2.5 years of which remain, so he's entitled to ~$225k for the rest of this season & $450k for each of 2026 & 2027. If his new club tip in half of his remaining salary, that frees up another ~$110k for the rest of this season & $225k for 2026 & 2027.

That brings up a total of ~$330-370k freed up for the rest of 2025.

Who can they get in for the rest of 2025 with that? Considering they have to use a minimum of 97.5% of the cap & have 28 top 30 players registered by round 1, with another 2 registered by 30/06/2025? I don't believe the 28 players they already have signed are that far under the cap that they've got enough lying around to pick up DCE or Fifita for the rest of 2025.

So if either DCE or Fifita do end up there for the rest of 2025, I' be very suspicious of the roosters accounting practices, to have had enough cap left to be able to attract them.

Both fifi and dce have had approx 60% of contracts already paid from existing clubs so that tally is close to what they would need to buy out either player until october this season

 

[Brookie1973]

Good question & very symptomatic of the perceived favouritism Uncle Nick's club gets from the NRL.

I've been running some numbers trying to work out how they can do it too.

Given that Brandon Smith was off-contract & had already signed with souffs for next season, the fact the roosters have agreed to release him early indicates they're trying to free up some cap for the remainder of this season (which further indicates they're looking to bring someone else in for the rest of 2025). I've heard Smith was on $800k & that souffs have paid $140-180k to the roosters for the early release, which by my calculations frees up ~$220-260k for the rest of this season.

Dominic Young is apparently on $450k a year for his 4 year deal, 2.5 years of which remain, so he's entitled to ~$225k for the rest of this season & $450k for each of 2026 & 2027. If his new club tip in half of his remaining salary, that frees up another ~$110k for the rest of this season & $225k for 2026 & 2027.

That brings up a total of ~$330-370k freed up for the rest of 2025.

Who can they get in for the rest of 2025 with that? Considering they have to use a minimum of 97.5% of the cap & have 28 top 30 players registered by round 1, with another 2 registered by 30/06/2025? I don't believe the 28 players they already have signed are that far under the cap that they've got enough lying around to pick up DCE or Fifita for the rest of 2025.

So if either DCE or Fifita do end up there for the rest of 2025, I' be very suspicious of the roosters accounting practices, to have had enough cap left to be able to attract them.

Thanks for that. I think they were suggesting on NRL360 that there may be other roosters being moved on eg Sandon Smith. I guess it’s hard not to have a begrudging respect for uncle nick - he doesn’t sit on his hands, but tries to make things happen to his advantage. As a club, we just seem so passive in comparison, seemingly captured by player managers and who they offer to us and when.

 

[Eagles4Life]

There is just 0 chance DCE is leaving this year

Thanks Tony M.

 

[Eagles4Life]

Good question & very symptomatic of the perceived favouritism Uncle Nick's club gets from the NRL.

I've been running some numbers trying to work out how they can do it too.

Given that Brandon Smith was off-contract & had already signed with souffs for next season, the fact the roosters have agreed to release him early indicates they're trying to free up some cap for the remainder of this season (which further indicates they're looking to bring someone else in for the rest of 2025). I've heard Smith was on $800k & that souffs have paid $140-180k to the roosters for the early release, which by my calculations frees up ~$220-260k for the rest of this season.

Dominic Young is apparently on $450k a year for his 4 year deal, 2.5 years of which remain, so he's entitled to ~$225k for the rest of this season & $450k for each of 2026 & 2027. If his new club tip in half of his remaining salary, that frees up another ~$110k for the rest of this season & $225k for 2026 & 2027.

That brings up a total of ~$330-370k freed up for the rest of 2025.

Who can they get in for the rest of 2025 with that? Considering they have to use a minimum of 97.5% of the cap & have 28 top 30 players registered by round 1, with another 2 registered by 30/06/2025? I don't believe the 28 players they already have signed are that far under the cap that they've got enough lying around to pick up DCE or Fifita for the rest of 2025.

So if either DCE or Fifita do end up there for the rest of 2025, I' be very suspicious of the roosters accounting practices, to have had enough cap left to be able to attract them.

Moving on Sandon Smith as well would get them where they need to be.

 

[Ohgeez]

Thanks Tony M.

Don’t need to be Tony mate, just need a ounce of common sense to see DCE for Sandon Smith is a ridiculous deal

 

[LeonardCohen]

I don’t think it’ll happen. I actually don’t think Daly would want it to go that way. It’s pretty common with younger players to leave early and start building a career somewhere else, but Daly is a veteran. He doesn’t need to go early and build something. He’s the club captain and already marginalised himself with the fans and media; I highly doubt he would add to that narrative by walking out on his club and teammates halfway through the season.

I just don’t see enough upside for Daly or the club, for this to happen. The smart move is a big farewell and a preseason to be ready.