Oh yeah, planning on letting another future immortal go are you???...

Is it that time of the month for you Dman?

It would be difficult if there wasn't a contract in place.  The contract we had was an assett to us and insurance to the player.  What compensation did we negotiate for it.  Zilch

Wow, didn't realise people still thought it appropriate to use that phrase...

The volume of crap being reposted on here far outweighs any crap dished out by our team this year, and I'll call it out..,

How do you know there was no compensation??? Is that just another assumption like the people who say we're not chasing anyone???...

you simply don't keep someone at your club that doesn't want to be there... they become toxic, and based on rumours Klem already was...

Did broncos get compensation for Jimmy the Jet???.. or was letting him go worth it???

simple fact is none  of us know...

I love the fact the new board has a level of class and keeps stuff in house... One of the reasons the media are going so hard at us is cos we don't have leakers like we did under Dib&co..,

Like have half of you heard of a disclosure agreement???... 
stop reading and watching commercial/popular media, its 90% lies... and the other 10% is augmented reality...

Did anyone watch controversy corner
on foxsports ? A lot of talk about the bulldogs
old man rothfield said the dogs got no cap space
till 2021 ...  geoff toovey asked. So where is all 
the money ? Graheme huges was asking so where
to from here for the dogs ? Replay should on today

Like ODF said , dibb & castle has well & truely hurt this proud club 

The media always like to play things up and make it seem worse than it is.

This season was always likely to be a struggle.

We have the combination of an inexperienced coach, a young team prone to mistakes and a lack of quality in key positions.

in spite of that we are not far off in many games, it is frustrating because if the coach could get the team playing with consistent purpose and intent we would win more games.

A few key recruits and or a new coach can turn it around, we will have sufficient cap space. While it is far from guaranteed, we should be going better next season. Salvaging this season is tricky the coach needs to get it close to 100% right from here, even then we don't have the quality to consistently match the better sides.

The upside is Nancy and I have replaced Villi and Marki as lead scouts.

The Wild Turkey factory is being expanded in preparation for 2020. 😊

As usual  - Dman 5 Nervous Nellies 0.

I want the board and coach to fix problems, I don't expect them to work miracles.

It's easy to see why 2021 is the year we have "Salary Cap space".

2020 (according to reports from the Members Forum) we have 7 spots available. Beyond 2020 we only have 7 current players contracted - Crichton (inexplicably), CHN, Meaney, Napa, Ogden, Okunbar. And none of them on major huge money either - Napa and CHN probably the highest of them.

Of those left I'd only lock in Jacko, Lewis, R Smith and Wakeham (if he shows us something this year and next and I think he will) for extensions past 2020. I really don't think I'd touch the rest, none of them. They've been, they've tried, time to move on.

So with the 7 for 2020 whom you'd assume would get 2 year plus deals added to those above we're looking at only 18 players contracted for 2021, somebody stupidly may kick it out to 20 odd from within who knows but somebody should be shot if they go beyond that - Exception for high potential promoted from outside the 30 maybe, but HIGH POTENTIAL.

That leaves 10-12 spots open 2021, with room to throw good money at them, probably more than half of what we have left or '21.

To me the question isn't who we spend it on, it's who we allow to spend it.

I say make it known that a club with deep pockets and both the SC and roster room to practically buy a Premiership ready team for 2021 is looking for someone to coach it. Because it would be a pretty attractive option for some of the best coaches out there both current and those considered the next big thing, especially if they're told they might be here in '20 to have their say on '21, if not at the beginning of '20 than maybe in the middle but even if not then they'd still be the ones having the say on who we buy for that 2021 team that they'll take over.

As for Dean, don't have to sack him, just tell him early, earlier than he would've liked or thought, that he won't be coaching in 2021 and let the cards fall as they will.

Because I've sen enough. Nice bloke and all but I don't want him buying that team for 2021, not anywhere near it. Not even a say in who we buy for 2020 really and if he don't like that then there's the door.

We may be very surprised at just who comes calling with what we can offer.

As for me -

Moved house, nearly fell in love, got a dog.

All to be told on my upcoming Country and Western album "The House, The Girl, The Dog."

It is only Country and Western if something tragic happens to the Dog.....

Pay is only on board for 2020, whether we sack him now, later this year or early in 2020 makes little difference, even letting him play out 2020 makes little difference, as long as the new coach can shape the roster.

Nothing wrong with our recruitment so far, except we extended Lichaa, and didn't sign a 9, a mistake yes, but that kind of mistake can happen.

I don't think the coach has much of a say on recruitment.

Sack Pay this season and we might get a couple of bounce back wins just off the change of coach, if we are doing that just run with his assistant for the remainder of this season and until we can recruit  a suitable coach...

I think we also have to give him a far go, sacking coaches can be habit forming, do it when we need to, not before. One or two extra wins this year is the only benefit in going early. The downside in going early is contract negotiations with the next coach, if I am a coach going to a club that has a habit of sacking coaches, I want the right money and the right clauses, I'm looking after my interest as the top priority.

That is the problem with a lot of short-cuts, they don't get you there faster.   

Well that sure puts a more hopefull outlook on the situation...offering an innovative coach the chance to heavily re-shape the team may attract a quality coach...they def need to be on board for 2020 to oversee signings. You probably?/may? need to include Stimson, Welch and Britt to the playing group by all accounts/rumours? though.

The return of Zef :)

I would definitely sound out Bellamy for 2021.

It is getting to the time when he might need a change of club, and might want the challenge of winning at a new club, OK it is a long shot, but worth a try.

He is top of the list ... work down from there,,,,

Not a problem if they get paid. That's what any prospective coach will be looking for - whether we honour the contract. That's why I was adamant Des had to get paid and the new Board was just as adamant about the same thing for the same reason - so that we could be seen as a club that honours the contract. The whole fiddling about wording etc when we said on TV we'd re-signed him did us more harm than paying him out double the amount would have.

Sacking them is just business, and any prospective coach would understand that. And as long as we pay them they'd respect that.

So pay Deano, tell him he's not wanted for '21 and if he wants to go anytime soon we're fine with it.

Let's be real the two most attractive coaches are Bellamy and Robinson. But they're also the two most unattainable.

Why would they move? Both clubs could match the money and the facilities and at present exceed the stability and structure. They already have their dream jobs and will have them until the clubs don't want them anymore which won't be any time soon.

You can ask ofcourse, but I can guarantee the answer.

I'd rather not target a coach, rather see who comes to us once the job is known to be available.

But IF we were to target a coach, the qualifications should be a coach whose teams have been a constant or thereabouts top 4 presence, preferably a Premiership winner and whose teams in being that constant top 4 presence have met or exceeded their expectations.

And apart from Bellamy and Robinson whom I reckon we've got zero chance of getting there's only one coach available and gettable with those creds - Shane Flanaghan.

Whom would not disappoint me at all.

But still, I would not target him and offer him the job before I seen who else came for the job. And I'm sure he'd be one of them and the most likely IMO. But still, let the others come too.

Fair point, we can start working on applications for '21 at anytime....

Coaches will just want to see that we handle any termination of Pay in a professional and respectful way, but most importantly honour the contract, and pay him all he is owed.

I'm warming to the '21 timeline, '19 and '20 are about giving young pups at the club a chance to be part of the future, the more good players we develop, the fewer players we need to sign. 

Yayyy!!! Had us worried old mate. Welcome home...

You got to remember too Deano's is not on any sort of money that's gonna put a great dent in any budget.

That's why he was extended back in March, and I also thought it didn't change a thing. I seen it then, just as i do now, as a gamble the club was prepared to take to give Deano and the team every chance to make a go of it in '19.

It was gambling responsibly.

If it gave Deano and the team a feeling of stability and drove them on to prove they're the ones to take us into the next era - then good.

If it made no difference at all, then it was money we were prepared to lose trying.

I still think the day after he signed the club was still looking long and hard at him with the intention of making a long term call before the end of '19 and it wouldn't surprise me at all if that call has already been made.

Nothing changed.

On coaches there are 1,2 or 3 who are worth asking, even if the answer is no, because they are the ones we ideally want... 

Even if they say no they may recommend someone else, who we can file away for reference....

Then you open it up to see who is interested, word has probably leaked out by then anyway....

Coaches are like players, in spite of what fans think there are many of them with recent NRL experience who we don't want.....

And the best guy might not have NRL experience...

Or if we get lucky and 1,2 or 3 say yes, then they tick all boxes, they are a coach we want with NRL experience, but IMO 3 is the right number...

...the dog leaves and the woman comes back.

I always play country and western songs backwards.... They sound better and a happy ending to boot.

Or play them a low volume.... and some much better music at high volume.... :)

https://youtu.be/u7ch4aFV-Ow

I do think in the unlikely event that it turns for Pay it will turn suddenly, we will put a score on some hapless side when no one expects it, and we will not look back.

Or it will go the other way, we will get flogged and drop our bundle...

What we are doing now, looking great for 10-15 mins a game, isn't likely to continue... the dam will break one way or the other.

I still say the 2 tries we scored against Canberra were great, while some of our first half attacking efforts were pathetic, sometimes it is hard to believe we are the same team.

To turn it around  we need to turn that 10-15 mins of good footy into 45-55 mins, and turn that 1-2 good tries into 4-5 good tries.

I'm thinking this is a toss of the coin job.... if we run with JMK, I hope Benji rings him up and  gives him a few tips... anyone who knows anything about football knows what JMK is doing wrong... not only would Benji know he probably wants to help. But being realistic I think the players know what they should be doing, they are just in capable of doing it.... but if they do it once, they might find it is not that hard to do.

you ain't heard / don't know / are unable to discern the good stuff!!!

Try Wheeler Walker Jr...

Your assumptions about other posters "assumptions" is duly noted.  Possibly we should deal only in rumours as per your enlightenment on Klem