Quote Tiger Beer="Tiger Beer"You may well have a point but have you stopped to think that the reason so many players are not up to the standard that were here before is because McNamara is working to different set of terms and conditions to his predecessor. The annual loss of half a million a year, the cuts in budgets to make up for that, the consistent breaching of the salary cap, which both Caisley and Noble were the chief culprits, the massive salaries and long term deals to to Harris, Newton,Vainikolo, etc, the total lack of investment in junior players have all had to be addressed and that would have been the same under any other Coach or Chairman. You may think McNamara is an idiot and a poor coach but do you honestly think the would prefer to sign James Evans than Matt King, or Ben Jeffries over Michael Monaghan. the answer is that the Bulls can't afford to 'buy' any anymore and have to pick up what is available and out of contract. The club is in a rebuilding stage and it will take some time to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Sacking the Coach is not the answer without a massive investment in players, which would have to include under the counter payments - which two notable clubs seem to be getting away with. But the Bulls don't have that sort of money and if they did they would fall foul of all the ususal idiots on here who castigated them the last time they breached the salary cap. Engage brain before mouth; or in most of your cases, before keyboard.
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I think most people know the Bulls can't afford to buy (though we did shell a lot out for Solomona) however there have been plenty of players who have joined other clubs on free transfers that would've improved the Bulls. Whatuira and Jake Webster spring to mind immediately. I don't think these two are at the clubs that you obliquely accuse of fiddling the cap.
While we might be constrained by the cap I find it hard to believe that the departures of Fielden, Peacock, Pryce, Paul, Hape and Vainikolo haven't freed up some space for some replacements of similar quality. Instead we've signed average performers who surely must be on less money.
The only explanation I can come to is that we're not spending the full cap anymore. Yet Hood tells us this isn't the case. So are we really spending £1.7m on the present squad? If so we really are paying some players well over the odds.
If we're not paying the full cap its time to come clean. It'd certainly explain a lot. If we are then I despair at the standard of recruitment. While the juniors undoubtedly needed investment the likes of the Donaldsons, Tates and Burgesses will take years to come through. By then we may be a lower table side and not able to hang onto them unless the current decline is stopped.
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