Pretty sure he'll be here next year.

cap money used up on a player shown to be not good enough...joy

How has bailey "shown not to be good enough"?

bailey thoroughly deserves his contract extension. its a pity he got injured when he did, he has been in great form this year, one of the clubs players who deserve more credit than he's got from this years performances.

Couldn't have said it better..

I don't see how we can be. IL wants us to be able to run as a profitable business, one way to ensure we hit that target is reduce costs, including payroll, until we are turning a resonable profit I wouldnt expect us to be close to the cap again.

Correct.

But add him to the Roberts & Riddell list of Aussies we hate. The guys in front of me at the DW border on racism in their abuse of them.

When a player is out of contract a club has to evaluate whether or not giving them a new contract fits into the grand scheme of things the club is working toward.

In Australia players who have had excellent seasons for their clubs who you could say deserved a new contract will be moving on because the clubs have decided they need to use the cap space on a younger player(s) or on a different player from outside the club to further their ambitions. It's been like this for years.

You can't sack players so when a players contract is up this is when you need to look at the big picture and in this case if Bailey's wages would be better used on a prop then that is what needs to be done. And that is before we consider the risk of tying up cap money on a player with his injury.

A player must both deserve a new contract and actually fit in with the clubs plans.

Giving players a contract just because they deserve it is sentimental nonsense and just not a hard nosed enough approach. If you do that you end up re-signing everyone because they tried hard/are nice blokes and you don't make any progress, which looks exactly what we seem to be doing.

Looking at players on a individual basis when they are off contract it's easy to make a case for them to deserve a new deal but that is the wrong way to approach it.

Dave

I agree with this Dave. I really like Bails, both as a club man and for what he brings to the team. His performances this year have been very good indeed. However, he doesn't fit in with what the club needs most urgently as we have an abundance of very capable 2nd rowers. Let's not forget that we didn't flinch at letting the likes of Ellery Hanley go when the time was deemed to be right for the best interests of the club.