Roosters emerge as cap-breach specialists
Roar Rookie By Adam Bishop, 3 Aug 2010 Adam Bishop is a Roar Rookie
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- Melbourne Storm, NRL, Rugby League, Sydney Roosters
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Roosters captain Braith Anasta during NRL Round 3, (AAP Image/Action Photographics, Renee McKay)
Is it just me or can anybody else smell an air of 2002 about this season? Cast your minds back to 2002 and allow me to furnish your memory with a dose of pointed illustrative nostalgia.
The Bulldogs were riding high at the top of the table, Matt Utai was an exciting young rookie on the scene, Andrew Johns was in the process of winning his 456th Dally M award, and the Warriors were finally realising their potential under coach Daniel Anderson.
In that same year, the Bulldogs were exposed as salary cap cheats.
They plummeted rather unceremoniously from being the competition’s glittering leaders to the relegation of shameful cellar-dwellers.
The NRL was reeling from their biggest cap scandal to date and were determined to make an example of the Berrys to ensure no club was silly enough to try and evade the cap again.
Well, that worked!
The Storm have not only re-enacted the reprehensible conduct of the Bulldogs in 2002, but they have exceeded it in magnitude by so far it makes the former breach look like an accounting error.
In 2002, a club that was struggling greatly in the early part of the season under new coach Ricky Stuart, began to gain some traction in an open competition. The Roosters gained such a powerful momentum that year that the vast majority of punters believe that even if Canterbury were allowed to compete for the title, they would have succumbed to the sheer ferocity of the Tri Colours rugged defence.
I guess we will never know for sure. What we do know is that Brad Fittler’s men deserved the win because they played within the cap rules.
End of argument.
Now we are here in 2010 and the Storm have been pushed to the side and sent to the naughty corner and it is again the Roosters who are proving to snatch the momentum of the competition.
Todd Carney, Mitch Pearce, Nate Myles, Anhony Minichello, Sean Kenny-Dowell … there are many great players. You get the idea. Can the Roosters stamp their authority in 2010 to secure their position as salary cap cheat year specialists?
In this humble reporter’s opinion, the answer is yes.
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- Melbourne Storm, NRL, Rugby League, Sydney Roosters
August 3rd 2010 @ 7:19am
oikee said | August 3rd 2010 @ 7:19am | Report comment
The new silvertails. 10 internationals or origin players. 10 in this team alone.
Compare that to the sharks, 3 at best,,,, Dragons, 5,,,,,, Broncos,3,,,,, Storm,8
Even Manly, the original silvertails have only 7.
As i said before, give me this team and i could win a few games, nothing to see here. Brian Smith will get the credit for this mob. Their is a bad smell coming from bondi, looks like 3rd parties are buying a party premiership.
August 3rd 2010 @ 8:10am
Chris said | August 3rd 2010 @ 8:10am | Report comment
“Their is a bad smell coming from bondi, looks like 3rd parties are buying a party premiership.” – Jealous much?
Mason/Fitzgibbon leaving would have cleared up a fair bit of cap space and they picked up Carney and Ryles for a lot less than they would be worth picked on playing ability alone. Aside from that the squad is the same one that finished dead last in 2009 – if you are so sure now why weren’t you making these accusations last year?
August 3rd 2010 @ 12:40pm
Dan said | August 3rd 2010 @ 12:40pm | Report comment
Sorry mate, but if there is one thing that the storm scandal has exposed is that the “a lot less than they would be worth” line is clearly a load of rubbish.
If nothing else, the storm have been the best team at “polishing” players that other clubs didn’t want, didn’t rate or didn’t see. All the storm fans (and i’m assuming players and coaching staff too) must have thought that these players were earning less than thier open market value to stay with the club. it wasn’t the case.
Finch, Quinn, Hinchclife, Dallas Johnson, Crocker, Matt King, Jeff Lima, Ben Ross… all players who you would assume were earning “below market value” but the reality is that they were not.
I’m not pointing the finger at the Roosters, or justifiying the storm, but i severely doubt that there is ANY club in the NRL that doesn’t look to exploit the cap in some way shape or form, and if that’s the case then what is the point of having the cap in the first place?
“My father once told me that you need three things in life. A good physician, a forgiving Priest and a clever Accountant” – Oskar Schindler
August 3rd 2010 @ 2:32pm
Mushi said | August 3rd 2010 @ 2:32pm | Report comment
Come on carney was a toxic contract – the rooster heftily outbid at a rumoured 300k for a player who with one slip up would have nadda, zero, zilch, zappo, nuffink.
Pointing to the carney contract is revisionist history
August 3rd 2010 @ 7:06pm
Chris said | August 3rd 2010 @ 7:06pm | Report comment
The difference is that I am not seeing any Inglis, Slaters or Smith’s in the Roosters team.
If you honestly think the Roosters paid top dollar for Carney you are missing a couple of screws.
August 3rd 2010 @ 7:36am
Squire Gordon said | August 3rd 2010 @ 7:36am | Report comment
Close. More like salary cap cheat specialists.
August 3rd 2010 @ 9:18am
Willo said | August 3rd 2010 @ 9:18am | Report comment
Aaaah you know the Roosters must be going well when fresh steaming piles like this one start appearing more often. The other parallel between 2002 and this year will be the amount of second-rate journalism linking the Roosters to any sort of salary cap issues, and the increased amount of jealous dribblers nodding along. Lame.
August 3rd 2010 @ 10:03am
Hoy said | August 3rd 2010 @ 10:03am | Report comment
People need to read more carefully. He is not saying the Rooters are cheating the cap.
August 3rd 2010 @ 10:29am
Willy said | August 3rd 2010 @ 10:29am | Report comment
Agreed Hoy!
A very mischeivous headline from the subbie I reckon!
August 3rd 2010 @ 11:01am
Adam B said | August 3rd 2010 @ 11:01am | Report comment
Let me make this VERY clear, this article I have written does not imply the Roosters are salary cap cheats, far from it. I am simply pointing out that there is a parallel of fortunes between 2002 and 2010. I think the chooks deserve every bit of adulation they receive because they are a dam good football team buzzing with talent. Willo, you should learn to read articles and not merely the headlines if you are likely to make such outlandish and unfounded remarks. Simply put, I believe the Roosters will win the comp this year, a year marred by a salary cap controversy. In 2002, they won the comp, another year marred with a salary cap controversy. A fun coincidence is all.
August 3rd 2010 @ 11:44am
How do they do it? said | August 3rd 2010 @ 11:44am | Report comment
My feeling is that rather than being cap cheat year specialists, they are actually the most effective cap chaets of all time. This year they seemed to have been in the running for every player on the market and were able to outbid the Raiders for and established player (Graham) and an up and comer (Carney, the other one), despite the fact they had already signed Todd Carney and have a roster full of internationals. Things just don’t add up. If the Roosters aren’t caught this year, they must really be looked at closely next year.
August 3rd 2010 @ 2:30pm
Mushi said | August 3rd 2010 @ 2:30pm | Report comment
they had roughly a third of the cap avaialble last year with Ogre, Mini’s golden boot contract, Fitzgibbon and Mason’s contracts all coming off the books.
the “roster full of internationals” came dead last if they were cheating then even south sunnybank under 13s were.
August 3rd 2010 @ 2:55pm
oikee said | August 3rd 2010 @ 2:55pm | Report comment
Well even their running last smelt of controvercy. Wonder how much the new silvertails had on that. ?
They are working out of the sponsers pockets, even their front rowers are being educated as accountaints.
August 4th 2010 @ 1:07pm
Mushi said | August 4th 2010 @ 1:07pm | Report comment
Bravo the tinfoil aht brigade are out in force.
So a team cheating the salary cap loaded with international talent that even Oikee could coach to victory threw the entire season to make good on a wooden spoon bet….
You must of needed a good lie down after thinking that one up.
August 3rd 2010 @ 11:51am
sledgeross said | August 3rd 2010 @ 11:51am | Report comment
If you look at the Chooks team of 2002, it looks pretty similar “cap-wise” to the Storm.
August 3rd 2010 @ 12:08pm
Jeff said | August 3rd 2010 @ 12:08pm | Report comment
This team is playing Brilliant Rugby, let’s forget the bloody salary cap and enjoy the game. Is it going to be “If a team plays well, they are cheating!” get rid of the cap and let’s see some more teams like te current Roosters emerge.
I for one am sick of seeing good teams disbanded. Bulldogs, Manly, Warriors, Broncos, Storm, The list goes on, it MUST stop.
August 3rd 2010 @ 12:45pm
Dan said | August 3rd 2010 @ 12:45pm | Report comment
Exactly, it would be great to see the great dynasties stay together and be able to clash with each other.
this fear of a premier league style exisitance will never happen in the NRL because the game simply isn’t valuable enough, and the competition is structured in a way that the wealth is realtively evenly distributed (apart from prize money, which in the grand scheme of things isn’t all that much). There is no champions league pot of gold for the best teams to propgate thier wealth, such as european football, and footballing dominance would come down to first and foremost, good coaching, recruitment and club managment. None of the salary cap breaching sides (caught or otherwise) have gone bankrupt, or even gone close, so clearly the money is in the game, somewhere, some how.
August 3rd 2010 @ 2:59pm
oikee said | August 3rd 2010 @ 2:59pm | Report comment
Yeah right, it must stop now because we have dismantled the Storm, but let the Roosters be the benchmark. ? Come the end of year, i will be interested to see how many chooks make the 4 nations teams.
And if they are that good, maybe some of their players need to move onto bigger contract’s, if all they are getting paid is “chicken feed.”
3rd party chooks are killing the game.
August 3rd 2010 @ 12:18pm
Rikki-Lee Arnold said | August 3rd 2010 @ 12:18pm | Report comment
With Brian Smith turning up at the Dragons game on Sunday (only one day after his win over Parra) I think there is a lot of determination in this Roosters camp to win it. In my opinion they are probably the best team in the competition at the moment and most deserving of the wins they are getting. Loved Bennett trying to keep a straight face when a journo told him that Smith had been there taking notes on the Dragons….
August 3rd 2010 @ 12:19pm
M1tch said | August 3rd 2010 @ 12:19pm | Report comment
Did anyone see the smh player poll from a few days ago..
they went around asking players from clubs about the salary cap and if what players currently earn is enough etc
all raiders players said the amount they get is fair..
10 clubs I would say somehow ‘cheat’ the cap which means its time the NRL simply lets it easier for clubs to pay players whatever they want..its bad luck to clubs like the Sharks who need to do more to fix their own finances etc