With Jarryd Hayne's recent departure from our team and the surplus funds we now have at our disposal under the salary cap for 2015, it got me thinking as to how we should best spend the money. It also occurred to me that Hayne leaving may not necessarily be a bad thing given that he makes up 1/25th of our NRL playing roster but takes up approximately 1/6th of our salary cap.
There has ben a lot of talk about sign this player, sign that player etc. etc. But to be honest at present there's isn't a whole lot on the market that gets me excited. In fact it's down right depressing if we were to blow Hayne's entire let's say $800k for 2015 on what's out there at the moment. And anyone that is half decent is still under contract.
In 2012 the Roosters under spent on their salary cap by a reported $300k and finished the season just ahead of us in 13th place. For the 2013 season they were allowed to exceed the cap by the amount of the previous year's deficit. In doing so acquired Michael Jennings, James Maloney, Sam Moa, Luke O'Donnell, Michael Oldfield and Sonny Bill Williams and won the premiership. I realise what people will say regarding the roosters and the salary cap, Ian Schubert, third party payments etc. etc.
My thoughts are, given that there isn't much out there at the moment we should retain Hayne's 2015 salary and play the season with more or less our current roster and do the best we can with what we've got. During the year undertake some well thought recruitment, retention and disposal. There are alot of quality players coming off contract at the end of 2015 and several of our own players are off contract as well. Then use the extra funds from Hayne's 2015 salary to assemble a top level squad for 2016, and maybe even 2017 and have a fair dinkum crack at a premiership.
What does everyone think about that idea???
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