Over the past two years the Eels have failed badly in their roster and salary cap management. Some of the players the Eels have let go as well as some they have kept haven't been the best option's. Most forwards at the Eels are closer to the end of their careers than the start and plenty are on far more money than what they are producing on the field. In contrast, many of the Eels outside backs are young and inexperienced. Not only are the Eels struggling with depth, they have very little depth in key positions.
I believe the Eels need a major roster shake up. I would guess a minimum of 3 years is required for the job to be done properly.
What fans need to understand when extending players as well as signing new players, the most important thing is how much money these players are being paid. If you convert each players salary to what percentage of the cap they are being paid, most of your players must exceed that percentage with their on field performance. Currently, the Eels have many players whose salary cap percentage is much higher than their on field performances. Blaming young outside backs, who are probably being paid 10% of some of the highly paid forwards doesn't make sense.
For example, last night the Eels 1st starter, Charlie Guymer, would probably be on less than 10% of what Junior and RCG are on. I would argue that his effort and performance was far greater than 10% of both those higher paid players.
The Eels are in the position they find themselves right now due to many of the higher paid players in their roster.
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This is our problem. We are crap for years and at about the 10th year, we have a good team that can challenge to win the comp. 2001 - 2009 -2022. It's usually about every 10 years we make a GF.
We as a club fail to adapt with the times. Other clubs would kill for our junior nursery yet we have it and don't know what to do with it! We made the GF in 09 and we basically stuck with that same team hoping we'd be good again, but we weren't. Same happened in 2022 but on a much worse scale. We lost key players and failed to bring in replacements. No forward thinking by this club!
Our CEO and the rest of the board are delusional. When BA got sacked, they had that press conference where they said "we wanted Wayne" and they also said "We believe we have a team to win a Premiership" or something along those lines. They are soooo delusional if they truly think that. We have a reserve grade standard backline and an outdated forward pack that don't work hard enough. Only thing this team has going for them is their halves combination.
so what? youve never worked somewhere were the shitkickers who get paid peanuts bust there ass more than the big dogs whove been there for years?
Yes. Unfortunately your argument becomes irrelevant due to the salary cap. The simple facts are, one of the key factors for an NRL club to be successful is the value for money they get from the players they have. The Eels currently have a reported $2,300,000 per season between RCG, Junior and Matterson. Having such a large amount invested in these 3 players has weakened their depth greatly. On form this season (and I don't see them improving in coming years)those 3 players are being paid close to double their worth. The $2,300,000 they are taking would be much better spent on a top quality dummy-half, a solid performing middle forward and a quality outside back. I understand it's not as simple as picking players and signing them, but I'll pick some players going from there reported salary and I guarantee the Eels roster will look much better.
*Harry Grant is reportedly on $1,000,000 per season.
*Reuben Cotter is reportedly on $400,000 per season
*Selwyn Cobbo is reportedly on $650,000 per season
Total $2,050,000 per season
So the Eels are currently paying $250,000 more per season for RCG, Junior and Matterson than the combined amount Harry Grant, Reuben Cotter and Selwyn Cobbo are earning. I guarantee the Eels would be in a much better position with these 3 changes. This is without looking at other highly paid, under performing Eels players.
Nailed it Slippery, totally agree. Howver try telling the fanboys that their idols aren't returning on investment week in week out. the reason we have imposters playing on the flanks is because these other blokes demanded overs . Just because they're topping the stats or playing the best in a shit team , still doesn't mean they're giving us what we are paying for . As they're getting these overs we expect them to be the ones producing the points , not relying on reserve graders to get the job done.
We have had no money to spend for 3 seasons , people just wouldn't listen as it was all the coaches fault we wernt signing anyone. He was asking questions of those controlling the purse , hence the falling out with Oneill. He did try to sign Connor Tracey and a few others , but old mate wouldn't agree to spending the money for the term he wanted. There were a few others same scenario.
I reckon there's about a million bucks in overs accross our top 6 or 7 players . Which equates to about 3 top flight players we're down if you add that to current bum players salaries in upgrades.