Storm's bid to keep the big 4

[1999]

FORMER NSW Origin stars Ryan Hoffman and Anthony Quinn have been linked with Super League club Wigan as the Storm prepare to shed up to 10 players in a plan to get below the salary cap next season and retain the big four of Cameron Smith, Greg Inglis, Billy Slater and Cooper Cronk.With the audit by News Ltd-appointed accountants Deloitte having dragged on for more than two months, Melbourne officials have contacted player agents to determine whether the amount their clients expect to be paid next season tallies with the contracts registered with the NRL. They believe the club would exceed the salary cap by $1.3 million if no action is taken.Deloitte is expected to provide News Ltd with the findings of its investigation in coming days, with the report believed to include an estimated $1.5m blowout in 2011, although doubts have been raised about the accounting firm's understanding of the complexities of the NRL salary cap after representative bonuses for players unlikely to earn them were reportedly added to the totaIt is understood Maher and Ryan have discussed several variations of their proposal with Melbourne football club staff in the past two weeks and are confident Smith, Inglis, Slater and Cronk can be retained to form the nucleus of a new-look team in 2011.With the NRL having announced a $100,000 increase in the salary cap to $4.2m next season and Smith willing to forgo the guaranteeing of his $100,000 per year deal with FoxSports, the figure the Storm need to cut from their wages bill has already been reduced and the plan does not factor in a $150,000 rise in the marquee player allowance for each club.Already, the Storm have lost props Aiden Tolman and Ryan Tandy to Canterbury and five-eighth Brett Finch is also expected to leave, but the club will have to release some players under contract to get within the salary cap before the start of next season.Several other clubs are believed to be in a similar position at this time of the year and are trying to manage their rosters to accommodate new recruits or players with upgraded contracts, but Melbourne's position is more severe because of the salary cap rorting that resulted in the Storm being stripped of the 2007 and 2009 premierships and competition points earned this year.New Zealand Test prop Jeff Lima had already been granted a release before the salary cap scandal and it is believed Hoffman, Quinn and Kiwis forwards Adam Blair and Sika Manu would also be allowed to leave if they found another club in a bid to help ease the Storm's salary cap burden next season.The Storm would replace them with players of lesser quality and with a lower value to play alongside rookies Matt Duffie, Justin O'Neill, Gareth Widdop and Jesse Bromwich, who are seen as the future of the club.
With players of that calibre coming through the ranks, Storm officials believe they could still field a competitive team next season if Smith, Inglis, Slater and Cronk remain in Melbourne to guide them.The star quartet have made it clear they want to stay in Melbourne but all have had approaches from rival clubs or codes, with Essendon having been offered financial support to entice Inglis to follow the lead of Karmichael Hunt and Israel Folau and switch to AFL.Most NRL clubs are also waiting to see whether the Storm have to release any of the big four before making decisions on other talent, and Melbourne officials want the issue resolved as quickly as possible so they can advise players of their futures.But the Heraldreported last week that the Storm had been told they could not re-sign players such as centre Dane Nielsen or re-commit to those under contract until August at the earliest because of uncertainty over the size of the salary cap excess and legal action taken in the Victorian Supreme Court by the club's four independent directors, including Maher and Ryan.Storm insiders argue that the club has not breached the 2011 salary cap and is trying to get its house in order before next season but the delay makes that task harder.The Deloitte investigation is believed to have been completed without the auditors interviewing all players because of fears that information provided may end up in stories in News Ltd papers discrediting them, the club and the independent directors in a bid to encourage the board to withdraw its court challenge against the penalties imposed over the salary cap breaches.A leading player manager told the Heraldhe and other managers had advised their clients at the Storm against talking to Deloitte.

STORM'S PLAN
Remove guarantee of $100,000 Fox Sports deal from Cam Smith's contract
Use $100,000 cap rise for NRL clubs to reduce blowout
Shed up to 10 players from 2010 roster to save up $1.3m
Replace their mid-range stars with lower-paid players of lesser quality
Rely heavily on boom rookies blooded this season
Build team around Smith, Inglis, Slater and Cronk

http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/leag ... -zmtg.html


So basically we are 1.3 million over with players who are contracted for next year, so take out tolman, finch, nielsen etc without even putting a dent in it, we need to release ALOT of contracted players.

1. Slater
2. Duffie
3. Stanley
4. Inglis
5. O'Neill 
6. Widdop
7. Cronk
8. Norrie
9. Smith (c)
10. Bromwich
11. Manu (Hopefully)
12. Procter
13. Hinchcliffe

14. Kostjasyn
15. Kite
16. Rochow
17. A young prop like nutira, johnson, kali etc

Thats cutting loose:

Nielsen
Finch
Tandy
Tolman

Contracted -

Quinn (250,000)
Lima ($200,000)
White ($300,000)
Blair (250,000)
Lowrie ($200,000) 
Hoffman ($325,000)

There's 1.525 million worth of talent, enough to get us under the cap and sign afew minimum wage players and promote some young internal talent.
Honestly i think thats the team were looking at for next year and if we are gonna keep the big 4 we are gonna have to clear out all those players.. Thoughts?

[Crooner]

We can't keep including players like finch, neilson, tolman ect in our calculations next year as they were not on contract for next year so nit included in the 2011 calculations.
Not sure why we keep using their 2010 fee and think with loosing them makes a diferance in our 2011cap.

[Storm Spirit]

This story doesn't make sense...it says a lot but nothing at all.

Where's the factoring in of 100k rise in the cap and 150 k rise on the marquee player allowance...how is that offset against the SUPPOSED 1.3m blow out.

Where is Cam's willingness to forego the 100k GUARANTEE on his Fox contract reflected in the figures...where is the willingness of the Big 4 to take a minor pay cut reflected in the figures ?????????????

Also...the reports says there may be errors by Deloitte in respetc of rep payments....WTF...they CAN'T just guess...they have to know what's going on.

Close enough WON'T BE GOOD ENOUGH ...it has to be exact and it has to be CORRECT !!!!!!!!!!!!

[glennb]

I would not believe this article, their is nothing about Storm in any Newlimited papers.  They are keeping things very quiet with stories about Storm.  They will have the details before anyone else and I think they already know.

[1999]

We can't keep including players like finch, neilson, tolman ect in our calculations next year as they were not on contract for next year so nit included in the 2011 calculations.
Not sure why we keep using their 2010 fee and think with loosing them makes a diferance in our 2011cap.

If you read the post properly you will see those players arn't being include in the amount we have to drop next year.

[Storm Spirit]

A genuine News Ltd article released only 2 days after the Storm salary cap announcement in April reported that Matt Hanson had been working feverishly to reduce the 2011 over spend down to only 200k - 230k.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/ ... 5858550782

"One source suggested yesterday he had already managed total player payments down over the next two seasons, leaving the Storm only $230,000 over the cap in 2011 and $260,000 over in 2012."

why is it now 1.5million ???????????????????

[1999]

A genuine News Ltd article released only 2 days after the Storm salary cap announcement in April reported that Matt Hansen had been working feverishly to reduce the 2011 over spend down to only 200k - 230k.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/ ... 5858550782

"One source suggested yesterday he had already managed total player payments down over the next two seasons, leaving the Storm only $230,000 over the cap in 2011 and $260,000 over in 2012."

why is it now 1.5million ???????????????????


Interesting...
i think news ltd papers just pluck random numbers from their a**, so when the real amount comes out they've had so many guesses one of them is sure to be right.

[Woody]

I would have thought that if Matt Hanson had managed to achieve anything near that he might have come out by now and poured cold water on some of the stupid amounts being bandied around by some of these idiots. He might not know exactly but he would have to have some idea as to whether it is likely to be around 300,000 or 1.5M for arguments sake.
            I`m not sure I like the sounds of that article though. That list of players includes most of our established forwards and while I desperately hope we can keep everybody ( pipe dream I know) we will need guys like Sika to build our pack around while the new guys coming in get established, particularly if we are looking at getting rid of so many players in one hit

[tugga]

I think this just hihglights the fact that we will need to offload one of the big 4, otherwise we will be total crapola. Youy can't have four superstars and the rest of the roster made up of kids and hacks.

[1999]

I think this just hihglights the fact that we will need to offload one of the big 4, otherwise we will be total crapola. Youy can't have four superstars and the rest of the roster made up of kids and hacks.

It's definately food for thought..

No good having superstar backs if you dont have the forwards to lay the platform, I'm reasonably happy with 1-9, good mix of youth and experience, and im sure manu and hinchy are strong enough to be starting 13 players, proc and brom are benchies for sure, and afew of them benchies arn't quite ready i believe.

We need a good prop and back rower to stay on aswell (white & blair) I just dont see how its possiblt though without releasing one of the big 4.

We could go with

1. Widdop
2. Duffie
3. Stanley
4. Nielsen
5. O'Neill
6. Inglis
7. Cronk
8. Norrie
9. Smith
10. White
11. Blair
12. Manu
13. Hinchcliffe

14. Kostjasyn
15. Kite
16. Proctor
17. Bromwich


But thats bye bye billy.

Whatever happens its definately gonna be a rebuilding year.

[Diehard_Storm]

There is no way the Storm will consider letting Slater go.

He more than any other player gets people in through the turnstiles and the ratings on TV.

He's the heart, sole and public persona of the Storm.  Nearly every little kid who likes the Storm, does so primarily because of Slater.

He is the last player they will consider letting go - and I'm including Cameron Smith in that list.

Cam may be more important to us on the field, albeit its close, but Slater is more important to the Melbourne Storm franchise -on and off the field.

[1999]

There is no way the Storm will consider letting Slater go.

He more than any other player gets people in through the turnstiles and the ratings on TV.

He's the heart, sole and public persona of the Storm.  Nearly every little kid who likes the Storm, does so primarily because of Slater.

He is the last player they will consider letting go - and I'm including Cameron Smith in that list.

Cam may be more important to us on the field, albeit its close, but Slater is more important to the Melbourne Storm franchise -on and off the field.

He's also 28 and getting to the back end of his career, al the while we lose a slater of the future in widdop coz he doesn't wanna be number 2, the kids gonna be a star.

What about releasing smithy?

[Michael :P]

You dont release the captain of the team to keep Billy. The whole style of the team revolves aound Cam thus making him the most indespensible. Personally I think the whole "think of the kids" argument in regards to Bill is a load of tripe.

Bout time some of these kiddies hardend the **** up and started to realise dissappointment is a part of life  .

[Freshy]

There is no way the Storm will consider letting Slater go.

He more than any other player gets people in through the turnstiles and the ratings on TV.

He's the heart, sole and public persona of the Storm.  Nearly every little kid who likes the Storm, does so primarily because of Slater.

He is the last player they will consider letting go - and I'm including Cameron Smith in that list.

Cam may be more important to us on the field, albeit its close, but Slater is more important to the Melbourne Storm franchise -on and off the field.

He's also 28 and getting to the back end of his career, al the while we lose a slater of the future in widdop coz he doesn't wanna be number 2, the kids gonna be a star.

What about releasing smithy?

Widdop will be  a star, no doubt about it. But it wont be with us and if he wants to stamp his presence then hes going to do it somewhere else.

[routy21]

There is no way the Storm will consider letting Slater go.

He more than any other player gets people in through the turnstiles and the ratings on TV.

He's the heart, sole and public persona of the Storm.  Nearly every little kid who likes the Storm, does so primarily because of Slater.

He is the last player they will consider letting go - and I'm including Cameron Smith in that list.

Cam may be more important to us on the field, albeit its close, but Slater is more important to the Melbourne Storm franchise -on and off the field.

He's also 28 and getting to the back end of his career, al the while we lose a slater of the future in widdop coz he doesn't wanna be number 2, the kids gonna be a star.

What about releasing smithy?

Billy only turned 27 a few weeks ago and is definitely not at the back end of his career...