So you're still talking about retaining, not obtaining.If they could have been kept for legal money why did they need second contracts?
There's a whole bunch of difficult to quantify benefits that come with assembling a squad like that too. The building of a "winning culture". Allowing management to choose what parts of the illegally assembled machine to shed. As mentioned early the "unfinished business" factor encouraging key players to stick around for less money.
Not wanting to take away what the Storm have gotten out of nobodies like Lowe, Proctor, Norrie and so forth. Just feel that anything this Storm team achieve will always have a question mark against it because of how it was put together.
Manly had to sacrafice a lot of their depth signings however this year. Lussick and Whare are at the top of that list. If they have an injury plauged season like this season, it's hard to see them finish Top 4. They have one of the best first XVIIs in the competition, but will struggle with depth next season. That's the cost of keeping guys like DCE, Foran & Stewart brothers.Lockyer was on the long service discount for most of that time iirc. Hodges in particular wouldn't be worth what the big 3 are, and even then Brisbane didn't hold on to two of them.
Manly retaining their big players this year is the only modern example I can think of. But then Manly have a lot of the advantages Melbourne do (strong winning culture) but they obtained them legally (to our knowledge).
odds on sbw dogging his contract?Yeah the schedule is going to get tiring. It'd be nice to see the Cows or the Titans get some more Friday games but 9 have already pretty much confirmed the Broncos will get the majority.
I reckon it's going to be a great season though. $BW vs Bulldogs will be great to watch, lots of teams with fresh looking lineups.
I've always wondered about that. I'm assuming there are loads of super rich benefactors involved in the Union, particularly in Japan? I'm sure their TV deal isn't commanding high numbers and the crowds are tiny.I reckon there is something wrong in League and Union when the top best leagues don't command the biggest pay cheque.
They get most of the money back outside basic Union income from TV deals and crowds. It is the advertising profits of having your brand mentioned in the media. Your not necessary playing SBW just for Rugby, he is basically doing a couple months of ads for Panasonic for example. Panasonic was mentioned about 10 times in the SBW press conference.I've always wondered about that. I'm assuming there are loads of super rich benefactors involved in the Union, particularly in Japan? I'm sure their TV deal isn't commanding high numbers and the crowds are tiny.
That kind of support isn't sustainable surely. Class structures change, people fall out of money or find other toys to pour disposable income into. Without strong fundamental support no investor will touch it without a significant personal interest in promoting the sport in the region.