Rumour: Frank Paul The Wrecking Ball To Belmore

[Guest]

Well there is a rumour saying that Dogs will sign Adam Blair in 2012 and release Ryan and Hodgson. Doubt they can offered Blair and FPN?

[Guest]

Well there is a rumour saying that Dogs will sign Adam Blair in 2012 and release Ryan and Hodgson. Doubt they can offered Blair and FPN?

That's pretty much right on the money, both are off contract. The club tried to get Ryan to go to England at the end of last year. He's our club captain and he's been good for us, but to be honest, I don't know where we'll play him this year.

Hodgson signed a one year deal, for 2011.

I can assure you the Dogs are not after FPN, to the best of my knowledge, they spoke to Lopini Paea but nothing came of it.

[melon....]

Do the Bulldogs have a $6M Salary Cap for 2011?

Try 2012.

[Guest]

That's pretty much right on the money, both are off contract. The club tried to get Ryan to go to England at the end of last year. He's our club captain and he's been good for us, but to be honest, I don't know where we'll play him this year.

Hodgson signed a one year deal, for 2011.

I can assure you the Dogs are not after FPN, to the best of my knowledge, they spoke to Lopini Paea but nothing came of it.

Yeah, i've got a few friends that support Dogs and they are very confident Adam Blair will be a bulldog in 2012.

[Guest]

Try 2012.

Why? What happens after 2012? Will we get an increase?

[Rooster_6]

You better hope so, if Hodkinson, Barba & Tolman all reach their potential you're gonna struggle to keep them. Got big ratings on those 3, don't reckon Tolman is far off from an origin debut.

Josh Morris is already gone if you believe the rumours.

[Guest]

You better hope so, if Hodkinson, Barba & Tolman all reach their potential you're gonna struggle to keep them. Got big ratings on those 3, don't reckon Tolman is far off from an origin debut.

Josh Morris is already gone if you believe the rumours.

General consensus is that Josh will be back in the red v next year. Shame really, that Bryson Goodwin has to wait until 2012 to get the ball ...

Hodkinson is already on good coin, so is Tolman. I'm actually not expecting Hodkinson to end the season as our half back, I don't rate him. Tolman, should go well.

If Barba doesn't crack it this year, then time to move on. By all reports he's giving it a red hot go. So we'll see.

[Guest]

Why? What happens after 2012? Will we get an increase?

The world ends!!!!!!!!!!!

[Guest]

The world ends!!!!!!!!!!!

Woohoo .... wait .... that's bad ... but we can still spend what we want, right?

[Hawkeye]

2012

The world ends!!!!!!!!!!!

That would mean the 2012 winners will remain premiers in perpetuity
....... 2012 - the mother of all competitions !

[Guest]

General consensus is that Josh will be back in the red v next year. Shame really, that Bryson Goodwin has to wait until 2012 to get the ball ...

Hodkinson is already on good coin, so is Tolman. I'm actually not expecting Hodkinson to end the season as our half back, I don't rate him. Tolman, should go well.

If Barba doesn't crack it this year, then time to move on. By all reports he's giving it a red hot go. So we'll see.

Im a chook thru n thru! i dont mind the dogs,but their salary this year is questionable?

[Chookies74]

Blair would be a v good buy, good speed around the park, and tough
Also will hurt Melbourne, so that's another bonus.

[Guest]

That would mean the 2012 winners will remain premiers in perpetuity
....... 2012 - the mother of all competitions !

Sign them up to massive 2 year deals in 2011, and back end the payments. Hee hee ....

[Guest]

Im a chook thru n thru! i dont mind the dogs,but their salary this year is questionable?

The salary cap is there to protect News Limited's returns rather than any real benefit to the game or protection of the clubs. I'm over worrying about who gets paid in real estate, poker machines, brown bags, through overseas companies or tax losses.

I would only be guessing if I tried to do the numbers for you. Our big money signings were Pritchard, Tolman and Hodkinson. Eastwood and Keating are on good money and Millington, Wright and Lett came over on not much more than minimum.

Tolman's situation is well known, Pritchard came to us because of Eastwood and Eastwood has become attached to a faction in our club and wanted to come back.

There's a story behind Millington's move, so I understand we got him for less than you would expect. Keating we got because of the smokescreen around the Dogs bid for young Mortimer, we didn't get into any bidding war for him so got him at a reasonable price. (Parra are so badly managed, it's not funny. Heaven help Stephen Kearney.)

On the other side of the ledger, we lost Hannant, Kimmorley and Patten. Those 3 alone are over $1million. We also released Buddy Gordon, who was on minimum, Jarrod Hickey who is pretty much a straight swap for Eastwood in money terms and Winitana who was also on a little more than minimum.

Josh Morris, by the way, has supposedly knocked back an upgrade and extension on his deal on 2 occasions. So whatever money we had already spent, there was supposed to be more available for Morris. So either we had money left in the cap or as part of the Tolman deal we also picked up the Storm's second filing cabinet.

I will leave it to you to do the sums, if they don't add up then send your figures and thoughts to jbrady@nrl.com.au. He enjoys getting feedback !!

[Guest]

I read somewhere that you guys paid 100k+ for Gordon. I was surprised at the time because I thought he was a bludger on and off the field.

You are correct about Barba Imadog, I hear he is really putting in the hard yards in training.