Poor planning

[Rooster_6]

People can talk about how Mortimer was cheap and he's still young but it's the events and lack of planning that leaves me annoyed. The signing as much as I don't rate the kid isn't a massive problem because he's only seen as a utility/back up.

Simple business... Risk analysis & contingency plans.

Todd Carney was always a risk, Jacob Miller was seemingly our contingency plan. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but someone seriously screwed up here.

Not only did we loose Miller but we had to (based on the information & events so far) release Ryles to clear space for a fringe first grader.

Forget Mortimer for a second and try to justify losing Miller and Ryles for a fringe first grader. I honestly hope I'm proven wrong and there's a big signing or some big re-signings on the way because at least then it would show the club actually have some type of medium to long term plan but I don't hold many hopes.

I rarely ever have a dig at the club but I can't stand people trying to justify the signing for all the reasons listed in Cockadoodle's thread when the real issue is we should've never been in this place to begin with.

[Guest]

Very disappointed in losing Ryles.. he did well enough this year up front

[Geohood]

So you think we needed to release Ryles in order to afford Mortimer?.. Unless a certain SBW has already signed behind the scenes we should have a lot of cap space to work with.

[rooster_booster]

Yeh thats ridiculous. We got rid of Todd Carney, Daniel Conn, Phil Graham, Kane Linnett, Nate Myles, Mark Riddell and Anthony Watts from the books, I highly doubt we had to release Ryles so Mortimer could sign here.

[Rooster_6]

Yeh thats ridiculous. We got rid of Todd Carney, Daniel Conn, Phil Graham, Kane Linnett, Nate Myles, Mark Riddell and Anthony Watts from the books, I highly doubt we had to release Ryles so Mortimer could sign here.

Only when it was clear that Todd Carney would be let go could we actually offer Guerra a decent contract and he was the last of those mentioned above to leave the club. Sure we might have held onto a couple of hundred thousand and picked up some more with the loss of Ryles but it's hardly 'ridiculous' to consider the alternative that we've got some very highly payed youngsters and a few were always going to get upgrades/bonuses after playing x amount of games this season with so many injuries exposing so many youngsters.

Like Moritmer, SBW is more than just a signing... his signing is hope for every fan that we actually haven't screwed up our cap. Unfortunately I think a lot of people are going to be disappointed.

[bondi-boy]

Very disappointed in losing Ryles.. he did well enough this year up front

He did, but:


17 players on $300,000ea = 5.1m

[rooster_booster]

Those players I listed would have been close to a million dollars of our cap using very conservative estimates. So the fact that we couldn't afford roughly 100k on Mortimer does strike me as ludicrous yes.

[Rooster_6]

Those players I listed would have been close to a million dollars of our cap using very conservative estimates. So the fact that we couldn't afford roughly 100k on Mortimer does strike me as ludicrous yes.

Players were always going to be shed.

SKD, Kennedy, Takarangi, Guerra & Symonds all signed new deals if you're wondering where the majority of the money went.

Do you not find it odd that for months we were linked to Mortimer then within a few days after announcing we'd released Ryles we announced we had signed Mortimer? Just a coincidence? I think not...

[bondi-boy]

People can talk about how Mortimer was cheap and he's still young but it's the events and lack of planning that leaves me annoyed. The signing as much as I don't rate the kid isn't a massive problem because he's only seen as a utility/back up.

Simple business... Risk analysis & contingency plans.

Todd Carney was always a risk, Jacob Miller was seemingly our contingency plan. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but someone seriously screwed up here.

Not only did we loose Miller but we had to (based on the information & events so far) release Ryles to clear space for a fringe first grader.

Forget Mortimer for a second and try to justify losing Miller and Ryles for a fringe first grader. I honestly hope I'm proven wrong and there's a big signing or some big re-signings on the way because at least then it would show the club actually have some type of medium to long term plan but I don't hold many hopes.

I rarely ever have a dig at the club but I can't stand people trying to justify the signing for all the reasons listed in Cockadoodle's thread when the real issue is we should've never been in this place to begin with.

Miller I'm not familiar with.
Seems those who judge decided he wasn't the one.


In the scheme of things Mortimer is just one little ol' player the Eels don't want.
He did play well a couple of years ago.
He might turn into a top player of the future, he might not.
In the meantime, what if Pearce or Anasta gets injured?

What's the worst that can happen?
He doesn't make it, doesn't work out, and we release him.
Where's the risk?

Ryles is at the end of his career...we have other younger forwards we need to retain for the future, there's not unlimited money.
Ryles could've stayed for less money than the was on for the past two years but basically chose not to.

Pat Jarvis said to me one day:

"If you sign for less than you think you're worth, you'll always feel cheated"

[rooster_booster]

Players were always going to be shed.

SKD, Kennedy, Takarangi, Guerra & Symonds all signed new deals if you're wondering where the majority of the money went.

Do you not find it odd that for months we were linked to Mortimer then within a few days after announcing we'd released Ryles we announced we had signed Mortimer? Just a coincidence? I think not...

SKD, Kennedy and Symonds' contracts were all upgraded long ago. Before they had sub-par seasons and as for Kennedy, he only play 3 games.

As for Taka and Guerra - hardly world beaters

[melon....]

The eels also released Mateo. I wish we had picked him up before NZ did.

[bondi-boy]

We have forwards as good, as shown at the end of the season.

[Guest]

Carney self-destructing could not have been planned for.

Not in the era of the salary cap.

Whilst everyone is a genius with hindsight there would have been a lot of criticism is we had brought in a first-grade quality backup jalf just in case Carney fell over.

[BUDDY]

I think you are reading too much into getting rid of Ryles for Mortimer.
If it's true what Horry suggested that Ryles wanted more than what the Roosters thought he was worth (or originally agreed to) then I can understand why they told him to move on.

As for Miller, from what I have seen of him in first grade, I think he is a few years from being up to first grade standard. Even the Tigers are fighting to keep Moltzen after releasing Lui. I don't think they believe he is ready for first grade either.

We have cleared the decks and with Anasta and Mini more than likely off after next year and from a few rumours I believe there are a couple of big names we are working on.

[Guest]

Bad planning maybe but plenty of bad luck.

At the start of this year we had Pearce and Carney as starting halves and Anasta and Watts as back up. Pretty strong if you ask me but it just didn't work out.

Also I can't see how losing Ryles has anything to do with Mortimer. Reading the papers Mortimer is taking a pay cut plus Parra are paying some of his salary, he couldn't be on that much.

Don't forget Carney's salary (reportedly $450k for his third year) I think we would have some decent money left.