Here's some more for you Benno....

...and that concludes tonight's broacast....zzzzzzzz.....

exactly lucy, give us a million more and we might have actually won the flag, its an absolute rort and about time it was stopped.

Lucy you have won the flags, becasue you are indeed well coached, but you also have the cattle which you have been able to hold onto becuase you have more to play/pay with, it borders on cheating and i for one would like to see brisbane have its flags taken off them,

Benno, you said
"...which you have been able to hold onto becuase you have more to play/pay with..."

Which part of this do you not understand....

""In 2002 Brisbane spent $7,426,424 on player payments to win their second flag. Carlton, which paid nearly $150,000 more, finished 15th; Sydney spent nearly $500,000 more than Brisbane to finish 11th and Port Adelaide, which spent nearly $1 million less than Brisbane, finished first on the ladder.

That money alone does not bring success is an argument lost on the likes of Essendon, Collingwood and Carlton. "

Carlton spent more than Brisbane and didn't win, Sydney spent more than Brisbane and didn't win. Port spent less and finished first but didn't win.

Sorry but I do not see a recurring theme here. And if you're talking about taking flags away, maybe Carlton should lose any flags they've managed to win because they have officially been found rorting the system. Maybe Collingwood and Essendon should also lose their Flags because they have played with unfair advantages - big blockbuster which rake in heaps of money for them, less travel outside Victoria.

Oh shit I'm so sick of this argument it will never go anywhere.

Lucy, which part of jsa did you read Bennö out of? Stay out of the sun - its causing some serious damage...

Port, Collingwood...it's all the same to us.

regards,

REB

Sincere apologies Benno, it must be the excitement of not having to work tomorrow! :(

You're right of course, my prior remarks were directed at jsa not you.

But then maybe REB has hit the nail on the head.

Benno, be honest you totally agree that the mongrels should lose those premierships.

Lucy my argument is the ability of a team to win back to back premierships is to keep their high paid players together, essendon were on a similiar path to Brisbane but because they didnt have the extra cash they had to offset players and hence they are shite now something which brisbane hasnt had to do.

Printing facts on carlton is useless everybody knows that they pay extra for their players whether legally or not and until the ability to buy premierships happens again carlton will be shite.

Take one player from your side last year, voss, acker black and you wouldnt have won the premiership

And finally to appease Fred i blame all of the above on nick 'bloody' stevens -)

Here you go jsa, This may help to clear it all up for you...

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,8714519%255E12270,00.html

http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,8723846%255E10389,00.html
Extract...
"Beside taking paycuts, about a dozen senior players forwent their incentives in 2003 and they also agreed to a new payment structure.

Part of revision included taking $10,000 of each senior player's base contract and transferring into three finals match payments of $3000.

The Lions have done that the past couple of years at a cost of $1000 to each individual. "

So you see jsa - the players are willing to take paycuts inorder to stay together as a group - GET OVER IT!

You're more than wrong,jsa. Have a look back at the Essendon that you refer to. they had very highly paid players like Misiti and Mercuri on escalating contracts worth huge dollars as they went along.

Essendon tried to offload them through trading but no club was fool enough to take them at inflated salaries and they were stuck with them. Bombers then had to unload some youngsters and subsequently took a backward step.

Seems to me that Brisbane have recruited well, planned well and have been coached well. They enjoy the fruits of being smart.

You are suffering from a huge dose of the sads at not having any of the above three criteria at Port.

What about the previous few years when the stock of good players was being built up, when u were able to pay above the odds, sign them to long term contracts with lucrative carrots in the later years of contracts.

Westerner, had essendon had the luxury of extra salary cap they would not have offloaded any players, they are the facts

Westerner, slag port all you want, poorly coached correct , crap recruiting i think not, and remember i think its 2 out of the last 12 finals that the west coast have won, soi wouldnt be spouting too much, from my memory thats a worse record then us, and lets also remember you were gifted 2 premierships with the gracious entry conditions.

Yeah Westy, slag Port all you want. In fact, we'll all join you LOL. Wharfie scum...

regards,

REB

For 10 years I was responsible for managing salary budgets of several million dollars and I can assure you that a good manager builds a good team in spite of restrictions. It is not unusual in business to have your salary allocation "restructured" from time to time and those who have chosen their people wisely, built on their skills and strengths, empowered them and encouraged an atmosphere of co-operation will continue to flourish while teams that have been built around high flyers and a heavy turnover will often stumble.

A good manager will use the salary budget very wisely ensuring that the bulk of the money is spread for the best effect. A poor manager can spend much more money for little effect An increase or decrease of a few percent in dollars will make little difference to the overall performance of a well managed team. This is just sound business practice and happens all the time.
This is why Port Adelaide spent so little and yet still finished top of the ladder for two years and Carlton spent Zillions for no result, and if Luke Power had taken the $600.000 offered him by another club there would have been very little difference in the overall performance of the team.

Jase, Jase, Jase. Think about what you have said(written). If Essendon had managed their Salary Cap as others have had to do and not breach it as they did, and pay over the going rate for a few players that did not deserve it, then they would not have been in the position that they found themselves in.

When you have the belief that breaking the rules is OK because you are Essendon, and that Mattlloyd.com is legitimate and stuff everyone else , then its a big blow to the ego when you are caught.

That attitude has nothing to do with Brisbane winning a flag. They got there through good planning, coaching and recruiting.

As for Port, if they were able to pull the same things that Essendon did, they probably would have picked up a flag, but, like Brisbane, they have chosen to play within the rules and, unfortunately, due to a poor choice of Coach and some equally poor recruiting choices, are unable to nail the big one.

If Port manage to lose the arrogance that comes from being a mid season success and play the game with the same passion as some of the other teams, they might succeed. It's just that, to my mind, I think they have missed the opportunity this time and need to rebuild and get a new coach.

As for the Eagles, I have never placed them on a pedestal. I have said I believe that they are a better team than some give them credit for, they have an exciting group and have a coach that they believe in.

The Eagles are still rebuilding after making some poor recruiting and coaching decisions on the back early 90's success.

But they are not trying to stick it up everyone's nose a la Port.

A bit harsh on Port's recruiting efforts Westy. Port has a lot of depth and the recruitment of players like Montgomery, Pickett and Hardwick have gone a long way to providing that depth. If you want a good example of poor recruiting I suggest you avert your eyes from Alberton and on to West Lakes. Adelaide's slogan for this season could be 'Coccoon III: Back to the stone age'.

regards,

REB

Probably is a bit harsh, REB, but it's what I think.

Maybe, just maybe, I'm being swayed by their arrogance and that puts them in the same league as Collingwood and Essendon.

Power have done nothing in the Competition so far except get carried away by their own belief and choke when the heat is on.

And you're right on the 2nd count. Personally I don't rate Adelaide one bit. Talk about mistakes coming back to haunt you!!!!

Lokks like being a long and productive season. Will be interesting to see which of us so called experts is right.

Westy, thank god your not in charge of any clubs, rebuild after finishing 3 games clear, albeit f$%^ing up the finals again, id hardly call that a need to rebuild, maybe a time to top up the list but rebuild???

Recruiting?? if you have no facts westy its better not to comment