Agree 100% very strong position. Silvers mentioned this in person last yearI still maintain we would be one of the few clubs that would have MASSIVE coin available in the cap.
-Sloane gone
-Smith surely to retire at the end of the year.
-Tex 50/50 to play on next year and only on moderate 1 year deals as it is.
-Rach & Soligo locked away long term and likely front loaded
-Our two best players Rankine and Dawson are mid contracts and will easily retain them on increased coin when needed.
-ROB/Laird/Keays/Crouch would be all on 'moderate' to above average coin.
The vast bulk of the rest of our players are rookies/recent draftees, role players or 'emerging' players like Nank/Pedlar/Worrell/Keane etc.
Probably hardest one to value is Fogarty as he is inconsistent but seems a affable country kid who will probably prefer to stay in Adelaide (like Tex has).
You look at alot of the top sides, they would have at least 2 or 3 players on $1m+ a season deals... We are nowhere close to that.
I’ve said before the latest rise I thought we may be 2.5-3m already under the cap. We would have prepaid Rankine, Dawson, Racheke, Soligo to be heavily front loaded leaving huge capacity.
Personally can’t see why we couldn’t afford McC 1.25, Hayward 800k (if he’s worth it) and another mid range player like Cummins . And that’s BEFORE the cap increases