Obviously wanted to change teams then! That is going to be the strongest brisbane team we have seen in a while, surely they cant have much of a salary cap left.

Melbourne must have some big plans ahead of them with no gaze or bradtke and possibly no copeland.

Sixers start signing for the love of God!

Do you think that Eddie is disregarding the cap and signing who ever he can?

Is there plan to just pay the fine if they are over the cap?

If they are blatantly disregarding the rules then they should lose ladder position ala Canterbury in the NRL.

May well be under the cap if they are not signing another import though.

Surely the penalty is more serious than just paying a fine if you're over the cap. Just look at the Derek Moore situation we had last year. We had to let him go. There was no question of keeping him and paying a fine.

I dont thin it is EC ...i think the sixers have been fined twice for cap breaches.

They would have known that we were over the cap when signing players up so therefore the only penalty is a fine?

Like everything i guess it is an interpretation....Stephon what do you say from a legal point?

I don't know the 36ers story, but the breaches may not have been in the contract. The figures on the contracts may have all been under the cap, but later in the season a player or players received payments for something, and they should have counted towards the cap, and when they did, it pushed them over. Maybe a payment for promotional work, maybe not cash but kind (ie accomodation support, car or something)...

Just a guess.

That sounds like a plausable concept Frank.

36ers better get cracking otherwise we could miss out on some free agent oppurtunities

Couldn't agree more anon. 36ers just seem to be conntinually missing oppurtunities that have arisen over the past few years, we've been lucky enough to have some fantastic players (maher, willie etc) who have stuck with us.

With Sam Mac and Bradtke signing with Brisbane, surely there must be alarm bells rings in the offices of each GM of other clubs.

The thing coming from the 36ers office isn't alarm bells but the death rattle....

Hey Kent,

From a commercial reality stand point rather than a legal stand point I note that guys like Eddy Groves can pretty much get away with what they want.

I note that the NBL is not like the AFL or the NBA that truly have power and independence over its members.

The NBL is not going to bite the hand that feeds it and fine the Eddy Groves' owned Bullets and jeopardise losing one of Australia's few young multi-millionaires willing to pump money into basketball.

In fairness, I don't think there would be too many people that would if in the same position. It isn't fair but it is a reality.

When it was the NBL that did not allow Moore to sign with us do you really believe the same would have happened if we were owned by Groves (also happens to sponsor NBL Grand Final series, etc).

Not only that but from a legal standpoint, there is case law to suggest the whole salary cap system/point system are an illegal restraint of trade and if Groves is willing to offer Bradtke a sum that he is willing to accept then so be it.

It is a contentious area, and you could imagine that other sporting codes such as the AFL and NRL would pump money into defending any action seeking a declaration that a particular salary cap is illegal. I think in the past, whenever such action has been tested in the AFL that the matters are always conveniently settled before a decision for obvious reasons.

In any event, it doesn't take much to get around the cap.

I mean, what is stopping me if I had Mark Cuban type money to offer Willie Farley $200,000 a year to play on my social team...conveniently allowing him to play for next to nothing for the 36ers.

There are a million alternate ways to get around the cap if you have the money like Groves.

Look at the Titans before they went under. Peter Fiddes reported they were spending close to $1 million in excess of the cap before they went under!

Cheers Stephon

Looks like Eddie has bought some leverage through his ABC sponsorship just waiting for the right time to use it.

Then again Sydney have always been under the cap no matter who they signed.

Correct Kent.

Besides, I have stated on many occasions in the past when the 36ers were big spenders that a team should be allowed to spend as much as they can afford and that there was no such thing as a level playing field.

Sucks now when the 36ers have honest management who will not rort the cap but I can't change my argument now.

Good on Brisbane for signing the two biggest free agents on the market this off-season.

They are still beatable with the team they have. However, with Groves, I wouldn't bet against him going out and signing a high priced second import!

Anthor quality player slips through the hands of the sixers ... i really hope they go hard to get either mee or pepper .... or it could be a long season for the sixers if they do nothing

what would happen if the sixers managment decided not to field a team and i don't mean an out cry from fans how would it affect basketball in s.a?

The effect would be huge basketball in this state would never recover

Agree Truth (your name isn't Jamaal, by any chance? That would be very funny to fans of the cult movie "The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh").

It would be close to a fatal blow if we didn't have an NBL team. In fact, it would be close to a fatal blow for the NBL itself.

The Sixers will sign a team. Even if they err on the side of cheap by retaining Rees and persisting with low offers to Nash, they'll sign a team. On top of that, any roster with Dusty and Maher and the rest isn't going to go down without a fight.

Here's hoping they can find some more money to keep Farley on board, and that's the spine of a quality team.

Better to be a Sixers fan right now than a Pirates fan...

I thought the whole reason for Bradtke shopping around was that the Tigers offered him less than he wanted (evidently less than previous years).

Brisbane will be tough, but Tigers will still have plenty of bigs.