I laugh at some people still complaining about the Cowboys situation. They were operating WITHIN the rules. The rules are pretty clear. I would argue the Roosters are most likely to be one of the clubs operating UNDER the salary cap. The cap rules are made for them. Third party deals allow them to not have to resort to cheating. No need for a brown paper bag if your payments are completely legal nowadays.
Are people really upset the club offloaded Stacey Jones after the Price/Wiki fiasco? I wasn't and I loved Stacey. He was just getting past his best at that time and that is exactly when you should move someone on under a hard-capped league - club legend or not. Vatuvei would be in this category now and there's no way I would have given him another deal. No disrespect to him but better value for money out there.
So long as Matulino, Mannering and
Johnson aren't offloaded then I don't see a problem. I would move Manu or Hurrell before I looked at risking Hoffman or Lillyman - heck the pack is already in the bottom half as it is without losing one of their cornerstones.