This may be true for our starting halves (assuming we don't upgrade Galvin) but last year our back up was just Wakeham on minimum wage. It is now Sullivan and Fainu reportedly on a combined $1mil.Our halves next year will be on less than Brooks + Doueihi last year.
We were gonna offer AFB 800k+ but can't top Stefano up a bit extra without breaking the bank?
Also did you know Jake Simpkin is being paid quite a decent chunk? Same with Blore, it's not like swapping him for Olam really changed the way our cap looked.