Further to the Joel Tomkins transfer to Saracens the Wigan club have been in talks with the RFL with regard to the salary cap and help with keeping our top players ( and Sam Tomkins in particular) in Superleague. The following is a quote fro the RFL web site

"The Rugby Football League are sticking with a £1.7million ceiling but clubs are to be given permission to make allowances for long-serving, marquee and home-grown players in an effort to prevent a drain of talent to Australia and the 15-man code."

So which of our players fall into the categories that attract allowances? and what if any extra headroom will we have to the salary cap ceiling?

I'd personally go with the following

BJB - home-grown
Hardaker - home-grown
Hall - marquee
McGuire - long serving
Burrow - long serving
Sinfield - long serving

I dont think the others would be courted by raa raa

Probably whoever's attracting most interest from union. In the short term that's probably Ryan Hall.

McGuire, Burrow and Sinfield probably qualify under all 3 headings, and Hall under at least 2.

As for "home grown" it needs definition. Does it mean "UK trained" or does it mean trained by that particular club? If the latter, Hardaker wouldn't count.

The Leeds CEO will be loathing this concept.

He's not forced to adopt it. He could retain the existing salary structure. Our players would be no more exposed to union's temptations than they are currently.

Our success over the last decade has been that we are a team which is greater than the sum of its parts. We would survive the loss of any of those players. Sinfield is the biggest key to what Leeds do, and he would be our most unreplaceable, but as he is entering his more senior years we will have to start to think about life without him anyway shortly.

I don't think for one second that he would adopt it but I still believe he will be loathing the idea that others will.

how wrong is it that the cap has been changed to suit cheating ba$tards Wigan.

I'm already looking forward to Leeds' carefully crafted press release in response to this RFL led initiative.

At least this is interesting unlike the Wigan tie-up with their latest Union beau.

To be fair, it's being changed to suit Rugby League in general and the retention of outstanding young players rather than to suit Wigan in particular. It does happen to suit Wigan at the moment though.

If Hetherington would rather lose Hall or a more developed Hardaker to Union than pay near market rate for their services (provided Leeds could afford it notwithstanding the cap) then that's not very good for Leeds or for Rugby League.

I don't believe for one single minute that =#FF0000any union club would touch Sam Tomkins, or were ever in for him. And personally I think that's why he agreed a new deal at Wigan.

I don't want to be snobby because it's one of the many reasons I can not abide by the union game. But I can't deny that in union they have a certain "hooray" class about them. I can't recall anybody of such a low life personality ever playing in the union game. His brother is a completely different personality to Sam.

With regards the cap, I don't see any confirmation there that the RFL have amended the cap. The long serving rule has been there for years, with a 50% of salary increase to cap, to a maximum of £50,000.

You don't remember David Bishop.

He was already union, and they are a different breed now in that excuse for sport.

That rule was brought in AFTER Andy Farrell went to Union to allow RL to reward it's longer serving players.

I understand the Sam Tomkins new contract makes him the most expensice SL player and on a par with many top Union boys

Quote ="Juan Cornetto"I understand the Sam Tomkins new contract makes him the most expensice SL player and on a par with many top Union boys'" £300k per year, according to this: www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/no ... ur-nations If that's true, it's a big step up. I was initially worried that union would merely up the ante but I think they'd struggle to exceed this by much. After all, they've been losing their own players to french clubs for figures reputed to be in this ball park. Nonetheless, post-career prospects remain brighter with union and I think some players will continue to be enticed by the prospects of celebrity, regardless of salary.

Quote ="Juan Cornetto"I understand the Sam Tomkins new contract makes him the most expensice SL player and on a par with many top Union boys'" £300k per year, according to this: www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/no ... ur-nations If that's true, it's a big step up. I was initially worried that union would merely up the ante but I think they'd struggle to exceed this by much. After all, they've been losing their own players to french clubs for figures reputed to be in this ball park. Nonetheless, post-career prospects remain brighter with union and I think some players will continue to be enticed by the prospects of celebrity, regardless of salary.

Quote ="Clearwing"£300k per year, according to this: www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/no ... ur-nations If that's true, it's a big step up. I was initially worried that union would merely up the ante but I think they'd struggle to exceed this by much. After all, they've been losing their own players to french clubs for figures reputed to be in this ball park. Nonetheless, post-career prospects remain brighter with union and I think some players will continue to be enticed by the prospects of celebrity, regardless of salary.'" good luck to him getting that money, but what does it say to the other players at wigan? he's taking up a fair old whack from the £1.7 million a season salary cap and there are other "big" names at the club obviously none as big as tomkins at the moment but still big none the less incedently talking of one of our "marquee" players ryan hall, he was offered pots of money from toulouse rugby union but turned them down because he wants a testimonial with the club he's supported all his life.

Quote ="Clearwing"£300k per year, according to this: www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/no ... ur-nations If that's true, it's a big step up. I was initially worried that union would merely up the ante but I think they'd struggle to exceed this by much. After all, they've been losing their own players to french clubs for figures reputed to be in this ball park. Nonetheless, post-career prospects remain brighter with union and I think some players will continue to be enticed by the prospects of celebrity, regardless of salary.'" good luck to him getting that money, but what does it say to the other players at wigan? he's taking up a fair old whack from the £1.7 million a season salary cap and there are other "big" names at the club obviously none as big as tomkins at the moment but still big none the less incedently talking of one of our "marquee" players ryan hall, he was offered pots of money from toulouse rugby union but turned them down because he wants a testimonial with the club he's supported all his life.

In 2018? Awesome, let's get him signed up now!

Agree, not sure how being on a massive wedge does for team spirit. And does take a good size chunk of cap space.

As sinfield said I think after 2009 GF. Most of our squad could get more money elsewhere, but choose not to for special memories like GF ( clearly he said it better than I but I think that's the gist of it

is he?

It would appear he is taking up very little, if any of it.

and this is exactly what Leeds breed into the players and thats the only type of player I want at Leeds.

Lets look at the ones that went because they wanted bigger money. Calderwood and Harris (altho Harris said it was for the international scene). Lets not forget what Sinny said at OT a few years ago about the players at Leeds could go anywhere and earn more but they wanted to play for Leeds and win things. Thats what we should be breeding into our youngsters, not greed and a quick buck.

Another thing that Leeds does is offer the players a life outside of RL. A lot of the squad do degree courses with Leeds Met and they fit it around their commitments to the club. I think thats a great positive for the players as once they leave us they have a qualification to go out into the working world and do what they want to do. Thats why I'm surprised we didnt try to snap up Tom Armstrong from Saints if he was any good. He only quit so he could go to Uni

And with 4 titles in the last 5 years, that idea is backed up by reality.

exactly! We dont want greater than thou players who turn up and cant be bothered just because they have a massive wedge in their pocket. theres probably a few players in the Leeds ranks that are on more than they deserve because of their success and thats how success should be rewarded.

Quote ="Clearwing"£300k per year, according to this: www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/no ... ur-nations '" Not bad for a player Wigan once decided wouldn't make the grade. If true, goodbye Wigan's brief spell at or around the SL summit ..... that is without the RFL intervene.

Quote ="Clearwing"£300k per year, according to this: www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/no ... ur-nations '" Not bad for a player Wigan once decided wouldn't make the grade. If true, goodbye Wigan's brief spell at or around the SL summit ..... that is without the RFL intervene.