Huddersfield’s win tonight puts a lot more pressure on us for the Easter weekend

Hudds beat Cas

If having a salary cap, P and R has to go and a franchise system has to come into play, if you want P and R get rid of the salary cap, then the big clubs can weather the storm of an injury crisis by buying more quality players. The game is already in a financial mess, half the teams in SL are playing to crowds of 5,000 crowds or less, Championship clubs and below are on their knees, why wouldn't you want a club to spend money on players if they are struggling, if the likes of a Leeds, Saints, Wigan and a couple more clubs were to be relegated it would damage SL, I don't agree in a salary cap sport, if we are playing to a cap, it should be set against different targets, such as size of club etc. Can you imagine Man Utd having the same spending power as Brighton , get real it would kill football, and this is slowly killing our sport.

My only problem with the cap is not having it simply rise with inflation so that players' wages do as well on average.

I disagree that that just getting rid of the cap will improve the game though. Day one following getting rid of the cap, every SL player will want an upgrade. That's basically all you'd see - rampant wage inflation across SL. That was exactly what we saw in the NRL when the last TV deal upgraded the cap. You might see a few higher quality imports, but with the marquee rule maybe not more than otherwise.

In a pretty short while you'd have the bigger clubs signing most of the best players as they used to do, and the gap between top and bottom get bigger again.
Unless there's a way that increasing the cap improves junior development, I just don't see how quality increases much. The cap would have to be stratospheric for SL clubs to sign RU internationals like they used to, and the gap to the NRL is pretty big as well.

Is there an argument that letting the big clubs send what they want will improve the standard of SL? Genuine question.

I said to my mates on the way to the Cas game, win lose or draw, if we get beat by KR + Udds I reckon Furner will get the sack.

The whole point is about game development, how can the game expand, the game will never grow when the men in the board room simply look after their own interests before the game as a whole. We talk about P and R, franchise in SL, salary cap etc, but the game will never move forward when the smaller teams with the lowest crowds have the same salary cap as the largest and most successful teams. It's only recently that some teams have started their own academy, they know that they have the same cap as the big teams, the sponsorship from Sky just about meets the salary cap, and half their squads are built around other teams academies. Some of the grounds aren't fit to hold cattle never mind play rugby.
Why should these clubs have the same amount of money to spend as the successful clubs. This is not the way to develop this great sport, hence we could get relegated with an injury list as long as your arm yet other teams have half of our ex academy players in their teams and they hadn't spent a penny on player development. They are described as leaches of the sport.
No othrer sport would allow such rules to exist, no other sport does, even cricket are moving forward. No wonder the sport is in dire needs.
Which sport would allow a city the size of Bradford with a great support base not to have a SL club, yet we have clubs in places where you would get higher crowds in the Scottish football third division, P and R needs to be stopped and replaced with a franchise, and if that means new teams, old teams coming together then so be it. Trible support has to be a thing of the past

Best post I've read in a long time

Agree with a lot of that Brodie.
Whilst I do feel we need mergers and like you say some clubs coming back into the fold such as Bradford.
Whilst die hards of clubs such as Wakefield, Fev and Cas would not want it I think it is the only way to go before RL dies on it`s feet.
How can teams survive when for instance a local West Yorkshire derby last night attracted less than 5,000 supporters?
If we had 12 or even 14 highly competitive teams in one league it would make the game more entertaining.
However the dilemma is if a combined team such as Wakefield, Cas and Fev played their games at Featherstone than supporters of the other two teams probably wouldn`t travel the 5 miles to watch them play.
Something needs to be done but I think the damage is too deep seated and crowds will continue to reduce and the final nail in the coffin will be Sky sport pulling out of any TV deal as demand falls.

The attendance last night was disgusting. An embarrassment to the sport really. The game was very decent though which is the real shame. For me thurs night games provide poor crowds also.

I can see Sky pulling out at some stage. Can you imagine if Leeds went down... I genuinely fear for the game. I'd be interested to see if the Hearns are still engaged..

Sad as it sounds but the Hearns might be our only hope mate.

Agreed, and this all should have been done when Franchises were first inroduced. That was the time to take it forward. Still needed, but have lost a lot of ground on other sports by wasting the opportunity.

To add, on a seperate note, regardless of the above, we will never take our game forward with the rules we have in place on the field, or alternatively the current officials we have. The officials these days are an absolute disgrace compared to years ago. They can not interpret the rules in anyway correctly, and each of them interprets in different ways. So many rules I would change to stop this rubbish. But how anybody can be against two referees on the current system I do not know.

Very possibly

Hate the obstruction rule with a passion. Hudds had a well worked try disallowed from it. Was an embarrassing decision

I would get rid of obstruction full stop, simply because officials can’t get the rule right. There is zero common sense between them interpreting the rule.

I also think they need to get rid of the penalty rule if ball hits the opposition player around the play the ball. The cheating going on from the dummy halfs is embarrassing level now. And even more embarrassing to officials for not seeing it. That one from Leeming last night was just diabolical. Actually throwing the ball downeards to make sure he hit the Cas player.

But using your logic, it will be an even bigger must win game for Huddersfield which sort of evens things out!

How can you get rid of obstruction full stop?

Exactly. Maybe instead of getting North American teams to play Rugby League, we should just play Canadian or American Football.

What difference does it make. They can’t get it right anyway. Removed the concept of dummy runners now. Would be easier to rule on if there was no such rule, and allow it to happen. It’s a joke as it stands, so what harm to it can it do?

No it’s not that’s just daft. If you removed the rule you could have blockers like in the NFL.

The concept of dummy runners have not been removed either. There’s dummy runners on virtually every play, they just have to stay onside and not get in the way of defenders.

I’d agree there’s no consistency on applying the rule but that’s not the fault of the rule or the principle of the rule it’s the fault of the officials.
However I think too many attacking plays rely on dummy runners being offside and getting in the way of defenders and hoping they get away with it. In the end obstruction is still very simple to avoid. Don’t run in front of the ball.

Gotcha have you taken to the bottle in the last 24 hours?

If you do away with the salary cap then you will be back to Bradford scenario with even one of the most successful teams getting into financial difficulties- where does that leave the game?
Why should teams who haven’t been historically successful not have the opportunity to sign the same players? It’s already more difficult for them.
The comments you make about the academy also are just so short sighted. All these ex-academy players you moan about being in other teams- who’s fault is that????? They’ve gone because you didn’t want them!!! Scouts see a decent young lad, he’s wanted by Leeds, Wakefield and Salford- who’s he going to sign for???? Then you get rid of them and moan when they go elsewhere-possibly to a team that tried to sign them to their academy originally but they chose Leeds.
A good few years ago the RFL wanted to bring in a draft system to spread out the talent and improve every team and hence the game- Leeds and Wigan were amongst those who voted that idea down- I wonder why! Because they like being able to have their pick of the best- then YOU let them go elsewhere.
It’s like at school when all the best players get picked first- What’s the point in e.g. Salford spending a pile of money on the “what’s left” when they know you will drop half of the players they wanted in the first place.

Tribal sport being a thing of the past

good luck with that one- when has that EVER worked.

I can see London beating Salford & Wakefield
Then were are in a dog fight

27 Apr
London Broncos VS Salford Red Devil
02 May
Wigan Warriors VS London Broncos
18 May
London Broncos VS Wakefield Trinity
26 May
Leeds Rhinos VS London Broncos
09 Jun
London Broncos VS St Helens
15 Jun
Catalan Dragons VS London Broncos

Who thought pre season magic weekend would be a relegation 4-pointer.

Nobody, because it isn't.

What a snob !!! Leeds wouldn`t have been successful over the years if it hadn`t been for the smaller clubs. Plus the fact you are spending over the cap with the marquee players, I don`t see why you are complaining as you are spending more than most clubs. Leeds are lucky in that they have a massive catchment area in Leeds, population wise.