Interesting to hear the comments of Sinfield and Peacock last night wasn't it?


The short version is Leeds can only assemble that squad under the CC on account of their players taking a pay cut in order to "stay together".


In other words if the RFL had it's way that Grand Final would have been played with less talented personnel on the field.


So that's another myth of the CC put to bed. How do Leeds manage to keep within the CC? - they rely on the willingness of their players to play for less than they deserve. What a fantastic advert for our game................

A bit like Radlinkski when he played for nowt.


Rugby League players kiss the badge and mean it.

how the hell did a Sts-Leeds final bring Wigan's worst poster onto the VT?

What a ridiculous leap of logic, silly.

Seriously, he's not the worst.

Seriously, he's not even a Wigan poster.

Never heard of Seriously.

It shows that there are still teams out there who would be willing to pay these players more than they deserve. That goes some way to explaining why those clubs continue to fail compared to Leeds, who are unwilling to play players more than they deserve.

The really ironic thing about this post is that it is made by somebody called XBrettKennyX...

Brett Kenny is one of my all time favourite players but if you think that he had any loyalty or affection for the Wigan club you are sadly mistaken, he was here for the money in an age when we employed mercenaries for half the season and made do for the rest... I would rather have a team that played for each other for a full season through to a Grand Final success

The game is in such a better place that when Brett Kenny played for Wigan… but Wigan isn’t winning the Super League so it has to be worse!!

So you think that the way to recruit and retain talent in RL is to offer the players the prospect of earning less than the market is willing to pay for their services?

Interesting...................

Isn't that exactly what the current champions have done?

surely if leeds are paying them less than they deserve, there is scope for teams to pay them exactly what they deserve and it still be impossible to put together a team of the quality of this Leeds team,

in other words, it is impossible to put together a team as good as this Leeds one without expecting players to 'pay' for the chance to be in a champion side!

what a great advert for the game that is, come play rugby league, if your good we wont pay you what you deserve

Is there some sort of algorithm that calculates what a player "deserves", so we can check this argument properly?

Or is it simply "as much money as we can get our hands on, and never mind any consequences"?

and thats the reason Lee Smith will be playing RU next year,

But somebody else will

So your argument is based on one player out of a squad of ... how many, exactly?

Leeds are paying them exactly what they deserve. If they think they deserve more they can go elsewhere. To a poorly run club that will pay them more than they deserve. A club that will fail to compete because of this.

yes, there is, its called Seeking Your Value on The Open Market.

A player is paid what his employer thinks he deserves, if the player disagrees they go elsewhere and find someone who will pay them an amount which is acceptable to the player.

Except if your a Rugby League player, where strangely Gary Hetherington cant pay Lee Smith what he thinks he is worth as he is limited in what he can spend because his competitors dont have a lot of money

Which they're quite entitled to do.

It seems they'd rather be paid less to play in a tight knit squad of winners, though, so all this blather about the importance of a few extra quid is ringing little hollow.

25, but it isnt based on one player is it, its based on the hundreds playing RU, football and other sports that dont play RL

we dont only count the ones we lose, but the ones we never attracted as well,


as a game, we simply dont have the quality to allow players like Lee Smith to be leaving

except they cant, because we dont have an open market

I guess the key question here is, where does the sport of Rugby League get this money that the players 'deserve'?

I absolutely believe that Rugby League players are the most dedicated athletes on the planet and I wonder what Peacock and Sinfield feel when seeing Premier league players on £200k a week

The problem is the sport cannot afford to pay the players more than the sport earns - we have to live within our means the same way as any organisation that wants to remain solvent does

The Cap may not be paying the players what they deserve but it is keeping the sport alive

You specified one player - Lee Smith.



"we" do no such thing - because "we" know you can't "count" something as utterly indefinite as that.



Smith could have played for another club. He didn't, he went to RU.

Smith wanted to play RU more than he wanted to play RL, simple as that.

I'm not aware of a true open market in [iany[/i sphere of business.

so they deserve exactly this amount, and also more, strange!

it shouldnt be an either or situation, it shouldnt be you can be paid your value or you can win things, you should be rewarded for winning things

its arrogant and niave to pretend that players should be thankful just to play our game for our entertainment and not expect to be properly rewarded because the owners want more money and you want to pay less on the turnstyles,

its not Jamie Peacocks job to keep Leeds Rhinos a sustainable business, its his job to provide for his family and do his job to the best of his ability, thats how it works,