But you can do all you can to tend towards one.

They can go and earn more, but [ithey[/i have chosen not to. They want stay with their mates and play for the current top club, rather than look for a new challenge. Fair play to them for this solidarity - it has earned them the great memories Sinfield talked about.

If I could earn a bit more elsewhere, but I'm happy and comfortable where I am, I'd probably do the same. I'd not expect any sympathy for that decision, though.

yes, i used an example, good job on noticing that,



why not? there are hundreds of athletes who could play our game, hundreds who would make it, hundreds who dont, these are things we know,

we also know that RU and Football both have more british players playing, a higher profile, and better athletes, they also pay more money to thier players,



or he could have just wanted to earn more money in a very short career that will likely wreck his body!

maybe an offering of the same wage would have kept him in RL,

So why doesn't he go and play RU ?

It does indeed seem that way, well for the moment at least.


Well apart from Lee Smith who has gone...........who's next?

Here's a thought, scrap the CC, pay the players their open market value and they might stay together for longer. Surely it cannot be that simple.....I must be missing something eh?

Playing for Leeds you dont get paid as much as you might elsewhere but you do get some things money cannot buy, for some thats enough but for others it isnt

im not aware of any other industry that limits what one business can spend on its employess on what its competitors can afford

Different clubs will value them differently and therefore offer to pay them different amounts. There is no absolute value that anyone deserves for their work, simply the amount they can demand.

Leeds pay them what they deserve, what they are worth to Leeds. Other clubs may be willing to pay them more. They are free to move to those other clubs if they so wish. That they choose not to is their decision, their choice to put more value on playing with Leeds than simply their salary.

Nail on the head with an extremely heavy hammer.

no the problem is keeping CEOs in jobs they arent up to, if they cant run their business in a sustainable manner they should be allowed to fail

Or we could just let wage bills spiral like it has in football, and we can all spend fifty quid each to watch our teams play, while the smaller clubs go bust as a result of trying to keep up with the big boys.

Yes, but the whole point is that these things need not be mutually exclusive.

probably because he isnt suited to it, maybe he has never been offered the chance

maybe he is prepared to make that sacrifice, if he is great, good on him, but thats his personal decision on whats best for him

Maybe that's the case for tinpot clubs, not for the big boys.

Yes, you are missing something - in fact you are missing an awful lot

Luckily, Richard Lewis isn't and I am very thankful for that

Smokey stop confusing them with common sense. They haven't a leg to stand on and they know it.

We don't have as much money as other sports. This is unfair on professional RL players, but life isn't fair. Better to recognise this than bankrupt the sport, either financially or as a competitive spectacle, in a Quixotic attempt to right that wrong.

but they dont, the are paid what leeds are allowed to spend,

they arent paid their value to leeds, they are paid what leeds can afford under an arbitrary cap set purely to limit the amount they can earn

if the SC didnt do this we wouldnt bother having it, if it didnt stop players seeking their true worth it wouldnt be a salary cap would it?

you cant have a salary cap which doesnt cap salaries

why would it bankrupt the spor, do you not trust your CEO to run your club in a professional manner?

wages in football have spiralled as a result of income 'spiralling' and which clubs are going bust, small ones or poorly run ones? there are a fair few 'small' clubs doing fine and the ones which arent are largely poorly run, ala leeds utd

We also know that the kids starting to play the game do so because they enjoy it, and because they wish to emulate their heroes at whatever club they support.

Or maybe they stumble across it, and curiosity drives them to try it out.

The idea that there's a load of 7 year olds out there with calculators mulling over the implications of the salary cap is laughable.

Which leaves established athletes who might be tempted to join in; unless they're top level athletes, football or RU players, they'll make more money as a SL standard RL player than they will professionally plying their trade in their current sport.

And I don't see many top level track and field suddenly deciding to play RL instead of whatever they're doing. Even if they did, there's no guarantee they'll be any better than what you have in your academy who play for buttons.



We also know that RU had more British players and a higher profile when it was technically amateur. Bang goes the vast majority of your "more dosh" argument.

There were more British players in the top flight when footballers were paid far less than now. Bang goes the vast majority of your "more British players" argument.

Amateur athletes like boxers and runners etc can be every bit as fit as pro RL players. It's certainly possible to be that fit on less money if you want to. Bang goes the vast majority of your "fitness" argument.



He made the choice to play RL, it's hardly come as a surprise to him that he's suddenly out there on a RL pitch getting battered around.



[iMaybe?[/i

so your little diatribe comes down to a maybe about one player?

Big boys who had to sell their stadium to ease the financial burden? Jog on pie man.

But the league isn't just made up of "Big Boys" is it? Look at Wigan when they were successful, they won everything for such a long time, but managed to bring the club to its knees financially. The cap is needed to keep thgame stable.

Exactly, and the club has lost players for that reason.

The choice to the player is simple. You can accept what Leeds will offer you, factoring in your own personal (family, career prospects, etc) or you can seek more money elsewhere, such as at Wigan, where your career will stagnate due to poor coaching and incompetent management.

Isn't that right Mr Calderwood?

And Kenny, your claim that the Grand Final "didn't feature the best players" on the basis that they aren't the best paid is an absolute nonsense.

Assuming your ideal scenario of each club spending all they can afford on salaries (not sure why you want clubs to overpay players but lets assume they do so to their spending capacity). Then there is a vast difference in the spending by each club in SL. From that we get a vast difference in the quality of each team in SL. This results in the vast majority of matches being completely uncompetitive, spectators deserting the sport in their droves, followed closely by sponsors, advertisers, TV companies and all the money they bring. Result: players not being paid at all. And that's the best possible outcome.