Ahh the irony.


You do actually realise what has happened to the CC in recent years don't you?

If the reason for the CC was to preserve clubs financially (about the only part of the CC I can see a possible value in), then you would have a % based cap, not a "hard" cap.

It's only a competition on the pitch; off the pitch it's very much a partnership. The clubs need the other clubs to survive.

Would you be happy with a two team free market Mega League, containing only Leeds and Wigan? Or would the rest of us be expected to play amongst ourselves and provide cannonfodder for the big two, like in the good old days?

You might say that the cap rewards mediocrity, but removing it isn't going to see loads of new cash flowing into the game. In fact, I suspect the opposite will be true, it'll be less competitive and interest will fall. Clubs can then be allowed to fail and we can all watch the Warriors and Rhinos for ever. A bright future indeed.

and some are just talented athletes we give a shot to, and a career to



good job no one has put this idea forward then isnt it


or if their a top level sprinter,

but you are forgetting the youngsters who play RU and RL as youngsters, and go on to choose RU, the ones who play football and RL and choose to earn more as a 3rd division football player than an England international RL player

the kids who at 14/15 are playing 3 or 4 different sports and see a better career in pretty much all of them to RL




well why bother even paying them at all,

did it? you may want to check that out, you will be surprised

there are however, more british players playing at a higher level than when they were paid far less than they are now, they are also a lot better players, and more of them



nobody has said he is surprised, simply that you cant blame him for earning more money in a short career where he will likely be battered



well no, as we have just been through, there are many athletes who could
play RL at SL level, that arent,

we dont really need to worry about the players we have, its the ones we dont that is the problem

That is the whole point , everybody has that choice , the choice is if you want to play RL then your wage will be limited , if you want to earn more , go and do something else

You argue long and hard about other things that are for the ' good of the sport ' , the salary cap is there for the good of the sport , just as franchising is there for the good of the sport , unfortunatley you want your cake and eat it

Re-read my post.


I said that the fact you had those players on display in the GF was more to do with players accepting wages that were below market value. If the players didn't make this concession (and frankly why should they be asked to?) then the quality of the final would have been lower.

no better management was

Is it?

Long term it isn't, as it can only deter people from taking up/continuing with the game.


The CC was also brought in to protect clubs from going bust. It was NOTHING to do with "protecting the sport" or "Levelling the playing field".

That was added later by the appropriately named red hall.

so its good we have a strange inverse relationship between success and reward?


no, it didnt feature the best players because the best athletes in this country dont play RL, and the best RL players in the world arent in SL

What's the CC? Are you getting confused with the Challenge Cup? Wigan haven't won that for years. Salary Cap - SC.

HTH

Wigan? You must be joking. Our chairman is as tight as a fishes tight bits.


The main beneficiaries of scrapping the CC would be Warrington imo.



But hang on, that can't be right, surely I am only interested in Wigan and not the principle of the CC?

no, i think there are better, and more intelligent ways of levelling the game than an arbitrary limit on what you can spend on wages

Well, go on then. Let us in on your better more intelligent ways. How would you stop the sport from suffering from the dominance of one or two clubs?

and unfortunately players are!

i dont believe it is, i dont believe it benefits the sport,

there are many, very simple ways, such as being more prescriptive with the make up of squads. I.e no less than 10 academy graduates in the 25, no more than 5 overseas players and no more than 5 signed from other SL clubs in the 25 man squads would stop any team simply signing all the best players

i dont think the sport suffers from the temporary dominance of one or two clubs,

besides we clearly have that dominance now

......................and then coming straight back when they realise the error of their ways.

not all, and some are never coming at all which is bad for the game

Why can't the SC be part of a better management strategy? The cap keeps the dream alive for most SL clubs and supporting a club is all about hope, thinking next year could be our year - even though it generally isn't.

The sports fans I feel most sorry for are fans of the 'little' Premier League football clubs, outside the Champions League Big 4. Aston Villa, Everton etc. No amount of competent management can outweigh the cash cow of the Champions League.

It wouldn't be so bad financially for RL, as the disparities wouldn't be so great. However the nature of the game, means an uncompetitive RL game is a worse spectacle. There is no equivalent of nicking a 1-0 win against the run of play in RL - or it is very rare at least.

well done to leeds and the melbourne storm, both of whom have managed to win titles whilst fighting the impact of the salary cap

however melbourne are looking at losing either jeff lima or dallas johnstone and parramatta will be looking at losing players from next year as well.

still its inevitable both teams will lose more players to other clubs which is a great thing for RL.

That is incredibly restrictive and would result in some terrible teams. It would also hinder player development by stopping them from move teams.



How about from having a huge range of quality of teams in the league? So the matches are rarely competitive.

This all comes down to people mistakenly thinking that proffessional sport is a business like other proper businesses, it isn't

because good management negates the need for a salary cap



it can and will and has, competitent management will allow a club to grow and challenge for a champions league spot, that investment will then allow them to re-invest in keeping their spot and growing again to win it,

look at nal who have spent comparatively little but they have still consistantly challenged


and to limit these run away games we need more quality players,

SL squads run at 25 men, there are 12 english clubs, if we have 250 quality english players, then we will have close games cap or no cap

if you are a poor club, not putting the investment into youth development and scouting you deserve a poor side,

if you are terrible at these things, you deserve a terrible side,

and it doesnt stop any player moving clubs




so its better than we have 2 teams who run at 50% capacity all year so the utter crap we have in this league right now doesnt look quite so crap,

until they are blown away in the playoffs, this is somehow better?

Then what, exactly, are you talking about?



We can't compete with football, or what RU offers. Thinking we can if you abandon the salary cap is weird.



If they're good enough - like I said, we can't compete with what football and RU offer. The salary cap is nowt to do with that.



I doubt it. RU has always been much bigger in this country, even when it was technically amateur. Hence, more players. It always had better media coverage too - the salary cap is nothing to do with that.



The same players who were paid less would be just as good as the modern players if you put them in a modern environment.

Scottish footballers are paid more now than they were. Are there a larger number of top quality Scottish footballers these days? Certainly doesn't seem that way, does it?



And it's not because of the salary cap.



We don't have them because we have little national and media profile and we're not a fashionable game.

It's nothing to do with a salary cap. Removing the salary cap will not see a massive influx of all these people who are just [idying[/i to play RL but currently are not.

The standard below the top two is rising. Clubs are closing in the top two teams. That is better than increasing the gap in standards that ultimately results in lower standards all round, yes.