I'm just stating a fact, you may read in to that however you want but from the team that played Leigh on the 17th May (roughly 3 months ago)Wakefield have felt the need to change 8 players which is a lot for any sports club no matter what the reason, (its also 8 changes from the team that played Warrington on 12th July some 4 weeks ago).

The 'loop hole' comes from the fact a club (with money available under the salary cap) could sign a lot of new players very late in the season with an eye one the 8's means the RFL will need to look at what many view as a flaw / 'loop hole' in the new 8 format as I'm certain if (in your opinion) its not happened already a very clever chief executive if in this situation will realise that there is nothing to stop him getting players in on short term deals just to avoid being relegated so someone will exploit that.

Reportedly,isn't fact..

that last quote is exactly what we're saying,Leighs full salary cap is alot less than yours so we probably couldn't strengthen even if we wanted to,im sure rowls said he looked to bring someone in on boots n all but couldn't because of Leighs salary cap but Wakefield could bring in 8 players and still have plenty of room on their salary cap

When it's the Chairman reporting it...it's a fact.

Wakey's current spend is LESS than when we played you last.

Players like Collis were on huge money...yet always injured.

Bradford did didn't they?

sio signed as far back as 22 June 2015

There was no plan or conspiracy of holding funds to sign a raft of players just pre deadline. The players at wakefield were offloaded or offered to leave contracts to bring in players (mainly fringe players in other SL teams) of a rough equal value.

The likes of mullalley/walker are fringe players replacing more experienced sl players like paea, Ryan.

Collis wanted to go to aus and topou was available at the time.

The difference is most certainly smith and we had a horrid season with long term injuries. Rowley is most certainly throwing his teddy out.

It's not as if we magicked 300k and decided to go on a signing spree pre meditated. Was the other option to not replace the players who went? Many of which wNted away? We probably wouldn't have been able to field a team then.

I'm afraid rowley needs to shut up and put his lip in and concentrate on leigh.

Whilst on the Wakey match thread anyone know if we'll get to see the video ref's decisions being made this week or will we be in the dark with no screen wired up in the ground?
Could it not be wired to the screen we already have in the ground, adds to the drama!

We can't even wire the announcer's microphone up properly...

Ant7t2 game's on Sky Sports 1 so should have video screen I think..

Sorry Jenky not ignoring you got the wrong post.

We didn't have a screen against Hull KR which was also on SKY. Did you have one against Bradford?

It is annoying when a try is scored at the far end and you have to wait around for 2/3 minutes with no replays so you still have no idea what has happened when the decision is given.

Sorry yes you're correct we didn't have the screen against Bulls....I was thinking it's when you're on Sky extra...never mind we will just have to bite our nails !!!!! At least it will be there to help Mr. Childs !!

Thats the word I was looking for....

The signings don't concern me or get me too hung up. No rules broke what so ever so everyone should live with it. May the best team win. Weather looks awful and will not suit either team. Again, let's get on with it. Leigh By 7

Indeed, after all the 'newer' Wildcats lost 58-20 at home to Castleford, 4 weeks ago. They haven't suddenly become 'world beaters'.

I guess Wakey should have just continued rolling with a team that were playing awful all season. Seems some people want to see receipts before they believe what our salary budget is/was.
The 4 'new' signings that will be in the team against you, I'd say atleast half were gambles to some extent. Sio is still only 22 and hadn't played any NRL games as far as I know, Lee Smith hadn't played for ages and still looks off full match fitness. I'm unsure about Tupou, he has quite a few NRL games under his belt but came with mixed reviews. Mullally is the only one i'd say that wasn't really a gamble, Leeds signed him for a reason after all.

Not at all, just recall James Webster saying after the 'Leigh game' that he would have to "offload players to bring new ones in" but nobody wanted them. Amazing how this changed, when you were in a new competition, and with an experienced NRL/SL coach. Though 'new signings' don't always work out, they are doing ok, apart from the Cas game.

Collis was injured most of season and requested to go home to aus for personal reasons. Tupou signed as replacement.

Matt Ryan was signed by Bulls. Walker signed as replacement and won't be touching Ryan's salary.

Dan smith signed by Hudds. We got a mullalley on loan in exchange.

Macshane wanted by cas and swapped for Moore on loan till end of season (now injured for season) so that's a loss in pivotal position.

Sammut hardly played all season and didn't seem to fit in at wakefield.


Locke granted but his situation made him available however he's been injured.

Howarth signed and injured for season.

You'd say on paper we are weaker and salary cap wise we will definitely be spending less. A Fair amount of these came from necessity. Brian smith told the players when he came if you don't want to fight for wakefield then go. Some did and have been replaced.

It's quite annoying seeing people talk about the changes like they are in the know and this conspiracy theory generated by an aspiring sl coach and fish hooked by the boots and all crew is both embarrassing and not based on anything other than suiting their own agendas.

I give up though now. People will naturally believe what they want even if they haven't been privy to the ongoings at wakey over the last few months. As a wakey supporter it's been hell and the club, coaching team have put alot of effort to Atleast fix some of the problems. They should be applauded not assassinated by the clowns on tv. Finally as a wakey fan we have something to smile about and this tosh gets mooted about.

You have Locke who is quoted as £260k on your cap.Thats a quarter of our salary cap, on just one player.Sorry! you wont get empathy from me on your seasons downfall.

Go on, entertain us all...when have you seen the detail of Wakefield's salary calculations?

I think all we've established out of this thread so far is the pretence excuse of our salary cap if Leigh lose. Funny how this wasn't an issue until bums started twitching. I would be interested to hear what the boots n all lot had to say, if there's a link.

Jizzer, it's NO big deal at all mate. The MEDIA have been hyping us up to hell 'most of the season' and our officials/fans have been joining in also. Whoever (out of Leigh/Wakefield/Bradford/Halifax gains promotion) we will be meeting again next season in the 'Super 8 Qualifiers' anyway. Personally I think Leigh could lose to Bradford or Halifax anyway, so I don't see Saturday's game as a MUST win. I just hope we give a good account of ourselves, and still have a chance of finishing 5th. I doubt Paul Rowley has been told he has to gain promotion THIS season. But I imagine for a Super League team, to find themselves in the championship for 2016 it's quite scary. For us, to be in the national league/championship (with no promotion) it was NORMAL anyway. Think yourselve's lucky.

Good luck on Saturday, hope it's as exciting as the challenge cup tie.

Likely in the dark - Sky haven't been taking screens to games for the middle 8's.



It could, and was in the CC v Salford. Sky have said they don't want to use it - they probably have bare minimum staff working on production to keep costs down and can't spare anyone to sort out the setup with the screen.

No issue at all with what Wakefield have done, they've lost some very good players and replaced. It wasn't a problem when Leigh brought Gaz Hock in or paid £50k for Micky Higham was it? Something other Championship clubs could only dream of. All this talk of playing on an equal playing field, Leigh have just romped a league where it was anything but a level playing field.

As a poster above said, non of this was being mentioned until the Hull KR and Salford defeat and bums began to twitch.

For what it's worth, I fancy Leigh to get the 2 points at weekend.

Just to flesh out that statement as it's missing a lot of detail.

Brian Smith told Matt Ryan he was no longer required and Wakey paid his salary in full to the end of the season to get him off their books. This gave Wakey a quota spot to use as well. Also allowed Bradford to sign him on a low salary (because Bradford are close to the cap themselves) as he is (effectively) being paid twice for the next 3months....

Exactly. It is ok Wakey saying we let 7 go and brought 9 in but you can't just stop paying people who you have on contract. You have to find somebody willing to take that player and pay their wages. If they paid Ryan off to get rid of him then that money would have gone on the cap. I doubt Sammut just left a full time position and went to play part time for Workington on a fraction of the money without being compensated by Wakey, more money on the cap. Players that are out for the season still need to be paid, that goes on the cap. Kevin Locke wont be getting paid as much as he was at Salford but his Salary Cap value will be the same (supposedly circa £250,000, or 1/4 of the Championship cap.) The fact he got injured doesn't mean he doesn't count on the cap. It looks very much like Simon Grix has been moved to get him off the cap at Warrington, so presumably he is now on the cap at Wakefield instead.

Again, no rules broken but people saying "Well any team could have done the same if they wanted to." are wrong. The Championship clubs, at least the full time ones, are really close to their cap limit. We couldn't afford to pay players off to leave or take pay cuts to move elsewhere as we have no cap space to do so and certainly no room to bring in any players to replace them if we did.

That extra £800,000 the SL teams have to spend gives them a huge advantage when it comes to strengthening at this point in the season and the fact that they can keep signing new players until days before the 8's just makes it even easier for them.