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.

Not what I heard but I'm prepared to be corrected if you have some way of corroborating your story!

Great post.

I get all you have said there, but there is nothing new. Superleague teams (including Wakefield) have a larger cap than Championship teams. That has always been the case. Your argument seems to be how and when Wakefield spend that money and the fact is that our current wage bill is probably lower now than it was earlier in the season.

Were not looking for any, it would be helpful though, if you persist in sticking your nose into our clubs business that you got your facts right instead of making it up as you go along to suit your agenda, trying to explain owt to you is like trying to hammer a nail into a knot in a plank of wood.

If I paid all my staff three months money up front, next months wage bill will be low also

oooooh, controversial Mo

I would disagree with the "there is nothing new" statement. There is something new. Previously in order to gain promotion Championship sides only had to compete with other Championship sides and be the best of that competition. Now to gain promotion we have to face off in a league against Super League opposition with the SL salary cap, SL overseas quota etc etc. The increased salary cap for the Championship has helped and has let a few teams go Full Time. But I think this middle 8's is already showing that the gap is bigger than some expected. I will admit that the past 2 weeks have been a bit of a wake up call to me after we swept all before us for the past 2 years.

I think more needs to be done to rearrange funding in order to make this new format work properly. By that I mean more to close the gap between bottom of SL (£1.8m funding with 1.8m cap) and top of Championship (£750k-£500k with 1m cap) and also to close the gap between the top of the Champ (£750k) to bottom of the Champ (I think about £200k?) otherwise I think there will be little to no change to the status quo under the new format.

Agreed once again. For me the salary cap for clubs outside of SL should be something like £1.3m or £1.4m to give the clubs, outside of SL a realistic chance of achieving SL. I also think that a deadline of 4 weeks should be implemented before the super 8s.

Isn't this common practice in the Borough of Wigan

Kevin Locke's salary is minimal and the other wages sit on the Salford salary cap and are the subject of legal actions being pursued by both parties.

Wakefield fans aren't looking for anything here other than to defend the club against scurrilous insinuations by Eddie Hemmings and Paul Rowley.