Phil Gould is someone I've had little time for in the past because of his apparent antipathy to all things British. But he's gone up a lot in my estimation after making this impassioned plea for the NRL to introduce salary cap modifications that will allow clubs to bring players through their own ranks without financial restriction, and ultimately to pay them what they are worth. Something I've been saying for a while. Great minds obviously think alike. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post this link. If not, I'm sure the mods will delete it - but if you guys could allow the rest of the post to remain. It's an excerpt from The Footy Show currently circling on Youtube, and is well worth looking for. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yz5TEw9-jrI

Phil Gould is someone I've had little time for in the past because of his apparent antipathy to all things British. But he's gone up a lot in my estimation after making this impassioned plea for the NRL to introduce salary cap modifications that will allow clubs to bring players through their own ranks without financial restriction, and ultimately to pay them what they are worth. Something I've been saying for a while. Great minds obviously think alike. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post this link. If not, I'm sure the mods will delete it - but if you guys could allow the rest of the post to remain. It's an excerpt from The Footy Show currently circling on Youtube, and is well worth looking for. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yz5TEw9-jrI

[iGus Gould's editorial to David Gallop regarding the Melbourne Storm Salary Scandel[/i

That's the thing with Gould. He'll spout pure pish for hours then come out with a gem like that.

he certainly was pasionate about it. good to watch

Its not easy to disagree with what he says.....

Love him or hate him Gould is as knowledgable about this game as anyone.

that was brilliant and 100% spot on.

why should the storm lose players they have raised from being kids.. same goes for any team who puts the time and money into youth.

Gallops response was a joke. just like the RFL over here its all about helping the weak compete.

well done Mr Gould

phil gould is very knowledgeable,but also speaks with a forked tongue.if this had happened at the back end of the season,would he still have the same views about the storm.in 2002 when the same thing happened to the bulldogs a good half way through the season no one gave a toss about them.i have been watching the aussie nrl shows for quite a few years now yes they know there rugby but sometimes phil comes out with a load of tosh.allowing home grown talent to be exempt from the salary cap and been doing the rounds over here for years great idea.

It's interesting that he cites the loss of players to other sports as being a major problem for the game.

That's something we've said over here, but have always been shouted down about by those who believe the cap doesn't need any change at all.

It's alway baffled me that any RL fan is prepared to see us lose our best players in pursuit of some unrealistic fantasy that we can create a perfectly level playing field. And when that involves penalising those who have developed star players for the sake of those who rarely develop any, it really is rewarding mediocrity.

Its frightening when you think that both governing bodies have there heads in the sand when it comes to this.

how the hell a team with a top youth set up can be punished like they are is one aspect of this game i trully hate.

1.6m salary cap over here when your taking youth seriously is a joke.

whatever the NRL salary cap is..i'm fully in support of melbourne in this.

Wierdly I was talking about this last night with a (soon to be converted

) football loving flatmate. I was talking about how bad it was that melbourne had an extra file in an office somewhere with other contracts in, he asked me where the players had come from, whether they where home grown or brought in and most of their top players are home grown, he asked why they should have to lose them. It stumped me.

I'd not thought of that before, why should melbourne be punished for working extremly hard to bring youngsters through in what is ultimatly an expansion area. It's like london producing absolutly world class players!

In a few years we could well find ourselves in this situation, will we really be able to keep Farrel, Joel and Sam Tomkins, Marsh, Walker, Ainscough and all the others coming through the ranks now?!

As things stand, no. Because the tail that determinedly wags the dog that is Rugby League will be demanding its three-yearly entitlement of young talent discovered and developed at other clubs.

Phil Gould ran an article in the SMH last week condeming the salary cap and did so around a couple of months ago.
The idea of exempting players from the cap that have been brought through a club's youth development system is superb and very, very obvious.
So why wasn't it done years ago?
Simple, in Aus Melbourne have the best youth system there is and the exemption suggested would mean that the following would not be included in the Storm's cap - Slater, Inglis, Cronk, Smith, White, Lima, Hoffman, Blair etc.
Something like 2/3rds of their players come through the youth system.
The other NRL clubs would never ever vote to give Melbourne that on field advantage.
Same over here, one club stands out from the rest with its youth development and the other SL clubs brought in all sorts of scams like the 20/20 and salary cap in an effort to get quality players out of that club. No guess for which club it is either! There are more players in SL from Wigan that any other club and by a long way too!
Phil Gould has forgotten more than most NRL or SL club chairmen will ever know about Rugby League and he should be listened to. He also won GF's as a coach and was the last NSW coach to win an Origin series.
The RFL should have got Gould to assist McNamara instead of Smith. Gould's won everything and Smith hasn't won anything!

Hit the nail on the head.

The salary cap (both here and in the NRL) is as much (if not more so) about the clubs that develop players having to 'donate' them to those who don't as it ever was about preventing the 'big clubs' from buying up the ready made talent from others.

Gould got it spot on, and it was great to see him put Gallop on the spot like that (and he really didn't seem to like it).