hasnt Leneghan stated that he is in favour of the salary cap?

the only beneficiary of removing the cap completely would be Warrington IMO.

If those overseas players were not here and we therefore had £250-£300k to spread about that would mean we were paying their replcements less money. Otherwise that £250-£300k would not exist to give out would it? In urn that means either their replacements are not as good or if they are as good we are not paying them very much so they would be ripe for cherry picking by RU.



What has that got to do with Wigan losing players to RU? And who are these Wigan cast offs with a shed load of medals? I can think of Long and Gilmore (and he wanted to leave anyway) but the vast majority of ex-Wigan players out there in current SL sides have won nothing since leaving. Ricky Bibey has a CC medal I think. Perhaps we should have kept him?

IMO even if our best youngsters were still signed up to big contracts early on in their careers they would still go to Union if they were offered the money. With the huge International stage in Union and the potential opportunity to earn well above your wage through sponsorpships etc it is much more of a lucrative prospect.

What we also don't want to happen is throw money at players early on in their careers who don't develop, as that would be a waste. We could of quite easily signed someone like Ainscough on a massive contract after his 1st season and the same could be said with Warrington and Kevin Penny. It would be a huge risk.

The reason overseas players are paid a lot more is because they are well established players who 9 times out of 10 are better than the young players we are bringing through and justify their wage. I think the problem doesn't lie with the overseas quota and amount of overseas players in the game, but rather the set up of the salary cup in which we should be able clubs to spend more money on homegrown players, or say have half of their wage counted on the cap.

I have to admit this is worrying me big time.

To lose players like Joel and God forbid Sam to the dark side has to be a concern to the RFL.

It seems like we are becoming a feeder club to union with the likes of Ashton,Eastmond,possibly both Tomkins brothers and who knows who in the future,we have to put a stop to this but God knows how though.

I'm assuming Joel and Sam have now signed to the agency run by Phil Clarke and his brother? All bear that in mind when you're listening to Phil witter on Sky about young RL talent.

Hang on. I thought all the contracts that were in existence before IL got here agreed by Mo were over and done with by the time we came to start the 2010 season and we now have a properly structured salary system in place?

If there are any back-loaded contracts that is down to IL and he may well have back loaded JT's contract as he expects certain money to become available as players retire etc. That seems good planning to me which is of course completely screwed if you have a player who reneges on a five year deal!

I thought they had left there and gone to the same agent as Chris Aston? Or are the Clarke's already Ashton's agent? Anyway what I am trying to say is I think they are with the same agent as Ashon whoever that may be.

if wigan have the Tomkin Brothers on Five year contracts, surely they can prevent them playing for an other club. All it needs is for a club to say we and they will abide by the terms of the contract, it doesnt matter how much an RU club pay to Wigan they cannot use the money for good use because of the salary cap. Someone has to take a stand on this disregard of contracts or the club structure of Rl will ultimately be meaningless. Once again we are reminded of the magnifence of Kris Radlinski compared too all the Wigan players who grabbed the R U cash at the first opportunity and in the case of Andy Farrell are now openly encouraging young players out of the sport that made him and them

So then we're stuck with a player for 4 years who doesnt want to be here, taking a big chunk of the salary cap?

Do we know how much Kris Radlinski was offered in comparision to Farrell?

Don't assume that it was the same.

Andy Clarke's company (and all of it's associated players) was bought out by James Grant, with Clarke himself getting a "consulting role" with them.

That puts the Tomkins brothers firmly in the hands of a Union-oriented agency who also have Chris Ashton, Alex Cheesman, Andy Hazell, Dominic Waldouck, Guy Armitage, Henry Trinder, James Simpson-Daniel, Jamie Elliott, Jamie Gibson, Jim Hamilton, Joe Simpson, Koree Britton, Lesley Vainikolo, Luke Narraway, Nick Kennedy, Nick Robinson, Paul Hodgson, Phil Vickery, Shane Gerraty, Shontayne Hape, Steffon Armitage, Tom Homer, Tom Lindsay and Tommy Bell all from the other code.

The rest of their players are soccer, plus the 2 Tomkins brothers.

Worrying.

I would take it as read that Sam has played his last game in Wigan colours as well then. There's only one reason the Clarke's target league players and that's to hawk them to union.

If that is the price we had to pay to make a stand as Manx Warrior suggests then yes we should.

If that is the price we had to pay to make a stand as Manx Warrior suggests then yes we should.

According to his autobiography he was made an offer by CliveWoodworth that would have made him the highest paid rugby player after Jonu Lomu

Just been doing abit of reading up on the RU salary cap looking for ideas. Heres the bit i found most interesting;
For every player classed as home grown (brought through their own academy) they get a 30k credit upto a maximum of 8. So basically if they have 8 homegrown players they can extend their cap up by 240k. Thats definatly something the RFL should look at. Another thing from next season they can nominate 1 player not to count on the cap.

we do that already.. lockers doesnt count on our cap

Some players will resist the money been offered. Kieron Cunningham at the same time refused an offer to go and play for the WRU. That time club GB helped to sort them out thats gone now though. Maybe it needs to be reintoroduced.

Tbh honest i wuld be more worried if Sam, Charnley or Mossop left us than Joel going. I would not eat for 2 hours if any of the 3 i mentioned left.

Doesnt he only qualify because hes been with the club 10 years or something like that though? In union you can nominate. Add that to the rules that Premiership clubs are only allowed to include two players from outside of Europe, Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific islands in their 23-man match-day squads. Wouldnt that be something worth looking at to lower the number of average Aussies in the league.

Lenagan is a club owner, he's a good guy and right about many things but he's very wrong on the SC.

Most RL clubs are financially incontinent. They need more and better regulation, the SC should go but it should be replaced with something better, a system which encourages club revenue growth and player development and protects against overspending (not just on players).

I thought it was 50% of his package that didn't count now that he has 10 years service, but I'm so depressed by the JT news I can't be bothered checking.

Lockers does count on the cap I think.

If you have a player (or player's) who have been at the club 10 years, then you get an extra 50k on the cap. In total, not per player. So even when Hansen (who I think is next in line) get to 10 years, we won't get any benefit from keeping him for that long.

I understand the problem you outline but still feel that a club should hold a player to a contract at least in order to let agents know that they cannot ride roughshod over every contract. Otherwise the whole cotract thing is meaningless.

contract mean nothing in this day and age, I am very dissapointed as a wigan fan today and I feel sam will go the same way shortly. It may be hard for joel to move down south and be away from his family, his girlfriend and his mates. Maybe he hasnt fully made his mind up but something needs to do about this now before we lose his brother!

Yeah no problem with back loaded contracts as you say good planning, for a player mid to late twenties. IMO for a young kid of 20 who has played for country and been a consistent performer for a couple of years you shouldn't back load it as others will come in, as has been shown