Hahaha!

So whilst our failing establishment cant prevent our best home grown players leaving for the NRL for more money we have to seek out replacements that cost us agent fees and all of the rest, catch 22 brilliant.

The only suitable punishment for breaching a fixed salary cap is a points deduction, otherwise why would anybody stick to it? The only people to blame for the damage this has done to the sport are the Wigan administration who broke the rules. Do you think they should let Wigan cheat (and however you want to wrap it up it is cheating) because it's bad optics?

Do you even know the definition of cheating, thicko? How did Wigan get an advantage over other clubs through the overspending?

They spent money they weren't allowed to spend. It's against the rules. That is cheating.

Wigan gained an advantage over every other team because everyone else restricted their spending to the cap limits. Every other team would probably have loved to spend another 15 grand, but they couldn't and they didn't. Whether Wigan took the advantage they gained and did anything useful with it is a different matter, but it's a clear material advantage to spend more than everyone else in a salary capped sport.

Who cares, it was only 15K and we only lose 2 points. Just forget it and move on and make sure we win tomorrow.

I highly doubt an extra 15 grand would of made a difference to the league standings or the Grand Final result. Give it a rest, you have a 2 point advantage over us this year.

My mistake. I didn't realise you were the sole arbiter of what constitutes a 'suitable' punishment. Let's just say I disagree and I'll leave you to enjoy your little victories as our sport wheels it's way towards insignificance.

No, you're right, Wigan are the victims here and by enforcing the rules the RFL are condemning rugby league to death.

The RFL do a lot of things wrong, but don't go blaming them for a mess entirely of Wigan's making. It's Wigan who have let the sport down by doing this, nobody else.

Personally I don't think it's that big a deal, they went over the cap and got (in my opinion) appropriately punished for it. My issue is with the righteous indignation in Wigan's statement and from some on these boards. If you're so worried about the game you should write to the Wigan board and suggest that they maybe take their medicine rather than dragging the games name through the mud by suggesting they've been wronged by being punished for cheating. Just a thought.

I think most take issue with the fact that other clubs that breached the cap by a small amount were fined and not deducted points. and it could have been announced last Thursday, or this weekend after the games, but it was announced the day before the first game.

Lenners will sort it!
Win tomorrow and we'll be top of the league anyway!

Ffs mate, park your obvious delight in any Wigan misfortune for a moment and look at the bigger picture. No one has claimed that Wigan are the victims here. The victim is the game itself. The competition has been needlessly devalued again. Just as with the 'pay to play' Cup debacle or any number of other RFL own goals.

I don't care that Wigan are punished for this massive crime(sic) . What I do care about is that, once again the game is belittled by the RFL's ineptitude. This is about revenge. Make no mistake about that. The problem is, in exacting that revenge, they've consigned the season to a farce even before a ball has been kicked or passed. Just asked yourself what the main topic of conversation will be on the sky commentary throughout this season? Will it be about the product on the field as it should be or will everything be viewed in context of this points deduction? We both know the answer to that question.

Punish the club, by all means (if you think the cap is a good idea in the first place) but there was absolutely no need to make it impact on the season in this way. You might be delighting in this misfortune but I strongly suspect your delight will be short lived as I've said on many occasions. Enjoy it while you can.

Don't bother. Like I said, the usual suspects will come piling gleefully in for the one victory most of them will claim over us in 2019. This idiot won't be the last.

We’ll see what comes of it but I can’t help feel suspicious at the timing if it as pointed out in the Wigan Evening Post by Phil Wilkinson. It’s as though Ian Lenagan has pushed a few people’s noses out of joint with the Superleague/RFL battle and now the club will feel the brunt of it. This news follows on the back of the Town not being given a World Cup game. The punishment doesn’t stack up against similar and worse offences.

The saddest part was the fact that two national journalists have had to cancel full page previews of our game tomorrow to now cover the story and tv and radio interviews have been cancelled with officials to discuss the season. Timed to maximum effect? Looks that way considering they’ve known since last week.

Superb post and sums up my feelings exactly.

If that's the case it's beyond disgraceful by the RFL ... that they would literally damage the launch of the new season to get back at a chairman who has rightly pointed out their many inadequacies. The sooner SL stages a break-away from these total chumps, the better.

I'm quite relieved about this.... I was concerned that other teams fans were starting to like us...

If leaves are found to missing from our book, then we'll know where to look!

Wasn’t it decided last Thursday? That was the day of the SL launch and the interviews from that were the news on Friday. World Cup venues announced on Tuesday. So anytime they announced it since it was decided isn’t easy.

Tried to work out what it could have been for and all I can think of is Hamlin and Naverette.
Hamlin maybe because of flying his agent over to sort his contract out and maybe paying for Naverette's flight when he went back to France on loan ?
Bit gutting if we've been docked points because of players who weren't even on the pitch.

So Friday, Saturday, Sunday, & Monday then. Also Tuesday if they then released the venues today or on Friday. Not really THAT difficult if we're being honest. Let's make no bones about what's going on here otherwise we're playing the RFL game. As I said earlie; this is all about revenge and nothing about the good of the game. 'Petty' would pretty much sum it up if that didn't understate the harm they're doing.

I think the punishment is a tad on the harsh side, but no doubt two previous breaches are not helpful.
However, just to pour water on the conspiracy theories, it was an independent tribunal who made the judgement and not the RFL.

But doesn’t the RFL set the penalty to be given?

They say bad things come in threes so you've had this two point deduction, and the DW has been snubbed for the 2021 World Cup, so it's now obvious now your terrible week is all going to be topped off with a defeat to St Helens tomorrow night.

No.