The NRL is expected to increase its salary cap to $12m, expect more players from SL to move down under. The RFL is a shambles.

It’s the clubs that vote on the cap not the RFL I believe.

When uncle MO and Whelan took over in late 1999 he wanted the Entire Australian 13 but could not due to salary cap

Yes, but you know ... it was a soundbite.

Big Dave had to find some way to placate the Wigan fans, after he'd sold their stadium so to secure a new ground for his football club.

The cap,is suffocating the sport here sadly

The death of pro RL in this country, Nice one selfish Aussie s

This isn't guaranteed.

Is current Aus salary cap a reason for more English players not being signed to the NRL?

Nothing is guaranteed in rugby league. But, with more money swilling about they could look to recruit more players from SL which will further weaken the competition.

They are more likely to take a chance on a younger player eg Rushton. Not the end of the world for the NRL club if it doesn't work out and, as a young player, you get to live in Australia on probably as much as you'd get over here with an almost cast iron guarantee you'll get a club over here if/when you return.

I hope more do go to Aus. It will only improve them as players and give us a better chance on the international stage.

Look at Brazil and France at international football level. 95% of both squads play football in a league that is so much better than their own and this is why they excel

He'd already secured the new ground. Lucky really or we could have been playing in Horwich.

Do you seriously think the international game will matter much if our own domestic league sags back into semi-amateurdom?

We need big crowds, and that means bigger stars than we've got now and a much higher standard of play.

People aren't idiots. They won't come in their droves and pay modern ticket prices to watch St Pats v Blackbrook type matches.

You won’t find a bigger anti salary cap person than me. But we are where we are with it. I’ve said on here hundreds of times that all it’s there for is to drag the top teams down to the level of Wakefield. It will never change now so let our best players go over there to earn some decent coin and become better players for it

And if people don’t watch their team that’s not the salary caps fault. Other sports have teams with no superstars and who are no where near winning anything that get nearly ten times the fans Wigan get

I think for a medium sized town in the North we pretty much hold our own. We have two professional sports teams in the town that average 10-12k currently (and both have had higher in the past). Ignore the Borough, both teams attract penny numbers from the likes of Leigh, Atherton, Tyldesley, Skem... Etc.

I suppose that's great for them. Not so much for our domestic game, though.

That was the main point I made, which you conveniently chose to ignore.

That's all fine, but how many Rushton's are there likely to be?

The point you made, which I chose to ignore because it was absolutely stupid was "big crowds at domestic level = Success at International Level"

No, it was without a domestic game there won't be an international game.

Pretty basic equation for most people. Not for you, but no surprise there.

You didn’t say that though. You said “big crowds”

Move the goalposts all you want

That’s why I ignored you because it was laughably stupid lmao

You do like to be deliberately obtuse don't you? Either that or you are genuinely stupid. Not sure where I'd put my money to be honest.

He said big crowds = a healthy game. Given that it's almost a tautology, he's not wrong.