All new contracts at HKR should be no more than 70k for the stars and no less than 20k for the local talent coming through.

All players then earn performance based pay and win bonuses.

The performances should be graded by the first team head coach (which would involve how hard the players have trained), the director of rugby (who would take in to account a players discipline on and off the field) and someone not directly involved with the players (to not have any favouritism). These are then averaged and the bonuses worked out.

Players would not only be more keen to perform on game day they would also be more interested through the week. We wouldn't be stopping the players earning a good living as a youngster earning 20k is a very good wage while 70k for a player like Vella is adequate to pay his bills and keep his family happy however if they really are 'that' good they'll be able to earn their £150k by playing to their potential.

The salary cap would be an issue however if all players had a limit on the maximum they could earn then when they do have a bad game (which has to be expected due to fatigue) their bonuses go in to an end of season bonus pot and that money is shared out among the 10 players who have performed the best in that season (up to the salary cap amount £1.65m).

Obviously certain aspects of this would have to be tinkered with but at the moment it seems the players are perfectly happy to take home their money without actually earning any of it.

I remember singing to a bunch of players who probably earnt collectively the same as Mick Vella, "ALL WE WANT IS A LITTLE BIT OF PRIDE, A LITTLE BIT OF PRIDE, A LITTLE BIT OF PRIDE". Those players were far and away nowhere near as talented or decorated as the ones pulling on the shirt now but I'll tell you something they did start playing with pride and the fans, although still not happy when losing, went home prepared to stick by those players and turn up the week after.

You have to ask if Rovers fans had not bought a season pass would our crowds be more like Harlequins numbers due to the high number of 'Glory supporters'?

Bank holidays are over nick hkr, put the booze away.

You've already identified one major flaw with your plan in that the salary cap would be incredibly difficult to administrate.

The other rather large problem would be who on earth whose any good is going to sign for for £70k with an opportunity to earn £150k that's dependant on a load of factors beyond their control such as other players performances and injuries when, Bradford, for example are offering said hypothetical player a guaranteed £120k?

I hope you didnt spend too long on that Nick.

Sounds great in theory but the players need to earn a living and you will struggle to recruit top players using that method. Players wont sign a contract for say 50k with the chance of a 50k bonus, they will just sign for the club that offers 80k with smaller bonuses.

I know it can not be done but years ago rovers players were on a win bonus that rolled over every game they won we once went 24 games unbeaten my daughter who went with us said don't they ever lose dad i said i hope not at the time we had players like Casey promey broadhurst g smith m smith happy days bring it back please

I certainly spent too long on my reply!

So no win, no fee's in effect

I get where he's coming from though, players at most clubs go through I comfort zone because they know they will get their wage no matter how they perform. As for they need to earn a living, all clubs have 25 players earning a minimum of £2,000 a month thats enough of a living for most people.

They're also on 2 year contracts so if they fail to perform they will be either out of work or lower paid for their next contract.

These players lose the ability to earn at 34 (earlier if they're unlucky) so gauging the wage against a 'normal' job isn't realistic. Its all about strength of managment, its the coaches job to ensure these players perform.

The salary cap issue isn't as hard as you would think. You calculate it on the maximum a player can earn. The fact the players performance is done indevidually along with how hard he works at training...etc means he could still earn a hefty amount.

The injury issue too would be dependant on your past performances in training, games and in general. You wouldn't get your full bonuses but you would still earn more than you would if you were playing and not doing great.

All players would get enough to live and more, the younger players would even earn better money than they would now. The ability for all players to earn more should encourage them to try harder.

It is quite evident at the moment our players are not focussed enough on playing for pride, passion or even for each other so if we took away the one thing that makes them tick maybe they would pull their fingers out.

I take it from this response that your all quite happy to be paying these players with your hard earned cash (that you have to work tirelessly for) to just put out average performances yet still be earning probably 5 times your salary? At least we'd know the players that were here wanted to play well all the time and not just when they could be bothered.

I agree with you nick I think in the 80's when the players played to earn an honest wage by playing with they're hearts we saw much more dedication from a team, what I cant understand is if the player isn't playing well surely they would know how hard it would be to get ie another contract or even another club look at Cooki for example still prob had a lot going for him and no club forth coming for him, I would drop the pay and pay it on bonuses a game and I think it would work.

Huddersfield have the biggest squad in SL. The crowds they get are not the biggest by a long way. Some of thier players will be on big money. So how are they able to keep all thier players happy. Maybe it's the pay structure that needs looking at closely.

I guess the only argument with only having bonuses would be that we'd be supporting Doncaster.

Professional players do need to earn a good wage, they have a short career and need to earn as much as they can as quick as they can but as you say if they are on a good wage they should be worried about not getting another contract. Just seems some clubs are able to motivate players by other means while our coach can't and I don't see another factor that the players care about.

Maybe we should steal their kids before every match and threaten to put them on a well known auction site if they lose!!!! Those without kids we shall sell their XBox or PS3!!!!!

Seriously though we need some way of motivating them I just wish there was a viable way of doing it so we got the best product every week instead of just when it seems they can be bothered.

The idea is great Nick but unfortunately it wont work with players now a days. Before the so called free transfer system came in most players were not full time and played to make there standard of living much better, almost doubling there take home pay especially if they won.now players are full time and especially the overseas player he can earn your £70k in signing on fees and match payments,not many clubs in Oz play winning bonuses they get apeareance money for 1st team games win or lose, the thing in Ox is if you dont play well there you are out on your ear,and someone else takes your place,you then playe in the lower grades for a lower appearance payment.You then have to earn your place back in the team not rely on a coach liking you,or being one of his favourites. Th Ozzie atitued is what difference will money make to you by giving you extra to win, if you are not trying your best and not giving 100% you should not be in the team.

They're subsidised by a bloke called Ken Davy, iirc. Similar to how our board keeps our heads above the water - see also Quins, St. Helens and probably a few more.

Right, I'm about to go on a rant - it isn't going to be pretty and if you're a big admirer of bulldog spirit, I wouldn't waste your time.

Okay, it's a pretty simple concept that, over a reasonable timescale, level of sporting success will reflect effort and ability. Yet there seems to be a view widespread in this country that the latter is almost irrelevant - that any obstacle can be overcome by having a shouty captain 'inspiring' the lads to get stuck in by clapping vigourously and, erm... shouting. John Terry can yell himself ho, but the problem for England's 'overpaid primadonna footballers', is not that they aren't trying as hard as their similarly remunerated Spanish (for example) counterparts - it is a difference in technical ability. Improving skill-sets and tactical awareness doesn't make for a great rallying call, but that is the difference between triers and winners.
Rovers' players don't need a boot up the backside - if only it were that simple! Nor do we need a unique pay structure. We need to be cleverer and more competent.

I would agree with much of that. What i would say though is that i think that Justin Morgan attempts to be too clever and too tactically aware. Everything we do is too structured in my opinion and every tackle of every set of 6 seems to be pre-determined. I realise we have to work to a basic structure so that we have something to fall back on if we are under pressure but what i really want to see is Dobson and Green given the freedom to express themselves with the ball.
I think we would see greater results in that than taking money off a players basic wage.

I agree with most of this.
We are VERY structured, Possibly to the point that we are not flexible enough.
We seem to be unable to go away from our gameplan if it doesn't seem to be working, This causes 2 problems for me.
1 If it doesn't work on the day we are snookered (when we drop too much ball we can't use off the cuff to dig us out of the hole and it just snowballs).
2 It makes us rather predictable and if the oppo's work us correctly it makes it very hard for us to win games.
I also wonder if that was the problem with Paul Cooke at Rovers as he is a very off the cuff player, You could say the same about the fact that JM apparently didn't want Danny Brough!

Yeah - I think that playing low-risk has a couple of... well, risks. The first is that if you want to change to start chucking it about, to save a game then it won't come naturally. A risk-taking team that wants to defend a lead can stuff it up the jumper a bit more easily, I imagine. Also, I think that you can get left behind a bit as more teams add more strings to their bows.

I think Mason was meant to give us a new, and needed, dimension - but obviously that hasn't panned out.
Getting Green alongside Dobson hopefully will, in the medium term.

This and the fact that the game plan hasn't evolved from the last two seasons and everybody has worked us out.

We're getting far too many of the basics wrong all of the time. Line speed and defending around the ruck has been terrible all season. This allows the opposition to have the luxury of breaking us up the middle at will or rapidly shifting the ball to the flanks were our slide defence has been horribly exposed. We'll never win any games by conceding five tries a game. We rarely complete more than 60% of our sets it is paramount to success to exceed this. We've failed to add anything other than a good short kicking game in the oppositions twenty metre area, whenever we give the ball some air it's usually just a pretty meaningless shifting of the ball from left to right or vice versa interspersed with the occasional drive towards the posts to mix it up a bit.

On top of this, our once excellent spider sets are now awful.

Briscoe - capped for England
Fox - capped for England & Elite Squad member
Welham - England Elite Squad member
Webster - capped for NZ
Dobson - Albert Goldthorpe Medal winner, SL Dream Teamer
Vella - capped for Aus
Clinton - NRL GF winner
Newton - NRL GF winner
Galea - NRL GF winner

Add to these the Aus schoolboys members Lovegrove and Green along with at least for 6 games the massively decorated Willie Mason, I struggle to see where ability or skills come in to why we are performing so horrendously.

If a kick up the backside isn't what these players need and it is all to do with the game plan then I think the finger can only be pointed in one direction. It is also not an attacking issue our squad has, our players enjoy attacking so much they seemingly forget they have to defend for at least 50% of the time too!

When signing all these antipodeans we were told their grand finals, state of origins, international experiences would be the catalyst for our success yet the match winning mentality certainly seems to have got lost with their luggage!

What is the answer? Force the coach to change his game plans? Change the coach? Change the benefits the players get?

Personally I think all players should be treated equally reguardless of past experience and honours. They should all be made to train the same and no mates rates favours given. But this won't happen while Justin is here I'm affraid to say.

Have you and Rhys fallen out with each other or just Rhys with Justin?

What's up with Liam Watts? Utterly brilliant last year, what's happened to him - is he injured?

Nah he sticking to morgans Game plan

I'd give a serious answer if I thought this was a serious question.