Not saying this is the case at Wire, but if a club has a very wealthy benefactor whats to stop them making extra payments through a seperate account not linked to the club to an account in a far off land with very tight banking security.

I suspect there's a bit of a glass ceiling to be broken through with regards to players salaries and the ambitions of a club.

It's pretty well known that a lot of Leeds' players could probably earn more at other clubs but they've stayed as that's where they want to be.

Most top players will get a decent whack wherever they are so for some it probably comes down to the chances of success at a club as well as the salary. Then there'll be others, such as Daniel Holdsworth at Salford, could have gone to Huddersfield, probably Salford offered him more who are mercenary.

When we signed the likes of Galea and Newton I suspect they probably could have gone elswhere but at the time we offered more cash.

I was told that they have a 'club' credit card which shopping, bills etc get paid through, so the monies they receive via a salary is theirs to do with whatever they want

Can't be done from what I have read previously, all the clubs accounts are monitored, not just the cap and rent, cars etc are taken into account in the total. If they were being so blatant, they would get nailed.

Well they are certainly doing something underhand if thats not the case, its so obvious

Probably something like:

Mr Millioniare: 'Mr Lockyer, I would like you to sign for Hull KR'

Lockyer: 'how much you offering'

Mr M: '200k per year'

Lockyer: 'not enough'

Mr M: 'ok, I personally will pay you another 200k from my Cayman account into your wifes account in Zurich, which I will set up'

Lockyer: 'ok, where do I sign'

RFL: 'we have examined Hull KR's books and all payments to players are within the rules of the cap'

The Warrington board or the VT would be more appropriate for this, but it can stay for now as a general cap discussion thread. =#FF0000Any suggestions that Wire or any other club are not adhering to the cap are potentially libellous - and however much they spend on players, they can still afford better lawyers than us.
Whether there are 'legitimate loopholes' or they just manage the cap well, I don't know. Hudds and Wigan also have great depth. Remember we are a Willie Mason below the cap. Fox and Briscoe will be on good money, despite their form having dipped since 09. Joel Monaghan is probably playing for below his full market value also.

i bet most of the top sides are over spending, but as has been said, theres ways around it.

ive heard that the Aussies at Rovers are all on the books as the clubs gardeners to earn a bit more

wives and girlfriends working in club shops and stadiums not on the average shop assistant wage. im sure most clubs do it. just listen out for aussie accents next time your in a club shop or bar

Salary cap restrict the payments it does not stop them. The fact that players can be self employed should answer some questions. Also pensions are not bad advice for sportsmen.

Why would Joel Monaghan be playing below his Market value? Fair enough when he originally came but he's on a new 3 year deal now.

Might be naive here but do any bonuses like the winning money and final ticket monies get put into a pot to divvy up like they do in soccer (with the players making most appearances taking bigger share) or do they get counted on the cap?

Is he? I retract my point then.





I think winning bonuses count on the cap but divvied up competition prize money doesn't. Could be wrong.

No prize money paid to players from SL, Challenge Cup or the World Club counts on the cap..and this can be a tidy sum..also international players have upto £5000 exempt..

Also several clubs including Warrington will have an extra £50000 to play with due to long service players...

The whole thing is a complete pain to be honest and is not fulfilling its purpose...

Prize money can't be counted on the cap as how would a club know that they were going to win the cup, league etc...

Next you'll be telling me they warm the balls up for the draws

Dam they do warm them up dont they

Prize money deffinately doesn't count on the cap but any club bonuses...etc is counted.

As stated 50k can be discounted from a club if someone has spent 10yrs there. Rich Horne I think is the only one at Hull but once Kirk Yeaman reaches 10yrs that can go 25k per player but no more than 50k per club even if the whole squad has been together for 10yrs.

In the grand scheme of things though Warrington among other clubs do appear to be able to attract very good players yet stay on the same wage structure as a club like us.

What you have to ask though is, did we offer more than the market value for players that were not of the same standard to those playing at Warrington because we are not as attractive to play for? If we were a club with better honours (of recent times) then we may have got Newton, Vella and Galea on much less wages due to the lesser risk they would have been taking. As it is these players saw the monetary gain by playing for a progressive club rather than earning less at an already successful club but gaining honours.

I would have suggested we could have gotten away with paying less for overseas players had we been in the top 6 the past three years and the rules about pensions not been changed along with the increase in NRL salary caps but unfortunately while clubs such as Wire, Wigan, Hudds and Saints are doing the business year on year we are going to have to pay more for less.

Far from me be it to suggest something similar is happening at Warrington but they have a live cap in Aus which Melbourne managed to get around for a couple of years until it all hit the fan. So all a live cap in itself is not a foolproof method of preventing abuse.

Strangely enough when Melbourne were at their most excessive Matt King was released to give them breathing room on their cap. He was the current Australian winger and I'm reasonably sure he didn't come just for the waterfront views of the Mersey

difference is the NRL have balls, unlike the RFL. If a team such as Wire were to get caught doing a Storm, they would get let off lightly (Wigan were allowed to dictate the terms of the charges FFS) by comparison. If the NRL had a second tier, Storm would have been in it, as Wigan should have been when they took the mick out of the rest of the game a while back.

My belief was that the cap was brought in to create a 'level playing field' in that the competition would be very interesting for everyone concerned. Instead of this happening, we still have a competition where you could probably guess the top 6 before the season started. Granted Castleford have suprised many so far this year, but how many different winners of Super League have we had? Wigan, Bradford, Saints and Leeds are the only teams to win it. Just dont want our great game to get like soccer where you know Man Utd, Chelsea and Arsenal will be fighting for the title at the end of the year.

But that is how it has been for many years. And like I say it isn't just about how much you pay players, obviously top players will want the best wages but say Wigan offered 180k a year for a top scrum half then Rovers offered 200k but that player also wanted to win the league, cup and GF, he's more likely to sign for Wigan purely for that reason and not just monetary gain.

This is why top clubs stay top clubs, this is why top clubs produce most of the best youngsters because their youngsters get to learn off the best players in the first place. It is no coincidence that Wigan have a great youth production line when players have come through learning off the best since the early 90's. Likewise Jon Wilkin had raw ability when at HKR but his move to Saints where he was playing alongside the best players in the country allowed for him to become a stand out performer at the highest levels.

Lower clubs will always attract some top players but because they will demand more money to play for such a club that has no real hopes of winning anything, it means that club can't spread its money as far as the top clubs. Until that can be sorted in some way the league will always have the regular top 5 with an odd club breaking in every now and then. Let's remember HKR only got 4th because teams underestimated us, had they played to their ability against us we'd have been much lower IMO.

I don't think any club would risk doing this.

All it would take is one disgruntled player to leave a club and then tell the world how he was paid off the books through an offshore account and the RL would be all over it and the offending club would be in big big trouble.

we have also just signed trent waterhouse for next season.

add that one to your list please.

Higham and Solomona big earners? Nobody wanted to touch solo when we signed him, but now he's in a wire shirt he must be earning a fortune. Also, only half of briers' wages counts on the cap. And regarding hodgson, he was offered a bigger salary to stay at huddersfield but only a one year contract. We offered him less, but a two year deal which was what he wanted. I could also put up a list of big earners (even though they were average players) who have left the club in the last couple of years.

Please dont forget to add Jon Clarke to the list of big salaries

Before Cullen left Clarke signed a contract extension on a pretty decent salary ( allegedly )