Agreed, people moan about RU taking our best players but don't support anybody trying to make a difference. These types of top players bring people through the gates and generate press coverage.

So just waive it through sod the rules AND the affect on the rest of SL just so Koukash can get his own way and buy a team???
Er no its not what our sport is about don't try justify this as the game is bent enough without this megalomaniac just changing everything to suit.
Where would it stop? Oh I have enough money to buy the entire Aussie team why not let me do that and beat the world???

Wally Lewis at Wakefield
Peter Sterling at Hull
Mal Meninga at St Helens
Brett Kenny at Wigan

These all worked out pretty positive for the game over here. Growing up watching Fax playing against teams with these kind of players on the pitch was OK by me.

Its one per club, he could break his leg in the first minute - we dont have the finance to do more, yet

12 SL clubs taking one marquee player from Union/nrl would be great for the game here. George North would shake the press up

It wouldn't bother me either way.

There is a price to pay and the other side of the coin is.

For every overseas player there is one less home grown.

For every marquee player you could spend the same amount of cash and have several home grown of a good standard who could fill half a team.

For every marquee player there are many who have been and are sub standard or no better than who they replaced and that includes plenty who were supposedly the best but were a complete waste of money.

Yer it would be great to have top NRL players in our game but that is not the issue here, this about Koukash wanting to have a separate rule over and above the salary cap, this is all about his SPENDING power not for the good of the game.
Let us not forget clubs are going bust and most don't have a Koukash with a bottomless pit so that's why there IS a salary cap to keep a handbrake on things.

I agree with what you say. But if his proposal is accepted and these marque players are allowed (one per club) maybe gates and interest will increase which in turn increases revenue.
It's a difficult one, speculate to accumulate etc I disagree with the view about the impact it would have on bringing young English talent through. It would be one player, and the young kids coming to watch because of that player could be inspired to play the game from then on.

Let him do it. Can you imagine the affect on team morale though? If a club signs the wrong marquee player it could drive a bus through the fabric of the team. A lazy money grabbing approach won't sit well with the rest of the team. I can only see resentment and jealousy. And if the marquee player ain't pulling his weight and taking all that cash the coach could easily lose the dressing room. I reckon it would be difficult to manage.

Whilst I can understand the marketing logic, on the playing side one man doesnt make a team!

I agree, the whole squad would know that one player is on a bigger wage than the rest. But surely that already happens to a lesser degree. Players are already on different wages.
The challenge would be for the coach (or owner in Salford's case) to buy the right kind of player.
Bringing in the wrong player could, like you say, destroy the team morale. Willie Mason at Hull KR springs to mind!!!

Rangi Chase, though a great player struggles to be part of a team, I think the Doc is trying his beet to get the profile of the game raised and certainly seems to have a real passion for the game which cannot be said for some other alleged high rollers.

I suspect that now this has failed we could be on the way to something bigger.
In its 2007 Staff Working Document accompanying the White Paper on Sport , The European Commission identified that “the idea of introducing salary caps in professional football” was one of its main “pending and undecided issues” relating to the competition provisions in the Treaty. They noted: “that no formal decisions have been taken so far by the community courts or the Commission.”

Although the statement was directed at professional football, the same principles will apply to both codes of Rugby. In the USA where salary caps have operated for some time there is talk of a challenge under the recently revised US anti-trust laws.

So any challenge to the notion of salary caps in football to the European court, such as that which has been made to FIFA’s Financial Fair Play Rules, could have unwanted consequences for those other sports which have salary caps as it could declare them illegal.

Inevitably this will take some time, but Union are seeking to minimise the threat by upping their cap, introduction of "home grown rule" and an exemption rule (in effect a Marquee player, but he must have been at the club for two season prior to coming off the cap - a rule I like!). League appear to be doing nothing.

The difficulty i see is what constitutes a "marquee" player
to one who isn't.

The rugby union rules allow one player off of salary cap if he has been at a club two years and earns more than £30k. That appears ok as it means that must be part of the set up and not a one year wonder

I have often thought that it would be fairer if all players you bring through your own Acadamy were exempt from the salary cap I know they would not be top signings but it means a Club would be rewarded for bringing on mainly local lads .It would also free up some more cash to pay for other players that may have been too expensive for them otherwise.

Excellent post.