Quote vbfg="vbfg":1xlpbbv1Every reference I can find, apart from one nonsensical academic paper which suggests '97, says it was '99.
I genuinely don't recall myself. Both Wikipedia and the RFL site are sadly lacking on this, but that does seem about right to me. Also, it might be true to say that the salary cap proper started when you say because there were those years when Wigan were allowed special dispensation to allow for their existing contracts. And nobody else needed that. Or was allowed it, depending on how that actually went down.'"
:1xlpbbv12001 Wigan were spending 3.2m on wages. That would be nearly 5m today. They were given 1 years grace at 2.3m in 2002. by 2003 everyone was spending 1.8m. Which as much as anything simply highlights just how far we have gone backwards.
Quote vbfg:1xlpbbv1Besides, whilst it slowly moves from around 2000 the great leap forward happens after 2005.'"
:1xlpbbv1there is another correlation you may have missed which correlates far better and seems a far more obvious reason that passes occams razor.
from 1997, the bottom team in SL scored 9, 4, 10, 8, 11, 0, 12, 5, and then in 2005 we relegated not only the terrible Leigh, but also the 2nd worst side in SL Widnes and replaced them with a side who had money and spent it and built. Les Catalans entered the league and stopped the perpetual merry-go-round of clubs not big enough for SL replacing each other and swapping players.
in 2006 Les Catalans finished bottom with a record points total of 16 which was more points than Widnes got in 11th the previous year.
Quote vbfg:1xlpbbv1Fair question. You might also ask the same thing about 2003 with Halifax.
The primary reason is that it was way more predictable then. This system is very much dependant on the relative strengths of who is being beaten by the team in question. Back then, top teams beat bottom teams. Top teams beat mid table teams. The old school Big 4 beat everyone, for the most part, and then took points off each other. Exceptions here and there, but largely not. Many fewer exceptions overall than now. I can prove this, and I will if you want me to.
This is exactly what the plot is showing. Despite that spike from London, it is lower than all seasons prior to and including the very year you're pointing out.
In 2014 London were disproportionally bad compared to everyone else that season, including Bradford.
London's sole win was from beating a 6th placed Leeds that year. Solid result. Second from bottom Bradford also beat Leeds. But they also had wins against Wakefield (twice), London (twice), Warrington, Wigan and Hull FC. Not a bad set of scalps overall, and from all over the table. Obviously a terrible season, but both in the table and by this method way better than London.
In 2005 Leigh beat a mid table team (London) and got a draw against another (Hull) and also beat Wakefield, and did so at a time when beating teams from outside your station was a little rarer than it is today. It's one of the worst runs in SL history but it's better than London's. The important point is that it happened in the context of a worse league overall.
In 2003 Halifax beat London, and in their first game. And then never won or drew again. That is easily the worst losing run in SL history. A more abject collapse than London 2014 for sure. London 2003, who Halifax beat, finished fifth. They were ten points behind fourth place Saints.
Leeds 2014, who London 2014 beat, finished the regular season in sixth. They were six points behind first placed Wigan.
All twelve team seasons too.
Halifax and Leigh may well have been terrible. But the league overall was terrible, hence the higher overall scoring in the output of this system. The league was not terrible in 2014. Bradford weren't that great but London happened to equal the worst performance in the league's history, and that made the gap between them and next worst huge. It stands out when determining standard deviation in a sample size of twelve, albeit one built from around knocking on for 180 games overall.
FWIW, I don't deny at all that the play offs are a factor here. They absolutely are. I have always been in favour of a grand final and associated play off system for precisely this reason. But the cap is a huge factor too, and whilst I can't particularly prove it I would certainly argue that it was the primary one.
Not impossible by any means. As you say, it's every other game at this point, though I do think 8 wins is at the lower end of what you're going to need. Doable though. I believe more likely today for a bottom of the table side than at any other point in SL history, and certainly more probable for you than for Huddersfield.'"
i wont argue that the SC hasnt had an effect. But that effect has been to bring the top down. It hasnt brought the bottom up. Players arent leaving the big clubs and going to the lesser clubs because of cap issues. The best are simply leaving.
