So the image rights issue was never an issue then? And all the talk of £2m liabilities for SL clubs isn't true? I remember reading a couple of months ago about image rights in an article about the football financial fair play regulations and it mentioned the issue was going to rip the RL salary cap apart.

Has the payment whilst on the plane loophole been closed now as well?

Personally I'd give £10,000 to see the salary cap calculations for each team. Just to know what we're doing with our's firstly. How Warrington use their's would also be fascinating. You always seem to match senior players in with out, yet are still able to renew youth players contracts. Something we seem to not have room to do. We've shedded twice as many senior players over recent seasons, so perhaps we're just massively overpaying our youth players, but that doesn't explain why we don't ever pick any up from other SL clubs.

I thought it was Leeds that had the massive potential liability and were the test case (which they will win and rugby league clubs will be cut the same deal as union clubs). I reckon Saints were also one of the big users of the loophole - remember the Sonny Bill contract offer that was leaked (it was on an internet forum so must be true) and are having to cut back on its use now hence the apparent in-balance of players in against players out.

Warrington also use transfer fees to secure players who are under contract and therefore as nobody can match us on transfer fees we negotiate with players over contracts with no other parties to be played-off against. I bet Saints are paying whay over the odds salary wise for Shenton and McCarthy Scarsbrook due to their Bosman status when negotiating; Myler, Atkins, Carvell, Bridge, Westwood and Grix were all signed with over a year left on their deals at their current clubs and wanted out. Cashed-up Warrington offered an exit, with pay-rise but not top dollar as a bonus.

Warrington also award long contracts, 4 years being the norm for good players, and then look to re-negotiate to extend well before the end of the contract before any other club is sniffing around whispering into agents' ears. Players are happy for the security that a long deal gives and if things crop up and things need to change, well ask Chris Hicks about that.

I know Saints fans like to praise the savy business skills of McManus (what happened to the other billionaires

who supposedly joined Saints board - I hope their not waiting on the new stadium to cash-in on their investment) and no doubt he is a grade A* banker but I don't think he has the entruepernal(sp) vision of Simon Moran at Warrington and the savvy of how to get the best from dealing with "prima-donnas".

Too straight-laced bankers and not known for taking risky decisions.

Things change from maurice lindsey in the late 80's to early 90's and then to mcmanaus and the chap at leeds who ever since iv'e watched rl has tried to
buy leeds the title, even signing doug laughton and ellery hanley to no effect. saints have always had good backing and a strong foot in the transfer
market especially in the sl era. if you look at the sides saints have had over the sl period then you also could question the money they were on.
yes there was some home bred players, but those players matured into world class players and i'm sure kc wouldn't be happy on a
'how you doing thatto heath' salary when bought in players would have been on much more.

Yeah, obviously the performance warps the perception of things. If Warrington dropped to third or fourth next season no one would be questioning their cap spend.

?

You made the point about Saints of old (When we were good) seeming to have a squad too good to be under the cap. That was because they were always top and winning trophies.

Warrington are doing similar now, because they are well coached and performing well. But, if they had a bad season and dropped down a few positions people wouldn't allege they were cheating the cap. Performance on the field warps how people see the cap issue.

If Wire were top after 20 games of next season and unbeaten, everyone would be moaning about them being over the cap. If they weren't doing so well, had a few injuries and were running third or fourth, people wouldn't be saying their over the cap.

agree with this.

The same applies to Referees and the RFL...a team performs well and fans from other clubs think the refs are in their back pocket along with the RFL.

fair play. i know what your saying.

I think you maybe getting a bit confused, Gary Hetherington wasnt at Leeds in the days of Laughton, Hanley, Gregory etc and Saints were run pretty poorly pre McManus , sure we had a brief boost just pre Superleague when Howes was at the club but that from what I gather was a bit of a 'wigan' i.e unsustainable. Some of the great players we've had have either come through the ranks or been picked up cheap, Longy for instance wasnt a bank buster.

His agent spoke to a few clubs! Saints had another target and didnt push for him! Wire didnt hang around!