I would agree with that, Smith only wants players who want to play for the team and be successful - Gleeson was a good example of this (good bit of business by TS as well given that Gleeson was probably one of our highest paid players)

Thanks for the clarification. I am sure clubs thought there were ways around the cap without being caught and we know what thought did!

As you rightly mentioned with the live cap this is nigh on impossible to cheat and it makes for a better comp. As you will be aware to pay top players you need to invest in youth and have a sprinkling of these in your team on a lowish salary to balance the books. This is where I think saints are starting to fall down as the fisrt batch of successful youth products have have recently renegotiated there contracts (Eastmond) and now thery cannot pay a wack on top Aussies.

Good luck for the season

Spot on.

Why is it nigh on impossible to cheat the cap nowadays?

Personal thoughts on the game.

We deserved the win, although the scoreline did flatter us.

The 2 tackles in mid air should have been penalties.

Menzies had a bit of a nightmare aand lost alot of ball in the second half.

There were times we could have done with Lee Briers, certainly in the first half.

Worrincy needs to be careful, teams will target him on the slide defence. He seemed to get stepped far too easily.

Teams have been spotting him for some time now. He hasn't managed to improve his defence in the meantime so it's about time he was dropped. We have better youngsters at the club already who do not appear fazed by 1st team action.

The second half was sent from heaven,
Bradford 0,Wire 27.

If I was peed off at any one thing then it was the fact that again, we produced a catalogue of needless errors, as the game wore on. Loks like we're gonna have to do whatever we do this season despite the errors, as it looks like there's nothing we can do to cut them out so have to live with them Bloody irritating though.

The first half was very good by us, and the officials incomprehensibly missing the 2 "in-the-air-tackle" penalties added to the other stuff that strangely meant we spent a whole quarter on our line, obviously burned up a whole load of fuel. On the other hand, I was immensely encouraged by our attitude in that spell. We didn't whing or moan about it, we just got on with it, and worked really hard (without the Langley machine, note) to successfully keep them out for amazing spells.

Also, our bad-hair kicking day encouraged Wire, as at half time despite everything we should have had a decent cushion. Which very well might have made it into a much different second half.

But at the start of the season we all knew they had a better team that us, because of the fact that they have had some time to gel, (coupled with some frugal signings ) and they are not top of the SL for nothing. So there was no surprise in being beaten at their place. We won't be the last. And the score (as so often in RL) gives a completely misleading picture of the game.

But for a match like that, it was so cruel that our current form secret weapon, the awesome Langley, was out, and looking at the first half, it seems to me not over-optimistic to suggest he could easily have made the difference between losing and winning. We missed him badly.

Still, if you had taken a poll of fans at the start of the year and asked if they would take - after 6 games - being level on points with Leeds, and 2 points off 3rd place, I reckon most would have taken it. I know I would have.

It isn't.

You can't cheat on the 'official' money being paid because it is supervised on an on-going 'real time' basis by the RFL, but the rich benefactor of any club, using his own bank accounts not the clubs, can easily pay money into an account (preferably a foreign one) for a player to access later.

This, of course, if any club were to do it, would be doubly illegal as it would also bypass the inland revenue system, and is known as the 'Singapore parachute', due to the most obviously eligible players being antipodeans returning home at the end of their contract and breaking their journey in that country. It's tied in with the whole 'image rights' business which some clubs are thought to have been involved with. HMRC are sufficiently concerned to be currently looking into this. Peter Hood has stated that the Bulls are not involved and I would accept this totally. I await the outcome of the investigation by the authorities.

I think everything of relevance has now been covered at length.

Just following on from a point FA makes; Phil Clarke at the Cas game made a comment about if we were 5W 5L after 10 games, he fancied us to go on, get stronger and have a real stab at getting to OT.

I think that's a pretty good point.
Also of the next 4 games, I would predict 2W and 2L, giving us 5 and 5 after 10.

Also remember 50% form was good enough for the play offs last year.

The league as it is also means even the top team will be losing more than in years gone by (IMO).

If someone has the info to hand, it would be interesting to see how many games (or % wins) the top teams have had since 1996. I bet it's a long way from the 91% we achieved in '97.

Both over the easter period............?

We're gunna turn over the Whino's at Headingley. Mark my words!

I wouldn't be suprised with any score from the forthcoming Leeds V Bradford game, I truely belive anything could happen........

Within reason.

Year Win % for top team
1996 91
1997 91
1998 91
1999 83
2000 86
2001 79
2002 82
2003 79
2004 86
2005 82
2006 86
2007 70
2008 78
2009 78

I'd say there's a downward trend there.