With a cap of £300k at the moment, it is not possible for any championsip club to be full time. Although at Fev we currently have four or five that are. Extra funding will enable us to increase that from next season and our major shareholder Feisal Nahaboo has already stated that Fev will have funds available to match the top end of the salary cap, whichever league we are in.

There is a lot of investment at Fev with the stadium development and a £350k centre of excellence. We are not standing still and waiting to be run into the gri=ound as some will suggest.

I suspect that similar things arehappening at Fax, Leigh, etc.

Whilst I might agree that the game needs more money and more quality players, I would suggest that the two aren't mutually exclusive. We might just end up paying more money for average players if the gene pool can't be significantly increased either through development or competing with NRL/RU for the best.

If we were to up the stakes on player recruitment, to raise the profile of the game, to attract that new investment it's a long hard road. If every team had a SBW or Billy Slater marquee signing do you think that that would 'do the trick'?

I have my doubts sorry to say I think our image issues and therefore our ability to pay run a bit deeper. Sure it would be great to watch week in week out, but, probably for 'the already converted'

I'd be all for an 8/17 but at the moment there's only Wigan, saints and Leeds that could keep their current first choice 17 and do it. There might be one or two others but I can't think of any

One problem which has been overlooked in the past and is one of the reasons that few championship players have moved to SL that many players do not want to become full time. Given that most championship players have some kind of career and get paid for playing part time, becoming a full time player (even for a SL club) may involve minimal pay rise (if any) but a huge rise in career ending risk.

The benefits of being full time are mostly fitness, stamina and recovery. This is the reason why many championship clubs can compete in a single match (challenge cup of friendly) but little more.

You have to wonder with this being the case, will an increase in cap level for championship clubs provide significant playing benefit.