That's interesting. I knew Widnes were in favour of it, but I thought Saints broadly supported it too. I wonder if the specifics of the proposal didn't suit some.

A maximum of 3 could of abstained, I don't even know who Bradford could of sent to vote for them, they have no chairman, so I imagine they're one of them!

Jesus christ, how negative are you?

Cant you appreciate the positivity that a marquee exemption would bring to the sport. Your inital point (whereby you stated only one man would gain from this) was quickly proved to be noncense, with the likes of Warrington and Leeds supporting the idea. Granted only Salford, Warrington, Leeds and Huddersfield have owners with the personal wealth to fund such a player, but what is stopping the likes of St Helens, London, Castleford, Wakefield etc getting off their ar*es and sourcing additional revenue through sponsorships etc to cover the cost of a marquee superstar? Or is that too much trouble and it's just easier if we keep things as they are. If we were able to bring the likes of Cameron Smith, Billy Slater, SBW, Greg Inglis etc over to Super League it would only benefit clubs through extra merchandise sales, attendances would increase and so would the quality of Super League in general.

Instead you choose to use an example of an awfully run club in Bradford for again scourning the idea.

Saints, or rather McManus, is much more eager for the "sustainable growth" model - and wants clubs to receive more from central funding then they spend on the cap.

Also, we basically got our "marquee exemption" with the home grown rule coming in. We're unlikely to sign better than Roby, and he will only count for 100k for the next 5 years freeing up a lot of space on our cap (with lomax potentially as well) - if you believe player contract value rumours of course.

Quote John Gilbert Reds="John Gilbert Reds"If we were able to bring the likes of Cameron Smith, Billy Slater, SBW, Greg Inglis etc over to Super League it would only benefit clubs through extra merchandise sales, attendances would increase and so would the quality of Super League in general. '" Your missing my point. We wouldn't sign them. Even during the height of the strong pound era we couldn't get Tallis, or fittler or johns (minus 3 games when it suited him) In fact read this - www.theage.com.au/news/League/St ... 92413.html There's more than just throwing money to this.

Quote John Gilbert Reds="John Gilbert Reds"If we were able to bring the likes of Cameron Smith, Billy Slater, SBW, Greg Inglis etc over to Super League it would only benefit clubs through extra merchandise sales, attendances would increase and so would the quality of Super League in general. '" Your missing my point. We wouldn't sign them. Even during the height of the strong pound era we couldn't get Tallis, or fittler or johns (minus 3 games when it suited him) In fact read this - www.theage.com.au/news/League/St ... 92413.html There's more than just throwing money to this.

Off hand I can think of two sports that have a marquee player rule rugby union and that sport seems to be growing at our expense and Major League Soccer/football, they call it the Beckham rule and look at the progress they are making.
The only other sport I can think of that had a system of attracting higher quality players was Ice Hockey they scrapped it because some clubs couldn't fund it and now the League in this country has become a shop window for the better players moving to Europe. So as a sport we now have to ask do we compete or do we become a minority sport that will become a feeder sport and very soon be totally ignored by main stream media.

Think RHP represented us. Disappointed this didn't go through. We need to do something to stop the player drain. The continuing growth line is about tiresome as te "salary cap should remain the same to even the competition" line.
Was nice to see LEAGUE been linked with a top union player this morning (Manu tuilagi) wonder if we wil see the light when Tomkins joins Eastmknd, Butgess and Ashton in the England RUnsquad

So because St Helens couldnt convince a 19-year-old to come over nearly 10 years ago, no other Super League club would be successful? I dont buy that theory.

After the success of the RLWC and the big name players which appeared to enjoy it, now would be the perfect time to tempt the likes of Cameron Smith and Billy Slater who both have contracts coming to end over to Super League.

I notice Koukash has said only 5 clubs voted in favour, I have no doubts he'll secure the required 3 more in no time.

will the 2 of those who voted against/abstained even be relevent next year. with the cut to 12 he actually only needs to convince two more to join.

Good point, I didnt even think of that. Apparantly Salford, Widnes, Wigan, Warrington and Leeds were the clubs who voted in favour which I am a little shocked about. I expected at least one Hull club and Huddersfield to have been interested.

Name one in form, not disgraced, career peak (or still ahead of him), genuine Aussie superstar (not the second tier superstar, but the genuine, certain for country type) that super league has ever signed? - and do you believe the number of players on that list if from lack of trying?

The rlwc was great, no doubt - but signing an over the hill Aussie is the exact opposite to the point of that isn't it? I would rather see Sam tomkins back than billy slater! How many "superstar" Aussies have we seen come over at the end of their career for a holiday? Josh perry was the last one and was dire! It doesn't raise the profile any.

Cameron smith, would be a great deal if someone in super league got him but a) Leeds got buderus, whilst with a salary cap, and b) he will end up at either broncos or storm, no amount of money in the world will change that - literally a £1m a year wouldn't change that, because as many take joy in pointing out, we don't have the profile to do that.

We first need to keep hold of our own, then we need to get back the ones we lost, then we can chase the luxuries of smith and sbw of this world. As I've said - marquee signing that's eligible for England, I'm more than fine with. Home grown rule will help keep our future superstars. Start from there, and then build outwards.

Also a $900,000 deal would still make him the highest paid player in the sport - you have to ask why he rejected it all those years ago.

Edit: it will come in some form eventually I imagine, but what the specific terms of it are, is still yet to be known.