Quote: bramleyrhino "Seconded.
A successful youth system allows clubs to get more value from their cap allowance. The top clubs can all afford and attract 13-17 quality players, but the game is so often won beyond that. The better quality of youth you have, the more you minimise the impact when you loose your high-earning, high-quality stars.
Leeds were without several players the other week - Stevie Ward, Jamie Jones-Buchanan, Paul Aiton, Liam Sutcliffe just off my head. Two of those were replaced by Josh Walters and Jimmy Keinhorst. Now, I don't know what those two players are paid, but I suspect that there are call centre workers in Leeds City Centre who are earning more this year than the two men who combined for the winning try in the Grand Final.
That doesn't mean the players are underpaid or that Leeds are being cheap - the salary they are being paid is consummate to their experience and value to the club, but having quality in your 'lower paid' positions is what makes the biggest difference.'"
But that is a self defeating argument. If Leeds get to be exceptional because they are bringing through Josh Walters and Jimmy Keinhorsts and Stevie Wards, and every other club wants to be successful too, then every other club will be trying to sign Josh Walters, Jimmy Keinhorst and Stevie Ward, so the value of those players goes up.
What the salary cap does is stops an ambitious lower club paying out enough to tempt a Stevie Ward to sign for them instead of Leeds because the opportunity cost of doing so is too large. So it keeps the value of Stevie Ward lower than it otherwise would have been. So Leeds can offer Stevie Ward or Josh Walters, or Jimmy Keinhorst a relatively low wage because an ambitious lower club would need to offer substantially more to overcome the other things leeds offer meaning they cant spend as much elsewhere and the clubs who can offer the same 'other' things as Leeds cannot offer a meaningful amount more than Leeds because of the cap.
This is why we see such a relatively small amount of movement of star players. We dont even see them moving between the big clubs. When a star player moves he will go to Union or the NRL. Who was the last star player to move between SL clubs? Stuart Fielden? thats nearly a decade ago.
Of this years dream team, there are 2 NRL players, and 11 SL players, of those 11 SL players 8 are playing for the club they made their SL debut. Of the three to move, JP moved a decade ago. Danny Brough went to Hudds from Wakefield and Luke Gale signed from the relegated club.
The reality of the salary cap is it has destroyed the market for top quality players, they simply dont move from the top clubs. So an ambitious lower club is at a disadvantage in signing young players, have to pay more to attract fringe players and simply cannot sign top players. Its all very well arguing that good youth development allows a club to get more value from the cap, but it is impossible under the cap for a lesser club to create a fair playing field in attracting those players. The SC entrenches the big clubs at the top and the bottom clubs at the bottom.