Its a salary capped sport in terms of playing squad but I'd be interested to see a breakdown of staff numbers and spend on areas outside the salary cap.
I suspect you'll see those that have/spend the most win the most.

Clearly using those resources effectively counts for a lot but ultimately you have to have the resources in the first place to consistently challenge.

Yeah, you don’t see the ‘no coincidence’ line trotted out so much on that point!

I don’t mind the pay-to-win model or the self-mythologising bs from players, fans and management at the successful clubs. I’m sure it has always been like that, to some degree. I do get a bit frustrated when fans of other less wealthy clubs lap it up, but everybody is entitled to an opinion.

I have been looking at what Saints are and and what the current team is doing, and I don’t want to undercredit them. It is very, very impressive.

and where do those resources come from? sponsorship, which is easier to get when your team is winning. a self fullfilling prophesy, and its not just in RL.

Another interesting one - the sky money may have been divvied up equally but the exposure certainly is not.
Leeds has been on tv in all but one of their rounds so far this season. Cant imagine their marketing department needed to do much to sell sponsorship early in the season knowing that - whereas likes of salford / hudds / wakey marketing team will have had to do a lot more.

Not much more interesting in the championship either. We are all waiting for Fev to go up and Toulouse to come back down to us so they can compete with Leigh for who gets to replace Fev when they come back down.

Mind you, the way Fev are patting themselves on the back they might be the team to give the mighty Saints a real test.

Joking aside, it just shows how mix matched the sport is at the moment. I don’t really see a plan to address it but these things come in cycles. How many did saints ‘lose in a row’ to now ‘win in a row?’

Saints have always had good youth development like a few other clubs in Leeds and Wigan the problem has always been the transition of these young players into Superleague.
The last couple of seasons the Saints have got this process right, don't forget we let go high earners Theo Fages and Laclan Coote and replaced them with 2 academy players in Dodd and Welsby. Wingfield and Bennison are also getting game time and looking comfortable in the team.