He was on Radio 5 this morning, and kept reminding Nicky Campbell 'there's only one rugby'.
Love the man's enthusiasm, even if I don't always agree with him.

Reading between the lines it wouldn't surprise me if he made a play for the Titans. www.couriermail.com.au/sport/nrl ... 7215162404

Reading between the lines it wouldn't surprise me if he made a play for the Titans. www.couriermail.com.au/sport/nrl ... 7215162404

Ooh, he so can

Quote Huddersfield1895="Huddersfield1895"Reading between the lines it wouldn't surprise me if he made a play for the Titans. www.couriermail.com.au/sport/nrl ... 7215162404'" When I read these Aussie papers, when they talk about KouKash they refer to him as a billionaire, this one says he's worth $3b but last years Times rich list had him with $900m, which is about £590m. He must have made some right cash this last year in that case. cash

Quote Huddersfield1895="Huddersfield1895"Reading between the lines it wouldn't surprise me if he made a play for the Titans. www.couriermail.com.au/sport/nrl ... 7215162404'" When I read these Aussie papers, when they talk about KouKash they refer to him as a billionaire, this one says he's worth $3b but last years Times rich list had him with $900m, which is about £590m. He must have made some right cash this last year in that case. cash

He thinks that Titans aren't ever going to get decent crowds playing on the Gold Coast so they should move to Brisbane to create a Brisbane derby. He could move Salford to say, Toulouse to create a french SL derby maybe ?

I was reading a couple of weeks ago about Stevie G's move to play footy in America.

Apparently, they too have a salary cap, but are allowed to sign two marquee players who are 'off-cap', which is what Stevie G will be (and Becks was too).

I think this would be the most sensible move SL could make.

Except we now have the pretence, sorry opportunity, for championship teams to gain promotion by playing superdooperleague teams. With a massive cap difference it's already almost impossible imo, stick an additional two marquee players and you probably render the middle 8s pointless.

Or keep tinkering with the cap then do the super 8s over one weekend in Hull where championship teams get to lose by 60pts. Call it craven carnage. Make a day of it.

Prediction

If one team gets promoted this year, those who are close minded to the system will call it luck.
If any other number 0, 2,3,4 teams get promoted those same people will call it a failure or a joke.

Hedged betting at it's best.





As for being closed minded to the system, I applaud the RFL for trying something new, but repeat, if you want to make it viable, let all 24 sides spend exactly the same amount on players salaries. If Hughes had been able to (and I think Bradford would be the same) he would have spent to a full SL size cap this year.
The Middle 8 is a flawed system and will remain so regardless of if 0 or all 4 go up......until you level the playing field you are open to ridicule. It should be up to each club if they want to overstretch.....after all, the RFL have done this so they don't have to get involved in club finances, so let us spend what we want.

I basically agree with this bit, the caveat being no loans on the basis the gap being covered by equity

Problem being that there isn't enough money for it the be split 24 ways and still be a meaningful sum ... So how do the lower teams afford the extra cap space? The home grown cap cap has been brought in for the championship as well so that covers some of the gap imo.

I've been thinking about this, if a club is relegated in the "million pound match" how is it meant to shed half its playing salary in time for the new season? Even if you say okay, just leave all the players it had signed for the following season, the squad unbalance it would cause makes it exponentially harder to return, and the club would have an obligation to pay its contracts. At least with straight relegation clubs could have an inkling to whether it was a possibility and adjust accordingly ...

David Hughes has loaned London's SL side in excess of 15 million...I'd even push it as far out as 20 million in total. He'll never see a penny of that back, because the only way anyone else will ever take over the club is if it is debt free.....essentially, we are/were a tax break.

If an owner wants to bury his club in unsustainable debt, then that's their choice. Like Bradford, fans will applaud until it all comes unstuck and then whine about it.........London are where we deserve to be thanks to Hughes mismanagement, but if he wants to keep throwing money at us, then let him. Same with #MarwanK......if he wants to waste millions on SBW or Burgess in the mistaken belief that they will add thousands to the gate, then let him.
Restricting the bottom 12 from spending the same as the Top 12 makes the idea of a middle 8 comp that is fair stupid. The team that finishes 4th in the championship will lose all 7 games and ship 400 points in doing so......and believe me, ask their fans at the end if every game counts