I take it not every player will be on 60k each, some will be on less in order to pay the elite players more?

I know the benefits of rugby league having a salary cap but that cap will eventually be more detrimental to the sport than the positives it brings, League is a brutal sport and a players career can be short so tell me why should the elite players put their body on the line week in and week out for £60k a year when they can play union or NRL for £120k a year. I therefore agree with John Gilbert Red that the single biggest difference between the two competitions is the salary cap.

I thought one of the major factors at weekend was fitness. When I watched us against saints we seemed to be ok for twenty minutes then completely fell away. I am not privy to this information but who is our fitness conditioner and are they any good?

I think you answered your own question there. Although should professional players also take some responsibility for there own fitness?

Our fitness conditioner is Richie Hunwicks, was highly rated and came from Leeds. However pre-season just gone Harris also brought in Curtis Edgar (www.lifetimeendurance.com/public/276.cfm) to work alongside Hunwicks.

Our fitness conditioner is Richie Hunwicks, was highly rated and came from Leeds. However pre-season just gone Harris also brought in Curtis Edgar (www.lifetimeendurance.com/public/276.cfm) to work alongside Hunwicks.

I haven’t read the [iForty-20[/i article yet but I know Wigan claimed to have spent £3.2m on player salaries in 2001, which is why Super League gave them a dispensation for a year to operate at £2.4m because they couldn’t get under the reduced cap of £1.8m in 2002. Before the 40% limit and 50/50 laws were brought in, the insinuation was that most clubs were spending between 60%–80% of their turnover on player salaries (in which case, Wigan must have turned over impressive numbers).

I’d also like to know if the figures in the article are based on Wigan’s public claims in the 90s and early 2000s or actual accounts.

The only comment I can say regarding the cap is from a personal view point when I passed on a former Wigan player to an IFA for mortgage purposes, his declared salary at the time was declared in excess of £180k, granted personal sponsorship deals formed a small part of it.