It's all about standards and legacy. A player joining Wigan and Saints will be joining an organisation of serial winners. They know what is needed to win and have players and staff in the camp that have won the biggest honours - multiple times. They will know the club is far bigger than them, competition for places is high from the junior ranks and that they need to knuckle down and perform. The DNA and culture will be pervasive.

A player joining Warrington may hear some half d comments from a clown with a crucifix earring about "wanting to be the best" and "US franchise model" then will look around and see a few good players, some decent players near the end of their career who have failed at crucial moments, and a good number of journeymen players here for the wage and some taking the . Lines of authority will be blurred with players having long term relationships with directors outside of that with the coach. If they don't like something they can probably lean on a director at a common place drinking session to get their way. They know the club Chairman is now seeking to restrict the freedom of the coach. They will see players who never get dropped on form. They may even start to believe the hype that is pumped out from HJ HQ about how good they are. They will have knowledge of our monkey on the back (and how we tolerate it so long as we are plucky losers). They may even find it funny. They will be mindful of our innate ability to collapse under mild pressure and so confidence in their team mates won't be high. They will look at the recently appointed DoR and maybe even dimly remember a journeyman prop forward from the 1990s who now represents the sporting profile of the club.

However Sam Burgess is the ray of hope in all of this and he stands out as different. He has X factor. Let's hope it's enough.

Show me a sport that is any different these days. All sports have a finite number of players & the "cream" of them might rise to the top at a handful of clubs from which any could win a title or a trophy. Below these "elite" clubs there are others of varying degrees of mediocrity.
Once the ability to buy in from abroad is exhausted or the possibility to go back years to find a generational qualification is unavailable, mediocrity really will kick in.

I absolutely refuse to accept that Warrington RLFC does not have the real opportunity to challenge and emulate it's historically more successful neighbours a mere 7 and 9 miles away if it gets its together.

We are talking about putting together a side that can win about 20 games from 27 then win 3 games in a row at the end of the season. It's a task that our neighbours have achieved readily. Not putting a man on the moon.

Perhaps they have a more determined & professional set up at our rivals. We know we have beaten these teams but can't sustain a challenge. To be successful the whole club needs a kick up it's massively under performing booty. Let's hope Big Sam is the start of revival & not just another sticking plaster to attract fans because of his reputation.

You are correct, of course, and we all wish Sam well. At prima facie winning 70% of our games and 3/3 (maybe 2/2) games at the end sounds less daunting than "overcoming 68 years of not winning the league". It is achievable.

Well maybe my response here should be on the 'which positions are our weakest' thread, but without Ratch, who would be our kicker?

I can't readily think of anyone near his standard - and that's a lot of points.
I hope there's a cunning plan in place......

King as 3rd marquee only counts as 50k on the cap he is great value for money. The 3rd marquee can only be UK players n if homegrown even better. What he is paid in real life is irrelevant the club were happy to pay it at the time and that's just the way it is and let's not talk like he is on 150k a week like a footballer probable just about that a year!! Rugby league contracts are not great in terms of money to the players unless your an nrl marquee or George Williams.

Also who else in tbe squad would you rather take the 3rd spot considering a new signing will cost us 100k on cap. We might save a little on what we pay them but it takes away another 50k of cap space which is more valuable than what we would be saving.

I understand your point, and I agree - King on £50k on the cap is good value and it maximises what we can spend on the cap by using it on him, makes sense to use the spot on him as things stand. However it’s the marquee spot he takes up that concerns me, I would rather have another George Williams or an NRL player of similar quality on the cap and have him count for £100k of cap space.

but the 3rd marquee cannot be used on nil players can it it has to be uk based players it was about helping clubs retain players and stop them going to the NRL ?

Quote: The_runaround "but the 3rd marquee cannot be used on nil players can it it has to be uk based players it was about helping clubs retain players and stop them going to the NRL ?'" One has to be used on a Fed trained player - we have that in Williams. We could therefore use teh other two spots on NRL marquee players if we wished. The ideal would be to have as many Warrington homegrown marquees as possible as they only count as £50k on the cap, £100k for fed trained (Williams) and £150k for NRL. https://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-league/65792315

Quote: The_runaround "but the 3rd marquee cannot be used on nil players can it it has to be uk based players it was about helping clubs retain players and stop them going to the NRL ?'" One has to be used on a Fed trained player - we have that in Williams. We could therefore use teh other two spots on NRL marquee players if we wished. The ideal would be to have as many Warrington homegrown marquees as possible as they only count as £50k on the cap, £100k for fed trained (Williams) and £150k for NRL. https://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-league/65792315

It’s deeper than a kick up the ass.
We will always get up for a short revival every now and again, and a CC, but we will never have the annual consist top 3, unless we match them with the youth structure.
To allow Saints to pick up all those Wire lads for their academy was nothing short of impotent.

All this marquee thing is just hiding the fact that the NRL is just growing and growing. 2 Billion 5 year tv deal and looking at possible 72 million on audience on main pay Channel when they play in Las Vegas. They have deals with 3 main broadcasters.

Seen a post today that concerns its self with IMG basically bending the rules to keep London in the league based on the criteria. End of if we don’t starting growing the game here and finding more funding the marquee rule will be a waste of time because the NRL are just going to to take the best of the talent from here because they can pay way above what we can offer. So London whatever a season they have need to stay and we need more southern teams.

When was this? Those a few years ago? Which ones are in St Helens first team now?

Too much self interest from Wigan.
Wigan have so much influence over other clubs, the game will never grow.