The fact that we haven't had an academy for years will be part of it. There is a marquee option for club trained players, and I think there might be other salary cap dispensations. The decision to scrap the reserves in 2016 was always going to bite us in the long term.

On top of that, the squad we assembled for 2023 was mostly signed up during the 2022 season when we were in the championship. We will have needed to offer big money to secure those signings while not being certain of being in Super League. I think there will be a fair few departures at the end of this year, which will give Chester more room to work with when assembling the squad for 2025. But his three main priorities ought to be getting contracts signed by Lam Snr, Amone and Asiata.

Without an Academy, Leigh are unable to drip-feed any cheap young players. In order to build a team from scratch, Chezzy would have enticed players with £5-10K more than they are on at other clubs. 33 x £10K adds up to £330K more than the big clubs who can pay 17 year olds just over minimum wage.

The best example I can give is Oliver Partington who came through the Wigan system aged 23/24 at the time of his move and would have been looking to be paid properly. Wigan with the incremental increases might have been willing to offer £50K a season, but Salford could offer £75-80K. Wigan drip-feed from the Academy - Salford got a player coming into his peak.
The same would have happened to Shorrocks.

Do Leigh actually have any Marquee signings? The assumption is that Lockie takes the Fed trained position (£100K) and Moylan is the Marquee player (£150K).

Only the top 25 earning players at a club count towards the cap. So in theory you could have an infinite number of players signed on. I suspect a large portion of our cap is take up by the likes of Moylan, Lam, Asiata, Ipape, Amone, Mulhern, O'Donnell and Leutele.

£2.1M / 25 players is an average of £84K each. Mulhern is believed to be on just over average. Yes, the overseas contingent take up most of the cap, but that is based on the fact that they can earn considerably more with a NRL contract. There has to be something more than the beautiful women and fine weather in Leigh to persuade them to come over.

Edwin came over on peanuts which is why they were so quick to tie him down to a long contract.