The reality is Super League in the UK has stood still for the last 5 years or more from a financial perspective, and unless things change our game in its current form cannot be stustained.

The RFL in the UK have to take the blame for the lack of growth in our sport over the past decade. They are paid to oversea the development and growth of the game, to increase its appeal to both supporters and sponsors - they have failed in this task.

SKY TV have a monopoly on coverage and there are no competitors waiting to take their place. Its no wonder TV rights have barely increased over the years and the game cannot attract blue chip sponsors (Engage and Iron Bru for god sake!!).

I know we are a minority sport and in Oz RL is akin to premier league soccer, hence the reason for $7m+ cap over there as TV channels scramble for TV coverage rights.

However my point is that no mater how disadvantages the European game is, it does not excuse the RFL's failure to grow the sport on these shores.

It seems they are either not accountable for their failure or our club chairmen have accepted zero growth as the 'norm'.

It's very good but it does in effect increase the cap (because he's off it) by the amount of his wages. So if he was on £160K our salary spend could be £1.76m instead of £1.6m, an effective 10% increase in one go. Good news on the one hand but if IL thinks we can't afford an increase anyway, isn't it a bit of a moot point?



I don't understand the RU recruitment scheme. Aren't we always slagging them off for not producing their own players and looking at our young stars? Aren't we supposed to produce enough players anyway and the problem is perceived to be being able to keep what we produce in the face of high wages in RU (and now the NRL), not that we need recruit RU players? What's the point in dispensations for unknown young RU players if we can't keep a Mossop or a Farrell?

I agree about sponsorship and marketing deals for players. I have been saying this should happen for some time. The fact any such deal would currently count in the cap is mad. Not only does it preclude players from earning money this way it also means they are not gaining any publicity for the game by being the face of some product or other on TV or in the press. Can you imagine what kind of advertising could have been made when Andy Farrell was playing and he played on with his broken knose all badaged up? What an image for the marketeers that would have been. Sadly I don't think we have any players with a high enough profile these days to get anyone interesed.

The salary cap increase will mean a flood of players world wide will be interested in the NRL. Firstly it is likely that any talent that has left the NRL like the huge names of Sonny Bill Williams, Isreal Folau and a few top players who have come to super league like Hoffman and O'Donnell...... do you not think signing players like that will see ticket sales go up? The NRL will go huge in 2013 due to the higher quality of product due to better players playing...... they will also sign up the best English talent (they have to get players from somewhere).... finally rugby players in both codes will be interested in that kind of money, maybe a player like Dan Carter (who I believe would be a class league player) would consider a move, these kind of singings would create huge media interest and therefore more 'free' advertising. It's all about creating publicity and thats exactly what this will do.

This deal will leave RU and football way behind in aus and NZ and RL will go flying up to hopefully compete with AFL.

You talk about revenue etc. and where the money will go.... this deal will increase revenue, more people will want to play the game because of the quality of the product, more young players will be produced. It will mean every club can spend to the full cap. Wait to the end of this deal and I bet it will fly up again.

SOO is the biggest yearly sporting event in aus and they have built on this success and they now have megga stars playing the game, this as well will continue to grow.

Although there are negatives for super league, this is a huge deal for RL down under.

I for one would be very happy to see the NRL start cherry-picking from the ranks of the Wallabies and the All Blacks.

That would be at least one good thing to come from all this.

There is far too much rugby talent wasted on southern hemisphere RU.

It would be one of the best things for the sport down there IMO.

It would be the same over here. Imagine if super league clubs signed Ashton, Wilkinson, Flood, Henson, O'Driscoll and maybe some French players as well. It would have a huge impact.

I am sure there is a select few who play for the All-blacks and the wallabies who could do well in the NRL, like I said Dan Carter is one.

Most important signing for me though is SBW, he needs to return!

True true. Turns out we have recorded a profit last year and on for one this year too though so all is seemingly well now anyway