back to the original query that the SC is working in the NRL

last 10 years 5 winners / SL 3 winners, so yes, a couple of extra sides have won it, but only 3 in the last 8 years

Wigan up to recent have constantly lost our top players to RU / NRL, and players to other SL clubs, but that is seen as failure, but Penrith are losing their players and its seen as working?

what is slightly different is that in Penrith case, they are mostly losing to other NRL sides, whereas Wigan lost to NRL

i heard a comment the other day that Wigan spend the most, so are most successful (think it was taken from a podcast), but all the other SL clubs can spend what Wigan spend on the cap and marquee players, so why criticise or complain that Wigan are spending more, when we are playing to the same rules as everyone else

The problem is now is that we are winning and some fans put it down to-
we have more money
We buy the best players
We have refs on our side
We cheat (a favourite one of mine)
Etc,Etc,Etc-
They could say we have a bloody good team and a great balance in that team,but they can't as it would hurt too much to admit it.

The talk that Wigan spend more than anyone else came on the back of that Sky piece during their coverage of one of the games and tbh, I thought it was a little naughty because it it was a bit of guesswork and ultimately everyone is playing under the exact same rules, restrictions and dispensations. Wigan are good with the Sky team and give them access not all clubs do, so I'd have expected a bit more from them in return.

I don't know why you would? We've never had any real good will from the Sky team.

Whether it dates back to having a Saints supporter and Leeds supporter - Eddie and Stevo - calling the shots for so many years, and finding fault with every single try that Wigan scored, or Phil Clark bending over backwards to prove that he wasn't a Wigan fan (even to the point of saying all Shaun Wane's trophies were due to Wigan spending more money than anyone else - despite the salary cap!), I don't know, but they've never been our friends.

But even if that was the case, and we were somehow, mysteriously allowed to spend more cash, I say it again - so what? It's nothing to do with anyone else. Super League is a professional sport, not a charity. So long as it's within the rules, it should be of no interest to anyone else. You might get your reward in heaven for a being a poverty row club, but you're not going to get it on the sports field. There's nothing innately honourable about having no money to spend at this level of the game. You're simply out of your depth.

The difference was buttons anyway in the grand scheme of things (I think we were 100k higher than 2nd and 3rd) but I'd have liked Wigan to call them out on it. There was only ever going to be one end result from it and that was that fans across the game would say Wigan are spending their way to trophies again. It could've been an extra quid and it still wouldn't have mattered.