Not for me. I'm not totally against the salary cap but I still think it should work on a system that forces teams to invest in young talent rather than buying from overseas.

I mean at Wigan we can't move for talent (8 out on loan). Why can't all teams be in that position?

Totally agree. You should be able to spend what you earn and if you bring players through the academy then you shouldn't be punished for it.

Agreed. You should be rewarded for bringing young British talent through your ranks. There has to be a change relating to this soon imo. Chris Ashton would be the England fullback now if the Salary Cap didn't prevent us from keeping him. This is where the RFL need to show some common sense for once.

Thats it. They could claim the salary cap is working if the test side was doing great things. But despite making the final last year, that was a poor test side, really poor! We should never have been in a position were we had to blood so many youngsters.

I hope this dual-reg system can lead to a better pool of test standard players. Only time will tell on that.

I do think the dual-reg and franchise system are good things. Sides no longer need to depend on Aussies and can draft youngsters in when needed who have had 1st team experience all season rather than being green.

My take on it is that if anyone who comes through said teams academy isn't on the salary cap then that leaves room for big marquee players so surely everyone's a winner.
If your a young player say someone like Myler though playing for another team on any form of pro contract eliminates the freebie aspect if you played for any other pro team.
So what i'm saying is that Widnes would be the only club he wouldn't count on the cap.
Maybe another clause would be that if he was to go back to Widnes he would be free again, technically, only free with the club you signed the first pro contract with.

If a player has come through that clubs academy, only 50% of the wage counts on the cap. Simples.

If a player was free though if he came through the academy, the money available to you could then go on a player of say Inglis or Thurstons calibre.

Aussie players win (big pay cheque)
English players win (learning of great players)
Fans win (watching fantastic talent in your home teams colours)

I agree but at the same time there still has to be a cap on the amount you can spend, otherwise it still won't limit clubs spending more than they can. 50% is a massive discount, so you can have a top class player from your academy being paid that of a relative youngster still, freeing up cash. Otherwise you could have (extreme example) 5 top aussies taking up the full cap surrounded by endless amount of squad players produced by wigan, some of whom would be earning top dollar anyway. We could probably get a squad of all-academy players in a few years and not a penny count on the cap? If we had this allowance in now, we'd be able to get at least one world class player , even with all the current high earners I reckon.

There needs to be a discount, but not a freebie, just an incentive. Maybe after playing for the club for a number of years the discount gets increased maybe?

Whilst I definitely agree with the thought, I'm not sure how legal it would be as you'd be effectively be adjusting a players freedom of contract as he'd cost more to any other team than then one he started off with. Mind you it's still open to debate whether the whole salary cap is legal or not in the first place.

Wigan could win a league and cup double and thrash the NRL champions by 50 pts in the WCC but it still wouldn't make the SC a good thing IMO.

What we need is a proper system of financial controls that stops clubs getting into difficulties, encourages growth in attendances, focusses clubs on growing income while keeping costs under control, rewards investment in better facilities and of course ensures that player development is given real priority. The SC is a really poor at achieving these key objectives. But its a sacred cow; so many Wigan haters are desperate to see it stay in place in its current form simply because they fear Wigan will return to dominate the game. Its the pathetic my club first mentality, the parochialism that has cursed RL and held back its development for decades.

The cap simply doesn't work because we still see the best players at the richest clubs with Myler going to Wire from Salford a prime example. It has never worked as intended since the flat rate cap came in with the richest clubs still dominating the competition. It's no surprise Wire are now in the mix due to getting a wealthy backer and it's not because the cap lets them compete with Leeds - it's the fact they can now spend to the cap that does that.

If clubs are not equally wealthy (and they aren't) you have to set the cap low enough so the poorest clubs are not disadvantaged but it clearly isn't low enough given the above example of Myler. The trouble is if you set it too low you risk losing players (or failing to attract them in the first place) and we have already seen interest in our players from NRL clubs who operate to a higher cap than the UK now.

The solution is to do what they do in Oz and have not just a cap but a salary floor which means all clubs must pay out a minimum amount of wages to their first team squad and the Oz salary floor is actually a high percentage of the cap (its around 90% I think). Clubs should be audited to prove that they can pay to the floor and if they can't then they ought not to get a franchise.

Clubs being able to pay to the floor would go a long way to prevent situations like Wire being able to get Myler as all clubs given a franchise would be able to offer similar wages.

So really it's not a cap that will ultimately even out the competition but all clubs being able to pay out a similar amount in wages i.e. when all clubs can pay to a salary floor.

Dave

Lowering the salary cap would be a bad move, the nrl salary cap will soon be increased and they plan to add another 2 teams. So there is a need for 50 new players, they'll take our cream and some aussie journeymen too. The stanard of sl will take a hit regardless, let's not lose all the top players though.

Our cap should reward the promotion of youth and even succesful business.