Hang on. I thought all the contracts that were in existence before IL got here agreed by Mo were over and done with by the time we came to start the 2010 season and we now have a properly structured salary system in place?

If there are any back-loaded contracts that is down to IL and he may well have back loaded JT's contract as he expects certain money to become available as players retire etc. That seems good planning to me which is of course completely screwed if you have a player who reneges on a five year deal!

I thought they had left there and gone to the same agent as Chris Aston? Or are the Clarke's already Ashton's agent? Anyway what I am trying to say is I think they are with the same agent as Ashon whoever that may be.

if wigan have the Tomkin Brothers on Five year contracts, surely they can prevent them playing for an other club. All it needs is for a club to say we and they will abide by the terms of the contract, it doesnt matter how much an RU club pay to Wigan they cannot use the money for good use because of the salary cap. Someone has to take a stand on this disregard of contracts or the club structure of Rl will ultimately be meaningless. Once again we are reminded of the magnifence of Kris Radlinski compared too all the Wigan players who grabbed the R U cash at the first opportunity and in the case of Andy Farrell are now openly encouraging young players out of the sport that made him and them

So then we're stuck with a player for 4 years who doesnt want to be here, taking a big chunk of the salary cap?

Do we know how much Kris Radlinski was offered in comparision to Farrell?

Don't assume that it was the same.

Andy Clarke's company (and all of it's associated players) was bought out by James Grant, with Clarke himself getting a "consulting role" with them.

That puts the Tomkins brothers firmly in the hands of a Union-oriented agency who also have Chris Ashton, Alex Cheesman, Andy Hazell, Dominic Waldouck, Guy Armitage, Henry Trinder, James Simpson-Daniel, Jamie Elliott, Jamie Gibson, Jim Hamilton, Joe Simpson, Koree Britton, Lesley Vainikolo, Luke Narraway, Nick Kennedy, Nick Robinson, Paul Hodgson, Phil Vickery, Shane Gerraty, Shontayne Hape, Steffon Armitage, Tom Homer, Tom Lindsay and Tommy Bell all from the other code.

The rest of their players are soccer, plus the 2 Tomkins brothers.

Worrying.

I would take it as read that Sam has played his last game in Wigan colours as well then. There's only one reason the Clarke's target league players and that's to hawk them to union.

If that is the price we had to pay to make a stand as Manx Warrior suggests then yes we should.

If that is the price we had to pay to make a stand as Manx Warrior suggests then yes we should.

According to his autobiography he was made an offer by CliveWoodworth that would have made him the highest paid rugby player after Jonu Lomu

Just been doing abit of reading up on the RU salary cap looking for ideas. Heres the bit i found most interesting;
For every player classed as home grown (brought through their own academy) they get a 30k credit upto a maximum of 8. So basically if they have 8 homegrown players they can extend their cap up by 240k. Thats definatly something the RFL should look at. Another thing from next season they can nominate 1 player not to count on the cap.

we do that already.. lockers doesnt count on our cap

Some players will resist the money been offered. Kieron Cunningham at the same time refused an offer to go and play for the WRU. That time club GB helped to sort them out thats gone now though. Maybe it needs to be reintoroduced.

Tbh honest i wuld be more worried if Sam, Charnley or Mossop left us than Joel going. I would not eat for 2 hours if any of the 3 i mentioned left.

Doesnt he only qualify because hes been with the club 10 years or something like that though? In union you can nominate. Add that to the rules that Premiership clubs are only allowed to include two players from outside of Europe, Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific islands in their 23-man match-day squads. Wouldnt that be something worth looking at to lower the number of average Aussies in the league.

Lenagan is a club owner, he's a good guy and right about many things but he's very wrong on the SC.

Most RL clubs are financially incontinent. They need more and better regulation, the SC should go but it should be replaced with something better, a system which encourages club revenue growth and player development and protects against overspending (not just on players).