Taking about clubs not internationals. At club level English football does fine as they operate on a similar spend to the competition.

Wrong, the Australian dollar has been inflated massively since the last British win of the WCC

Not to long ago it equated about a similar amount

Great to see the usual myths and mischief making from pro-SC flat earthers on this thread.

We can't afford not to raise the SC in the long term, unless we are happy with a semi pro game. Another 15 years of inflationary erosion of the cap will make a full time squad impossible to maintain.

By that time of course the drift of players away to RU (and indeed other occupations) will be much more severe than it is now.

We can't wait for RL clubs to improve their finances, as some suggest. There needs to be a carrot and stick approach

a) rigorous monitoring - they need to be forced to submit business plans to an independent auditor and then be forced to stick to them to prevent overspending

b) encouraging sustainable growth - allowing a modest increase in the SC, perhaps postponed for a couple of years to allow club finances to improve.

Doing nothing and hoping that some miracle will somehow save the game isn't going to work I'm afraid. It's time the pro-SC people woke up and realised the long term danger facing the game.

We need to go back to the original concept of stopping clubs overspending, and forget this "levelling the playing field" nonsense, which clearly isn't working.

Go back to the 50% of income cap, and encourage clubs to maximise their income if they want to spend more on players.

Wouldnt that lower Wigan's cap though? Leeds and Hull (technically) would run away with it then. I think a raise is needed though. Not to compete with the Aussies though I think a raise is needed to make the pay a bit fairer. Can you imagine another industry where wages didnt rise with inflation for so long?! If its not raised then eventually the game will NEED to revert back to Semi-Pro. If they start raising it now over a period of years for example: 2million this year then maybe a rise to 2.2 next franchise then 2.4 the one after and 2.6 until we reach the aussies then just stick with them. This gives the teams the chance to raise the moneys needed to stay afloat with the use of the safety of a 3 year franchise.

that would work in my head at least! ha

Oh just to add; I'm not condoning the SC as an excuse for losing. It wouldnt have helped but the Aussies are just better than the Brits atm simple as. Wigans team is young though they will get more chances. I even think Carmont will based on last nights performance!

what do you mean, theyve been spending that extra anyway!

what would be the point in raising a cap, to the point where only 2 or maybe 3 teams could spend??? clubs struggle enough as it is. like it or not we are a 3rd world game, and unfortunately, unless the smaller clubs raise their game and attendances, fan base etc, this will always be the case! the clubs that could spend up to that increased cap would be outstanding and leave the rest in their dust, which in the end kills the game as everyone would just go "oh one of those three teams will win it all again".

Oh for a young Maurice Lindsay to pick up the game and give it a good shake.

Like in the soccer Premiership you mean?

yeah mate, exactly like that!

as rugby league fans its great to see teams go out and upset the opposition, and that wont happen if the lower clubs are struggling and getting rid of their better players to the bigger teams! or if the bigger teams are spending even more money than they can already!

So in theory what you are saying is "we must stop the bigger clubs improving because the smaller clubs won't keep up" in my opinion we should be saying "this is what you can be if you get your act together" You have to encourage growth not complacency.

The franchise system for me has created more of a mess than the salary cap. For example forcing a club to move to a new ground to stay in the league just means they'll spend more money than they've got trying to get a new ground. There are no enforced restrictions on that spending. Whereas saying "to stay in the league you need to maintain an average crowd of X thousand, or show an increase per year of X%" would mean the club would spend money on a good marketing team to bring in bigger crowds. As bigger crowds leads to bigger revenues, we'll eventually be in a position to say "right, all these clubs are generating £XXX of net income, therefore we can increase the salary cap to cater for inflation and match offers that Rugby Union and the NRL are throwing at our best talent"

Or who knows, maybe the clubs would spend their money improving training facilities and stuff in order to improve their teams that way? I mean, who wants to sit in a fancy pants new stadium when the quality of rugby is poor? Creating a franchise system that says "if you aren't in a stadium that costs millions to build and will probably bankrupt you we'll kick you out" is a bit daft when the RFL is saying "ooh hold on, you can't spend that much money on your squad or you'll get yourself in financial difficulties"

no not at all mate, i agree! but im saying if you do it now, then they will never catch up.

the franchising system has shown the teams exactly that, how they need to perform like top teams on and off the field! it needs to be given time and then we can start saying okay, now is the time to up the salary cap a little more!

Raising the cap at this time wouldnt work for numerous reasons all of which have been mentioned. The idea of homegrown players wages not fully counting is the best one I have heard. We don't want to be in a position where the rich clubs can splash the cash and take all the best players off the poorer teams but they should be able to keep the ones that they have developed from being kids and be rewarded for having a successful youth development system. I had this discussion at the time of the Melbourne storm salary cap row last year as most of their big earners were developed from their youth team, yet were punished for paying them what they were worth or would have lost them.

But that's happening already, the cap doesn't stop it. Quins lost LMS and Sharp, Cas lost Shenton & Westerman, Wakey lost half their squad, Catalans lost Elima as well as a load back to OZ, Bradford have lost most of their Burgesses, Salford lost Myler (after Widnes lost him first!), the list just goes on and on.

The only reason there aren't more of them moving up is that the bigger teams now mostly produce their own youngsters, and don't need to sign them from lower clubs - nothing to do with the salary cap.