No wonder the club said they were looking at Union options.

I think Andy Powell has a fair chance of being a good RL player. He is a big unit who is only going to get stronger and fitter under "Bitcoin".

I understand the question marks over him, but I think he will make a better RL player than he was an RU player.

to me he looks fitter, stronger and faster than Scott Quinnell was when we signed him and he didn't turn out too bad did he.....

Not knocking your signing of Powell one bit but the fitness of union players in general is much greater than in the Quinnell era so your point could equally apply to any number of other players.

Are you sure? As I understand that rule, it only applies for young (under 23) players...

So does than mean thornley's wages didn't count.
And this season only half of his wages count?

No, it has to be someone who's never played League before.

I'm much happier about us signing him knowing that! For me the jury's out because he's 31 which doesn't leave much time at all to learn a new game, plus he's had lots of discipline issues, but with this convert rule in place, it makes him well worth the risk.

It does at the moment (and has done already for a couple of seasons now). I guess it is being revised next year although that can't be true as the salary cap experts have assured us the cap isn't changing and hasn't done so for a number of years

Agree that an allowance for an ex Union but none for a club trained player does seem an anomaly.
The SC is more trouble than it's worth an getting more incomprehensible by the year.
Just abolish it and replace it with a "Club Trained" quota. It's quality players we are short of and it is up to clubs to produce them. So make it obligatory.
It is now 8 in a squad of 25. From 2015 it should be 6 in the match day squad of 17 increasing by one each year until 2017 when it would be 8 in the 17.
Club's wages and salaries increase every year, so those increases are for non playing staff but the playing staff salaries are capped.
Another anomaly by any chance?

The RFL say it has been simplified because some of the allowances that had qualifications attached have been rolled into the main figure. So instead of £1.65m for your top 25 players £75K for second tier players and then possible £50K's for a long serving and one club trained player, it has all gone into one pot of £1.825m.

So clubs who don't have a Lockers or a Hansen (who are both likely (IMO) to be on more than £100K thus getting the Wigan the full £50K allowance for each) will now be able to spend an extra £100K.

For Wigan it will make IL's job of offering a salary structure easier. He as £1.825m to divi up as he sees fit and is not restricted as to how he spends £175K of it.

The problem with the New Talent allowance having the age restriction lifted is IMO it will simply encourage clubs to sign 30 odd year old Union players. It has already with Powell.

We used to complain about signing Aussies of similar vintage when the club trained rules didn't exist to prevent it (and clubs signed loads of them due to the Kolpak rule). I don't see the difference in signing a 31 year old Powell compared to a 31 year old ex-NRL player looking to get a couple of years more pay before retiring.

What current players will think when they see an incomer who's wages are unrestricted for the first year and only count 50% toward the cap in the second when their own wages are capped, God knows.

In that case can someone please telephone Brett Kenny and ask him what the answer is.

I can't for the life of me think what this signing of Powell will bring to the Wigan first 17 each week?
Will he even get some game time during his contract?

I can only hope he will be as good a forward as the legendary Richard Moore