I don't think anyone's saying they should. But it would be nice if they had a bit more leeway than they have at present. The cap in the UK hasn't even risen in line with inflation. Okay, that wouldn't resolve the problem on its own, but at least it would make us look less like a 'poverty row' sport.

As for the stuff about people over here not watching the NRL, etc, and not knowing as much about it as you - you're probably right, as most of us live here and not in Australia. That said, it seems a rather juvenile point to have made.

Maybe they will or maybe they won't but i can't see why we'd stop a club that would wish to pay those amounts? If Brisbane think it's a price they are willing to pay then why should we stop them?



I'll admit i don't watch the Toyota cup and that I don’t know who the ‘next big thing’ is going to be. I didn’t at any point claim that or say that RL doesn’t have a conveyer belt of talent it can produce.

I’m sure that you do watch the Toyota cup and if you say there are plenty of talented youngsters ready to come through that more than proves my point that we’d be in a much stronger position if we were to keep the guys like Falou and still bring these players through?

All I’m saying is that in order to improve the domestic and international game we need MORE quality player and the logical/sensible way to do this is by keeping the ones we’ve already got and then producing even more on top of that.

BTW are you talking about Craig Wing?

I do agree the cap needs changing and clubs should be able to spend more just not to levels of whats been talked about. The fact the UK cap hasnt even incresed in line with inflation is a joke. Some views on here seem to be that we should pay as much as they want or as much as union clubs say their worth. Which wont work and isnt sustainable. If any Rosters players ever wants that much, then all i can say is BYE....

Because if he wants that, then how many other guys are going to want that. Every time a contract comes to an end a player is going to demand large amounts because he gets that or slater gets that. Which will lead to clubs getting into financial trouble, and some are already in trouble with the current SC.

The Cap needs to change, no doubt about that, but i dont think anyway needs to over react just yet. Our game can cope with big loses. Look at SBW he was desperate to get back into league after he failed at union, but i dont think we should let him after he walked out on the Dogs like that.



Maybe

And therein lies the point.

RU have serious central cash from internationals. Until our international scene is more vibrant, we can't compete with the cash flowing around that sport, nor should we try to as we will come a cropper. We need to grow our own game properly before we try to throw the same sort of cash around.

Genuine question (to anyone, I don't know the answer) - did Wigan post a profit last year? There is always a feeling of being hard done to salary cap wise on here, just wondering how much extra cash the club has to spend compared to most.

The NRL should be getting more TV money though. The viewing figures suggest its worth more. I remember last year when Toyota cup games rated higher then Super 14 games. But like you said when it comes to internationals, they beat us hands down. All of these big deals are funded partly by the ARU. I wouldnt be happy if other clubs were able to have players on their team partly paid for by the NRL, just because they are a star player.

Genuine non argumentative question, could you elaborate on that? There's a lot of untruths and urban legends about our financial position in the run up to the salary cap introduction, and I'm just curious which 'view' you ascribe to.

Mat Rogers, Wendell Sailor, Lote Tuquiri, Craig Gower...

If the past is anything to go by he'll 'love his first game', stay on the gravy train for a year or two then come back to rugby league saying he never wished he'd have left.

Genuine answer (whilst desperately trying to remember back to the last Fans Forum):

We posted a small loss (in comparison with most SL clubs) last year.

I think the figure was around £50-80k.

It was stated that had we made the final of the CC, rather than heading out at the semi, we would have posted a profit of between £50-100k.

So basically, we are currently around the break-even point.

Looks like this hasnt hurt the storm as much as alot of us thought it would, over 700 new members since they got found out, to take them above 9,000 so far for the season. Good to see them getting behind the Storm.

rlhttp://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl/new-members-flocking-to-storm/story-e6frexnr-1225860257811rl

We also payed off a debt of 400k, which caused a 200k loss if i remember correctly

As much as it was crap to see them go the game didnt suffer. New faces came in from the amazing talent pool that is the NRL and the Toyota Cup. The first 3 of those came back and its been great, but there still wasnt a need to panic when they left. We are never going to be able to compete with the ARU, so if the players want to go they will.

Well if the biggest club in British RL is at breakeven, I'd suggest the cap level over here isn't too low for the moment.

But the game in Britain would suffer drastically if similar numbers of our top players defected. The only thing that's preventing that, IMO, is that we don't have too many star backs at present. (We've got plenty of good forwards, but the latest thing is that our best forwards seem to go to the NRL, so it could be seen that we're facing attack on two fronts).

Eastmond seems the most likely British star to defect to RU at present. If he goes, which I think he will, I suspect that we'll all just shrug our shoulders and say "ah well, we can always find another one". But that won't be much reward for St Helens, who'll have spent time and money developing his talent, only to see someone else benefit. Neither will it be a realistic view to take in general, because, as we've shown in the past - with our restricted numbers, we won't be able to unearth a similar talent so quickly.

I honestly can't understand the attitude of so many RL fans, when an alternative to this rather limp-wristed fatalism would be to tinker around with the cap and find some way to enable us to keep our home-grown stars. It makes no sense to me, and I still wonder if it really owes to a deep-rooted fear that, given a chance, Wigan would simply go out and buy all the world's best players (even though they no longer have the cash or the inclination for that).