Did you enjoy watching the likes of Ellery, Edwards, Gregory and so many more. In the RL world of IL you will never see the like again not in a Wigan team.

The sport will be finished long before the rest of SL get to our level. There is competition from outside of SL that is already above our level and will keep getting further away if we wait for the rest to catch up.

IL and Hetherington have similar views precisely because there are only 4/5 clubs that can afford the current cap - meaning that all they'd do is fight amongst themselves for the same players.

I suspect they're also conscious of the fact that if the cap was raised, a lot of it would go to bog standard players. The idea that the entirety of any cap increase would go to lure/keep star players is a nonsense. Historically its always led to generic wage rises, including for those that TBH don't actually 'deserve' it on the basis of what they bring to the game.

Not a good example as Arthur (rip) was involved with our club (Wigan) when we were at a very low ebb.

Wigan RL fandom - the only place where, overnight, a few casual utterances by a chairman famous for never revealing his full hand can be elevated to a national crisis.

And what would the point of that be? The issues being discussed in this thread are going to affect the game over the coming seasons and even if we win both the CC and GF these issues aren't going to go away and it won't stop our best players following Mossop. Are you are going to happy if Wigan are successful in a poor competition? Some people come across that way but I am surprised you appear to be one of them.

It will get to a point of saturation of players either going to NRL or RFU. firstly they will only be the very best that we have and are affordable. It could end up that every player likely to represent GB or England are actually playing in the NRL ( I think this is an extreme).
The long term prospects are the ones to worry about, in this modern age awareness is greater through media coverage and internet, young lads might see that Rugby League in the UK is a poor career choice and actually switch to playing Union. The benchmark for the decline in league if there is one would be the amateur clubs, how many are struggling to fulfill fixtures due to lack of players and how many are scrapping under age teams, this is where the future profeessionals will come from.

Once the roots begin to die it isn't long before the plant collapses.

They do already. An increased cap would allow them to compete for them with offers from the NRL.



What is your point? In the NRL they have a minimum wage for players in the squad number 1-17 of $60,000 AUD (£40K) and $55,000 (£36.7K) for numbers 18-25 and I think this is about to rise again. This is to prevent clubs skewing the cap towards their star players (something clubs have to manage for themselves here which IL did and Leeds have done for a while) but the obvious side effect is the NRL's "bog standard players" are also going to be on good money. Of course an increased cap would raise wages across the board. That isn't a problem as it isn't just the star players that are underpaid in the UK.

Dave, you and certain others have been predicting disaster for Wigan since the arrival of Ian Lenagan. You've jumped on every little thing as if it's some kind of vindication of your position. And yet still that disaster hasn't occurred. In fact the club looks healthier than ever - which suggests to me that he knows more about professional sport than you do.

I don't agree with him on the Salary Cap either (though likewise I don't believe it can be raised in isolation from other key changes, which certainly couldn't happen overnight), though that's just about the only thing I don't agree with him on. The way you and some others keep hitting the panic button in this very public forum would be hilarious if it wasn't so embarrassing.

A work friend of mine has a grandson who plays in the saints academy team.. they were advised by an ex superleague chairman that should they be offered a contract to go and play union then take it with both hands... it doesnt fill you with confidence for the future of our sport when things like this are being said

? The two points are completely seperate.

One was an opinion on an untried coach (that I later said was proven to be incorrect)

The other was an opinion on the current chairman which has been proven correct via his own words

Now what exactly was the point of your post?

I fundamentally disagree and here is why:

RL owes it's very existence to the fact that it could offer a financial advantage to those playing it versus Rugby Union.

For 100 out of the 120 years you quote, RL has had this advantage handed on a plate to it by the continued insistance by RU that it remain amateur. In effect RU was crippling itself and handing this advantage to RL.

It is this advantage and this advantage alone that enabled RL to punch above it's weight in terms of attracting many very good players, despite being, essentially, a regional game played in 2 Northern counties.

Without the above RL would never have had players such as Jonathan Davies, Martin Offiah, Billy Boston, Jim Sullivan etc

Even "home grown" players would have left RL very quickly if RU hadn't artificially penalised itself. Do you honestly think that Hanley would have stayed in RL under the current structure?

The reality is that now the equilibrium of rugby in the UK is essentially back to normality in terms of purchasing power between RU and RL.

RL, if it wishes to compete in this new reality in terms of talent, far from penalising itself through essentially cutting the CC year on year in real terms needs to again "punch above it's weight".

One way is to have chairmen who "dip into their own pockets" to fund the clubs.

Or we could just run clubs to break even. There is nothing wrong with this approach, as long as everyone is aware that the talent on display will be of lower quality. In the future it will be a case of, if you want to see real talent in the UK you will have to go to a RU game. If you are happy to see average talent (probably coached up to a "good" standard) then RL will be fine for you.

IL has seemingly chosen the latter. Many on here agree with him it seems - Cruncher seems a little confused as to the point he/she is making, but overall seems to agree with IL.

Personally I would prefer the former option.