I love this “ Thompson being on £400k and being marquee” is talked about like a fact.

The £400k figure was his NRL salary, after a not so great NRL career and injuries, combined with age his salary will have come down significantly.

He’ll still be on good money and might be marquee but £400k is probably way off.

He is marquee, and the only person I can see making reference to £400k is you.

Its not way off at all. Wigan's offer blew NRL clubs out of the water. He is earning a fortune, its without doubt a risk given his salary but if does stay fit he will be outstanding.

I can see Smith going in the next two years with Farrimond taking his place. There is an easy succession plan in place for Wigan with Farrimond coming through who as I've said before is a once in a generation talent.

Smith will be 25 by the time the 2025 NRL season starts. Why would he delay the prospect of a massive pay rise for another 2/3 years?

Makes very little sense to me, if he wants to go he'd be mad not to go for 2025 IMO.

A real shame though, it's getting harder and harder to keep top players in the game (and HS has certainly proven this year he is well and truly in that bracket). Hopefully Wigan can make a marquee deal work.

I think Wigan fans will have to accept the high likelihood that 2024 will be the last year we have Smith, Field and French as the spine of our team. Because 1) they are all off contract at the end of 2024, 2) they will all have NRL interest and 3) there are only three marquee spots and we decided to use one on Thompson.

The one thing I hope hasn't happened is that Wigan have inadvertently snookered themselves by offering Thompson the marquee deal he has. As I said on a previous post, Smith's rise has been relatively quick (primarily over the 2nd half of 2023) so perhaps Wigan didn't view him as someone who could be in the marquee mix in their long term planning. The long term plan may have been Field, French and Thompson for marquee spots.

Alternatively, Wigan may already be aware that one of Field or French will move on thus opening up a spot.

Personally, I think if we start 2025 with two of Field, French and Smith then I'd be over the moon.

It’s a big ask to expect Farrimond to step up and replace Smith so quickly but I’d rather have French and Field if it came to keeping 2 of the 3. Smith has obviously stepped up this back end of the season so he’s shown it can be done with the right players around him.

Maybe just me but I don't think Field will get much attention from the NRL. You'd certainly be happiest losing him out of the three you mention

Or I would be, can see that has already been disputed above!

It isn't possible to have those 3 as marquee.

It is according to the below press release on marquee players.

[iThe current two marquee player limit will increase to three, as long as at least one of the players is federation trained.

Non-federation trained marquee players will remain at £150,000, but federation-trained players will count as £100,000 and club-trained as £50,000.[/i

I see Owen Farrell has just announced he will not be available for selection for the Six Nations in 2024 as he wants to take a break from International rugby to protect his and his family's mental wellbeing. It says he will continue to play for Saracens but might this be paving the way for a change of scene?

I think people get way to fixated on the marquee tag, having 3 players designated as marquee and then someone wanting a pay rise to then become a top 3 earner or having a bigger dispensation doesn’t mean the person he is replacing as a marquee player has to leave or one of the others do.. It could just potentially mean your squad is a little top heavy and squad depth could suffer but you could in theory have 4 players on 400k a year each and only 550k count towards the cap.

Yes, but given the increasing disparity in cap between NRL and SL (now around £4.8 million to £2.1 million with various exemptions) it becomes trickier. It probably is possible to accommodate one other player at a 'marquee level' salary without them occupying a marquee spot.

I wonder how open players are with each other about what they are earning - might be the best policy to keep it under wraps but word will no doubt spread. Always wondered about the potential for big disparities in salary within a squad to cause friction but I guess that happens in all sports.

Yeah, that’s true but we have increased the number of marquee spots which counteracts that, pushing the cap up to say £2.5/3m dependant on how much the marquee players earn. Im just saying if Smith wants £3/400k a year it doesn’t mean we have to get rid of French or Field to pay him that.

thats where the club accountants earn their money

if we use Smith, Thompson, French and Field for illustrative purposes and they are all on £400k salary

How we then use the marquee slots could save us £100k on the cap £800k v £700k, so whilst as fans we shouldnt worry about who is named marquee, the club do need to right on top of this to ensure we are utilising the benefit fully

In true RFL fashion though the number of each type of marquee isnt clear, other than they state at least 1 must be Federation trained i.e. you cant have 3 overseas non fed trained marquee. However, it doesnt say you cant have 3 club trained (that i can see), so (purely for illustration) if our top earners were Farrell, Smith and Smithies (prior to him leaving) and all 3 were on £300k, could we have benefitted from only paying £150k on the cap, instead of £900k