Only if you lost I can't imagine they'll be queue of honest ppl willing to give their winnings back

If no salary cap existed clubs would still lose homegrown stars to more financially better off clubs so no different to having to offload due to the cap surely.

I think in Oz they are under more threat from Union than our boys, so they will fight tooth and nail to keep there star players or risk losing out on players they have grown once they reach their prime.

These are very valid arguments.

I think it's high time the salary cap was thoroughly re-addressed.

The whole point of developing exciting talent is defeated if clubs are then, in effect, forced to let it go somewhere else. It's not just in Australia. We've seen it here. Chris Ashton could be one of the best strikers in the British game now, had we not been unable to meet his wage demands thanks to the constraints of the cap. Eastmond is likely the next one who'll leave. He's only a kid, but he's already one of the hottest properties going - I give him a year at St Helens (and maybe in RL) at the most.

This is a hugely negative effect of the salary cap. The only ones it benefits are those who can't or won't develop their own kids, and are content to keep fielding teams of journeymen on journeymen wages.

Isn't it about time our leading clubs got together and demanded that the cap be raised (or at least kept in line with inflation), and moderated so that it doesn't keep punishing those who are fuelling the game with new talent?

Good post I think we would all love to see the best players playing league over here, but I just worry that teams would go out and buy more overpaid aussies & kiwis. No doubt the cap should be raised inflation is going through the roof and the amount of games we expect our player to play and the work they put in compared to the wages they get is a bit of a joke. (I wouldn't want to get battered by 18 stone blokes once sometimes twice a week for £60k a year). There should be more of an incentive to produce young british talent to stop them going to union or even down under.

What use is the salary cap when it is being so blatantly subverted on both sides of the globe?

I think NRL clubs will begin to think twice about breaching in the future after the authorities over there have battered Bulldogs and now Storm, I doubt it will deter here as we know the RFL have no balls to deal with it. In Oz the dog wags the tail, not like here.

Raising the cap to 2m of whatever wont keep eastmond or any other youth leaving, IMO it would just bring more Australians over to our game

50% cap quota on academy trained players would, and maybe a additional rise in the salary cap for your club if you have x amount in your 1-17 for a certain amount of games

Id support that or a variable cap dependant on earnings, just raising the cap isnt the solution

rlFrom premiership favourite to spoon certaintyrl

rlStorm perpetrate one of sport's 'greatest frauds'rl

As I say "moderating the cap so that it doesn't keep punishing those who are fuelling the game with new talent".

But your plan sounds like a good one to me.

Playing Devils Advocate amongst this hysterical outcry against yet another attempt at circumventing the salary cap on both sides of the globe - maybe the real problem is the restrictions that are in place on the game?

Its continually been proven that teams cannot be trusted to stick within the rules (or the 'spirit of the rules'), either through mismanagement, blatant over payments, tax fiddles, image right / dubious third party sponsor payments, deferred contracts and now hidden financial fiddles. Surely it is only a matter of time before the next scam comes along? How many other clubs are also cheating in some way at this very moment but haven't been caught yet?

The punishments that have been dished out in the past have continually failed to stop teams going beyond the limits or finding a way to avoid them - fair or not. The cycle of cheating will undoubtedly continue. Maybe its just time that we admitted that sporting competition was never meant to be equal and considered scrapping a SC system that artifically holds back the game by pandering to weak clubs who have no incentive to improve because the more progressive clubs are limited in development by borderline illegal financial restrictions.

How can a system be fair when a club like Melbourne can develop players of the calibre of Inglis, Slater, Smith, etc through the Brisbane Norths feeder system and then be expected to release them to a rival or even RU because of an inability to pay them a wage than befits their status or face the consequences of being stripped of numerous titles. Clubs should be encouraged to grow and improve in an effort to enhance the sport of RL, not brought down to the lowest common denominator to satisfy unambitious clubs desire for equality / success.

The Melborne dynasty may have been founded through off the field fiddles, but I for one will still fondly remember their quality of play and on field talent that made them the benchmark of the NRL for the last couple of years - titles stripped or not.

I'm in favour of the SC but only in its origional purpose, preventing clubs from being stupid and going bust, IMO a club should be allowed to spend what it can afford. However that is an easy thing to say when you support a club which generates on of the highest turnovers in the sport. I kind of agree with both sides of this argument, yes i think a club should be allowed to grow but i want a competative league.

If the SC was scrapped tomorrow it wouldn't mean a massive influx of antipodeans because of the home and federation trained restrictions which are now in place.