Quote: Cruncher "I'm not having it that last Saturday wasn't tense and exciting. Also, Inglis has been banned for drink-driving down in Aus - so it's a cheap shot suggesting that this kind of behaviour is a typical unprofessional British issue.
However, I take your point about the Salary Cap.
I long feared that would have the effect of turning us into a Poverty Row sport, with fewer great players wanting to join us and our own starlets looking overseas for their future. All of that has come to pass. Even then, for a time, I accepted the thesis that as long as only some of the SL clubs could afford to pay wages as high as the current cap, there was no point even raising it. But now I think there is a bigger picture. We simply can't go on being a seedbed for the NRL and England RU. Yes, our crowds are down (direly so) and the playing standards across the game are perceptively lower than they were even 10 years ago, let alone 30 years ago. Somehow or other, we have to turn this situation around - and that won't happen by allowing minor dispensations here and there, like club-trained players on their 10th year of service, or whatever. We need drastic action.
We've already taken the first step by sidelining the RFL, who seem permanently wedded to the idea that British RL is all about the Featherstones and Batleys of this world. I hear that the Hearns reckon we should ditch the Cap straight away, because British RL is in desperate need of stars. So, lots of influential people are saying it.
Whether Elstone and co will be bold enough to make that move, I don't know. But I'm cautiously optimistic that more big changes are just around the corner.'"
it wasn't a cheap shot mate , his problems started well before Wigan got near him, Inglis on the other hand is the arguably the best or been the best in the world , at the top of his sport and possibly couldn't do as well in any other sport and being paid very well. that wasn't my point , which was that if we had the players with the ability and high IQ/off feikd behaviour of a true pro then they probably wouldn't hang about in SL , there are just so many better options for them , unless they are the type of people who do something stupid and make bad choices in life , like ZH , Chase , Tomkins,Gleeson ,Newton, Johns. With the ability ZH has he would have been a top NRL player or made in big in RU but instead he's made some really bad choices career wise .If we did produce an Inglis he simply wouldn't stay in SL unless of course they where a bit dumb .
No doubt Manfredi/Williams/Bateman will be big targets for other teams/sports and who could blame them if they left ?
We do have other decent player like Lomax/Percival but they have probably worked out that they are getting as good a deal as they can get , o RU potential and not really up to NRL fro. what I've see n.
