Many people on this forum have held Leeds up as an example of how we should be "holding on to our better player"... I have pointed out on many occasions, to deaf ears, that it was flawed.... The cost of the Leeds success in recent years is biting now...

Agree 100 per cent. It's ridiculous.

The thing is, the cap hasn't even made Super League 'that' competitive. Only 4 different winners of the comp in 20 years. People might point to Castleford's and Huddersfields improvement in recent years, but then 10 years ago we had Hull in the Grand Final and the likes of Wakefield reaching the playoffs, and doing well, but what's happened to them since?

If it's still not had much benefit after 20 years then something needs to change, the marquee player rule was a good start but it's time for a significant increase in the cap, or else the gap between SL and the NRL and Union is going to continue to grow.

I think I'd take 10+ years of unparalleled success in exchange for 1 or 2 barren years. Anyway knowing Leeds, they'll scrape into the 8 in the final game before the split, then reach the Final again.

They still have great players I think that's unfair. They're bound to have growing pains coping without Sinfield and Peacock and to a lesser extent Leuluai. We had similar struggles when we lost lots of experience around the same time, Faz, Rads, Cassidy etc.

I agree the SC isn't doing much for the sport, but increasing or even eliminating it is surely going to be no panacea.

Who are these great swathes of players we've lost to Union and the NRL? Joe Burgess, Sam Burgess and Jammers, granted, but Sam Tomkins was only gone for five minutes. Hodgson and Cooper's loss was hardly greeted with wailing and gnashing of teeth; they weren't thought of as anything that special at the time. I think you could say the same about the Burgess twins. And let's not forget, to be fair, we get a fair few from the NRL and Union ourselves.

Losses to Union? Chris Ashton? We've got better wingers than him at Wigan now. Apart from him, the only other one that springs to mind is Ben Te'o, and he came from the NRL.

I'm not saying that it may be an increasing trend which should worry us (Sarginson, J Burgess, etc), but the idea that SL *right now* has been heavilly weakened by defections seems a bit wide of the mark to me.

How many kids go and play RU because they see more money and opportunity there (Stephen Myler) or their Dad has been offered a lucrative role or because they've been released by a club because they haven't shown their full potential by age 19?

I have no idea, but probably plenty. But tweaking the SC isn't going to help with that problem much, is it? Surely most clubs are cash-strapped; blowing away the SC isn't going to see big pay increases for players across the board, although it would probably mean a tidy increase for some already established SL players.

Hey, I'm not saying do nothing, and it's probably worth raising the SC. But all the arguments have been rehed on here many times; there'd be as many boos as cheers, from clubs and fans,

Yes, it's definitely the decade of domination that's costing us now, not the massive injury crisis that started 30 minutes into the season.

Holding on to your best players is only a flawed plan if there are better ones being held back. You'd struggle to find many better than Sinfield and Peacock.

Funnily enough, we have had injuries too...

Yes you do and you've done well despite them. In part that's because the structured nature of your play lends itself to juniors slotting in more easily and also that you've just edged a lot of your tight games despite not playing well whilst we've just lost a lot of our tight games where we've not played well. In a parallel universe we could both be mid table - not taking anything away from Wigan, just saying the actual gap between us isn't that big, maybe one or two moments a game that you've got right and we've got wrong.

Any way. None of that matters to the context of where you've quoted me. That was in response to the ridiculous notion that our poor start to the season is that we're actually good at retaining players.

It seems the Aussies are about to take the "cap" to a completely new level. Equalisation gone mad? www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/sp ... ng-in-2017?

It seems the Aussies are about to take the "cap" to a completely new level. Equalisation gone mad? www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/sp ... ng-in-2017?

Quote: Rogues Gallery "It seems the Aussies are about to take the "cap" to a completely new level. Equalisation gone mad? Edited, should work now. www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/sp ... ng-in-2017?

Quote: Rogues Gallery "It seems the Aussies are about to take the "cap" to a completely new level. Equalisation gone mad? Edited, should work now. www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/sp ... ng-in-2017?

Blimey......

For the BBC article, "However Wigan, the last club to be found in breach of the salary cap in 2007, were only docked four points."

What about St Helens in 2007, a massive £8.5k fine for that breach.