Quote: NSW "The salary cap seems to actually work in the NRL. Penrith have lost Koroisau, Kikau, Kurt Capewell, Matt Burton, S Crichton and now Luai to clubs further down the table. They’ve chosen to pay Cleary, Yeo, Martin and Edwards. The most Penrith could offer Luai was 800k but he’s getting about 1.2mill a season for the Tigers Penriths youth system keeps finding new talent though. Very rare a players you’d like to keep goes to a club at the bottom of SL.'" With regards to Penrith and how well that club is run. I recommend that you give this a watch as it is a great insight on how the club handles players contracts come renewal time etc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ychi2j4 ... 37E8JGicy9

Quote: NSW "The salary cap seems to actually work in the NRL. Penrith have lost Koroisau, Kikau, Kurt Capewell, Matt Burton, S Crichton and now Luai to clubs further down the table. They’ve chosen to pay Cleary, Yeo, Martin and Edwards. The most Penrith could offer Luai was 800k but he’s getting about 1.2mill a season for the Tigers Penriths youth system keeps finding new talent though. Very rare a players you’d like to keep goes to a club at the bottom of SL.'" With regards to Penrith and how well that club is run. I recommend that you give this a watch as it is a great insight on how the club handles players contracts come renewal time etc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ychi2j4 ... 37E8JGicy9

It works here if the intention is to constantly weaken the top clubs at the expense of British RL itself. Because here the top clubs continually lose their best players overseas or to another game rather than to clubs lower down the pecking order.

The emphasis in the UK seems to be on penalising excellence, thereby rewarding failure, rather than evening things out.

back to the original query that the SC is working in the NRL

last 10 years 5 winners / SL 3 winners, so yes, a couple of extra sides have won it, but only 3 in the last 8 years

Wigan up to recent have constantly lost our top players to RU / NRL, and players to other SL clubs, but that is seen as failure, but Penrith are losing their players and its seen as working?

what is slightly different is that in Penrith case, they are mostly losing to other NRL sides, whereas Wigan lost to NRL

i heard a comment the other day that Wigan spend the most, so are most successful (think it was taken from a podcast), but all the other SL clubs can spend what Wigan spend on the cap and marquee players, so why criticise or complain that Wigan are spending more, when we are playing to the same rules as everyone else

The problem is now is that we are winning and some fans put it down to-
we have more money
We buy the best players
We have refs on our side
We cheat (a favourite one of mine)
Etc,Etc,Etc-
They could say we have a bloody good team and a great balance in that team,but they can't as it would hurt too much to admit it.

The talk that Wigan spend more than anyone else came on the back of that Sky piece during their coverage of one of the games and tbh, I thought it was a little naughty because it it was a bit of guesswork and ultimately everyone is playing under the exact same rules, restrictions and dispensations. Wigan are good with the Sky team and give them access not all clubs do, so I'd have expected a bit more from them in return.

I don't know why you would? We've never had any real good will from the Sky team.

Whether it dates back to having a Saints supporter and Leeds supporter - Eddie and Stevo - calling the shots for so many years, and finding fault with every single try that Wigan scored, or Phil Clark bending over backwards to prove that he wasn't a Wigan fan (even to the point of saying all Shaun Wane's trophies were due to Wigan spending more money than anyone else - despite the salary cap!), I don't know, but they've never been our friends.

But even if that was the case, and we were somehow, mysteriously allowed to spend more cash, I say it again - so what? It's nothing to do with anyone else. Super League is a professional sport, not a charity. So long as it's within the rules, it should be of no interest to anyone else. You might get your reward in heaven for a being a poverty row club, but you're not going to get it on the sports field. There's nothing innately honourable about having no money to spend at this level of the game. You're simply out of your depth.

The difference was buttons anyway in the grand scheme of things (I think we were 100k higher than 2nd and 3rd) but I'd have liked Wigan to call them out on it. There was only ever going to be one end result from it and that was that fans across the game would say Wigan are spending their way to trophies again. It could've been an extra quid and it still wouldn't have mattered.

Basically, it's tough ###t on them. They're just going to have to lump it. The tide is moving against the salary cap ... not massively so, but there's a definite shift. And under Mike Danson, Wigan are not going to suddenly turn off the tap.

It will be interesting to see, if Wigan do start to clean up on a regular basis, how the other top clubs respond. The last time this happened, they were woeful. None of them stepped up to the plate, and that halcyon age only ended because, among other things, Wigan found a collapsing coal mine under the new stand, which soaked up all the spare cash. That came as well as overspending on certain players, it has to be said, though the lack of interest across the game due to no one else being capable of giving Wigan a match was also an issue, as crowds had inevitably started to dwindle.

This is still rumbling on in the world of social media and to think about it logically why would we want him in 5 years time when he becomes available.

Smith is already one of the best organising halves in the world and at 29 he’s going to be in his prime.

Farrimond is clearly a lad with a vast amount of potential and will be 24 in 5 years time.

If we continue to manage the cap and development of players like we are would we really look to sacrifice a home grown half partnership to bring in a 32 year old quota marquee player? I’m sure he will still be a very good player at 32 but I just don’t see in the most likely scenario where he would fit in.

Impossible to know if we'd want or need Luai in 5 years time. I know there was a lot of fuss around Rads comments on not taking Cleary over Smith and French currently and obviously if you had an endless pit of money and quota spots, you'd find room for Cleary in any side but I would say with a straight face that I wouldn't swap either for Luai right now. I think he's overrated tbh and him adding more for us than French would be impossible. He's a different type of player to Harry Smith as well and we'd lose too much control if you arranged a swap deal with Wests (in a hypothetical world). A good player with an even better agent is how I'd sum up Luai.

I think Luai is an outstanding player. Interesting many of the pundits are starting to say he’s the premier 6 in the NRL over Munster….but he’s now moving to be a controlling half back at Wests rather than a back up 5/8th to Cleary like he has been for much of his time at Penrith.

Money is obviously a massive draw for him to go to Wests but there is also his desire to run a team, which he won’t do at Penrith.

He showed he has the ability to be that controlling halfback this season when Cleary was out think they had their best run of form in the regular season whilst he played that role.

The most likely scenario I feel it that when French goes Smith and Farrimond will be our halves, although given the lack of controlling halves in the NRL I think there will be some strong interest in Smith so keeping him will be the biggest threat.

Ultimately though if we are needing to bring in a 32 year old overseas half in 5 years time something has gone wrong with our planning/succession planning, which so far under Peet and Dannon has been exemplary so I just don’t envisage a point of failure where we would require him.

The NRL interest in Smith has been there since before he signed his last deal and has recently resurfaced, with Fox Sports suggesting he is currently top of the 'most wanted' list over there.



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Given they have released Hunt, I’d be shocked if St George had not made enquiries.

I can't say I watch him every week and I do think he's a good player but I think he sort of sums up the over hype some NRL players get and how it's the polar opposite to how under valued players are when they play in Superleague. On the face of it, I'd say him and Harry Smith are totally different players (I've not seen enough of Luai controlling a side and kicking them around the field to compare like for like) but if I had the choice of Luai or George Williams, I would go with Williams every day of the week but the hype and salaries do not stack up.

Going away totally from Luai and talking about NRL hype in terms of a different player (while on the subject), is Izack Tago any good? I read he got a huge new deal at Penrith and I see loads of hype and I'm pretty staggered. I watched him in the flesh 4 times now I think and I've seen plenty of other NRL games and I just don't get it. Maybe I've been unlucky and he's just not done a great deal on the days I've seen him but he again seems a beneficiary of NRL hype.