Quote: ChrisH "I think it would give an opportunity for the non home grown player to be paid more or simply get a place in the squad wouldn't it? If you had 5 homegrowns in a squad paid between £25k and £100k each so say £270k overall that would effectively add £270k to the cap which could be used on one marquee player or several squad players that wouldn't otherwise get an opportunity. The players would still get whatever their value was deemed to be whether homegrown or not. Whilst you could argue that the homegrown player could have his wage inflated to create more cap space that would be difficult to do in practice if the intent was not to actually pay that amount to the player in question and generally with the exception of perhaps Salford not be financially viable because the money isn't there.'"
It is a debatable point and I think the players as a group would welcome it. But if a club is looking at renewals, and they're at their (expanded cap), if they offer Jonny Homegrown a 40% increase, because that doesn't count and Jimmy O'Batley gets offered nowt extra, despite the club saying they'd like to offer more, I can imagine him taking umbrage.
Quote: ChrisH "I agree though that clubs without youngsters coming through will not vote for it so it would probably never see the light of day.'"
Nor will those with a decent pipeline but no/not much spare cash. Castleford being the obvious, slightly stereotyped, example, but it applies to others. Hull have a few good homegrown players, but I reckon even Pearson's appetite for a ballooning wage bill would be limited.
