As Charlie Sheen says, they have moved in that direction. To make those players [icompletely[/i exempt immediately would only suit a small number of clubs with a good number of well paid homegrown players [iand[/i the ability/willingness to increase their wage spend significantly. While fans of those clubs might, somewhat legitimately, say 'tough', I couldn't imagine it getting passed on a vote.

You also wonder how a good player at Wigan, for example, who originally came through at a Championship club would feel about possibly getting less than a homegrown player of similar quality. You can make a good case for it being an incentive, but the flipside is it [icould[/i, I imagine, be seen as discriminatory.

I think thats a real valid point. clubs should have a certain amount sustainability if not people like koucash tighten their grip on the game as a whole. Imagine him bringing in one player on then next year he wants another and so on. As the clubs dependence on the backer increases damage caused when they decide to pull the plug is magnifided and also has a knock on effect as other clubs without wealthy backs beg steal and borrow to keep up.

The whole thing is a ticking time bomb.imo

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.
I agree though that clubs without youngsters coming through will not vote for it so it would probably never see the light of day.

Rovers new marquee signing is the new South Stand. Available commercially for weddings and bar mitvahs.

Someone like Willie Mason or anyone else on whom Billy Smart's Circus tent would look a tight fit

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.



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.

Absolutely , increasing the cap and encouraging people to spend what they haven't got defeats the object of the cap but there is soon going to have to be a "greater good" decision made otherwise there will be no "Elite" competition for the grassroots teams and players to aspire to. In my view standing still isn't an option because we'll lose the talent we have and the best up and coming athletes/players will choose to go where ever the money is. This at least would be an imperfect solution in the spirit of encouraging the clubs to bring young players through rather than Aussies and others at the wrong ends of their careers.

So you could pay 1 player £1M a year if you saw fit.
Barking.......the doctor is earning the mane more and more each day.