Exactly. Can't knock them for it, we did the same with Raynor and King last year.

The problem with that is surely Wire were at full cap last year too so any pay off would break last years cap. Not sure that the punishments can be dealt retrospectively though.

As far as the cap goes, season is Dec-Nov. As long as he doesn't play a game for them in 2011 (which he obviously won't) they could pay him his full wages for the year and nothing would count on the cap.

It's a loop hole we've exploited ourselves and will do again with Berro. Fair play if you ask me.

Surely any pay off would have to count on either the 2010 or 2011 cap? Otherwise players could agree a certain salary together with a nice big pay off at the end of their contract that wouldn't count on the cap.

Indeed - if this is a loophole, it is massive.

If signing-on fees count, but signing-off ones don't, then you don't have to be a financial genius to get around the cap.

If a player doesn't play for the first team in a season, then his salary cap value is zero regardless of any payments made to him in that season.

If a contract actually included any such payment then it would count on the cap. If we're talking about informal agreements then it's just another type of brown envelope.

So it's possible to say to a player (without writing it into his contract):

"Come to us for 3 seasons, and we'll pay you £120,000 a season. At the end of that period, we'll give you a lump sum of £500,000 for your troubles"?

So imagine XYZ RLFC want to sign Barrington Fishface. He's got a couple of good years left in him and clubs are offering £100k a year for 2 seasons. XYZ can't squeeze him under the cap so they offer 70k for 3 years, he retires after 2 and a third of his wages never count on the cap!

Possibly solves the mystery of the Halliwell-Jones at least.