Quote Mild Rover="Mild Rover"The model that has seen Leeds, Wigan and Saints be successful is in having more money to spend across the board than anybody else. Youth is only part of that. You can spend your way to success, the failure of koucash to do so yet does not show it to be impossible. Moran has done okay at Warrington, after a couple of false starts. Our own short-termism yielded relative success in 2009 and 2010. Pearson has said he is paying more than ever on player wages this year, and has cashed in on Lineham and Westerman to invest in experienced Polynesians. The invest in youth line - well there's some truth in it, but on the keys to success list, realistically it is down at about number 5 or 6. It doesn't help that we've not produced much talent, but it hasn't been our most problematic issue.
There's a gap between what people want to be true (you can't buy success, investing in youth is key, there's loads of talent in the championship) and what is true (you can, it isn't and there's a good deal more in Polynesia). The important thing is we know which is which and plan accordingly.'"
You can't buy long term success in RL. The 2 most successful sides in the early SL years were bradford and saints, both of whom completely flouted the salary cap and spent what they wanted. One nearly went bust and is now playing 2nd tier rugby and the other was only saved by virtue of having enough value in their old ground to move and clear their debts.
leeds are the most successful side in SL history and by far the most since the salary cap was being policed more effectively (although not completely as we all know) and their model has been to use home grown players (and they were extremely fortunate to have 3 or 4 top class ones who hung around for a decade or more) plus adding in good quality UK and overseas players. They haven't been big spenders at all.
The other recent successful side has been wigan, who are a model for basing yous team on home grown talent.
wire spent big, had 3 or 4 decent seasons (although never won SL) and then it all fell apart. Only by spending big again do they look to have a competitive team again.
You're right about the value in polynesian players though
