Re: SL GF | St Helens (Old Trafford) : Sun Sep 25, 2022 1:23 am  

You'd need limits on homegrown exemptions to stop clubs stockpiling players, and you'd have to allow for the fact that some clubs have much smaller natural catchments than others. We sign plenty of youngsters from other clubs' catchments as juniors, as do other clubs. I'm not sure its fair to count a kid from Cas as a Leeds product for cap purposes.

Re: SL GF | St Helens (Old Trafford) : Sun Sep 25, 2022 2:51 am  

There's no point in increasing the cap if the clubs haven't got the money to spend anyway.

Re: SL GF | St Helens (Old Trafford) : Sun Sep 25, 2022 6:37 am  

Who are we definitely losing next season?
Sutcliffe to Hull FC I know,
Tetevano?
Are we likely to keep hold of Zak / Bentley?

Re: SL GF | St Helens (Old Trafford) : Sun Sep 25, 2022 6:54 am  

Once were Loiners wrote:

You'd need limits on homegrown exemptions to stop clubs stockpiling players, and you'd have to allow for the fact that some clubs have much smaller natural catchments than others. We sign plenty of youngsters from other clubs' catchments as juniors, as do other clubs. I'm not sure its fair to count a kid from Cas as a Leeds product for cap purposes.

No easy answers are there? My hope that a significant increase or abolishment of the cap would A) Make the sport more appealing to young players who are now being lost to the sport B) Help keep the best English players in England C) Attract a bit more sparkle from the NRL. I appreciate there are down sides to all this but the cap as it is just strangling the potential for any growth in the sport. It's brought about a fairer competition, but you only have to read the posts of many on here to get a view on what it has done for the game as a product.

Re: SL GF | St Helens (Old Trafford) : Sun Sep 25, 2022 7:48 am  

Well done Saints. Terrific team and the benchmark. Proud of the boys, did us proud. Sezer missing was definitely felt especially close to the saints line, same with Newman and Fusi. Saints pack was just too big for ours plus lomax was class. Thought Austin played well and Zak.

Something good to build on though for us, we’re back contesting the big one. Be good to see where Smith can take us with a full pre season and further additions

Re: SL GF | St Helens (Old Trafford) : Sun Sep 25, 2022 7:49 am  

The salary cap has levelled the sport down, restricted wages in a way that possibly is illegal, and has meant we have kept clubs who bring very little to the table at levels of player expenditure that they cannot meet.

The idea was to level out the competition upwards by sharing out the better players, well it hasn’t worked and needs a rethink. Perhaps a better way to stop clubs going bankrupt would be to fix the cap at a % of turnover which should incentivise the clubs to increase turnover. There should of course be other rules around developing players etc. but that seems a better direction to go in.

Oh and 5 year Franchising should be back on the table, it’s the only way we can possibly grow the game.

Re: SL GF | St Helens (Old Trafford) : Sun Sep 25, 2022 7:53 am  

It will be interesting to see what Rohan Smith can do with a full pre season.
We are just too physical (even without Walmsley). Our ball movement was crisp and runs were strong. We have missed Dodd in our attack. With him on the pitch I think we win last nights game by more points. But Leeds have injuries too to be fair.
I have reservations over a few Leeds players. Players like Smith, Leeming, Thompson, Gannon have nice moments but sometimes I question whether they are even super league standard players. I thought Austin has been great for you in this run of wins.

Anyway, see you next season folks. I hope Smith continues to improve you guys. A strong Leeds team can only be a good thing for the game.

Re: SL GF | St Helens (Old Trafford) : Sun Sep 25, 2022 7:57 am  

batleyrhino wrote:

The salary cap has levelled the sport down, restricted wages in a way that possibly is illegal, and has meant we have kept clubs who bring very little to the table at levels of player expenditure that they cannot meet.

The idea was to level out the competition upwards by sharing out the better players, well it hasn’t worked and needs a rethink. Perhaps a better way to stop clubs going bankrupt would be to fix the cap at a % of turnover which should incentivise the clubs to increase turnover. There should of course be other rules around developing players etc. but that seems a better direction to go in.

Oh and 5 year Franchising should be back on the table, it’s the only way we can possibly grow the game.

It’s OK proposing ideas which would clearly benefit Leeds but we need to consider the wider picture. Leeds have had plenty of ability to build a better side (academy development, marquee signings) but we have just got our recruitment consistently wrong for years.

For me we could and should be doing better to build a higher quality team under the existing rules. As for the wider sport: the problem isn’t the salary cap as much as the general financial weakness of the sport.

I don’t see how introducing more disparity between the clubs will help. We’re not Premier League with a line of billionaires looking to buy RL clubs as trophies.

NRL has salary cap and their product is outstanding.

Re: SL GF | St Helens (Old Trafford) : Sun Sep 25, 2022 8:01 am  

FlyingScottyDonald wrote:

Who are we definitely losing next season?
Sutcliffe to Hull FC I know,
Tetevano?
Are we likely to keep hold of Zak / Bentley?

Thompson’s going isn’t he, and Briscoe?
Zak has been instrumental in our form turnaround and I thought he was very good yesterday.

Prior going round again would be a mistake. We need to exit Tetevano too. He just doesn’t do enough to earn his salary and never has.

We need to bring in one or two more high quality players too.

Re: SL GF | St Helens (Old Trafford) : Sun Sep 25, 2022 8:03 am  

A salary cap thats twice the SL cap.