St pete wrote:
I think we are now paying price for letting players go and not replacing them.
I'd say it's more down to the salary cap. The cap is preventing us holding onto some players who can get better deals elsewhere e.g. Gilmour and Long. The cap was introduced to assist with promoting good financial management at clubs and to prevent a team from dominating the market for players by gobbling them up with their superior financial resources. With the cap the ownership of players (I mean contracts not slavery) means that Huddersfield might want to pay more than we're prepared to pay because of other commitments we have to consider in the face of the cap i.e. holding onto our youngsters.
I think I must be alone with Jack Dearden and Trevor Hunt in loving the unpredicatability of this season. Wakefield winning at Saints. Salford winning at Leeds. Clubs like Huddersfield and Castleford getting two points at Bradford more frequently than they have done in a long is a great indicator of the increased competitiveness of this competition. What we should have is a situation at the start of the season where every team believes they have a genuine shot at a trophy. We're not quite there but we're making progress e.g. look at the table and where Huddersfield, Rovers and the Bulls are. It's incredible stuff and this year's Challenge Cup semi-finals present arguably the most interesting semi-final line-up in years. I believe, as I imagine most fans do, that each of the teams left in the competition has a genuine chance of winning the trophy. Saints might be favourites but it's far from the far gone conclusion that Challenge Cup semi-finals had become.
