What a total bull $hit stirring post! why is it contriversial? Where is there any proof of the club going on record saying we couldn't fit lee smith in?

The cap is live its either ok or it's not.

To give you a proper answer the squad declaration system, while being part of the operational rules, is not really a hard and fast rule. Basically, clubs should announce a 19 man squad, in accordance with the rules at the appropriate time prior to the game. The idea being that the club is being transparent and is endeavouring to pick it's 17 from that announced 19 man squad. In most cases this is what generally happens, as you know. However, the rule they have to obey is to pick the team from it's currently registered 25 first team players (unless injury forces them on the day/weekend of game itself to move outside that 25 for any reason and they can't notify the RFL in time) and as long as the final team is pinned up on the dressing room door, 1 hour before kick off, the can run with any 17 from that 25.

They will put Lee Smith straight in as squad number 28 (tvoc?) and he will be registered as a first team 25 selection player... we have loads of room because most clubs remove long-term injured players straight from the 25 to allow them room as and when required. So you will also find Bush, Clarkson etc all currently showing in our current 25 first team squad.

As I said, I reckon theyll pay him what they can fit this year and put him back on a decent contract next year. I like Smith and wouldnt mind seeing him playing either 2 or 1 next season.

Are there any Rhinos fans out there that wouldn't give up all their Easter eggs to have Smiffy playing for us on Thursday ?

Come to think of it .. Is there a fan of ANY SL team out there that wouldn't want him in their side this weekend ?

Sorry mate, the RFL will not let Leeds sign him if they are in breech of the 'live' cap. All mid-season signings have to be approved by the RFL in advance to ensure that the cap is met.

Next question...

Wasn't the 19 man squad thing put in place after the whole "Long-Gleeson" gate to ensure that people knew what squads were being put out a couple of days in advance? If you were going to improve it, then there is no issue. If you suddenly took 15 of them out and replaced them with 15 academy players then.....

Yes, it was indeed and you are spot on. The RFL can still choose to investigate a club (and punish them) if it suspects some sort of foul play and in general clubs only ever change the 19 man squad because of valid injuries or a change in circumstances, such as a new player joining a club or even a player getting back to fitness earlier than thought.

Coach Brian McClennan told BBC Radio Leeds: "This is the nature of our sport - particularly with the salary cap." McClennan added: "There is of course major disappointment from us that Lee is leaving because he is a quality player. I think people are starting to understand how clubs can't retain all their players given the salary cap".

But now Leeds can

Last week the cap would prevent his return on a permanent basis but now it's being announced at 10.30 tomorrow. Perhaps the defeats recently have been for financial reasons, no win bonuses and give them enough room to sign Smith?

(I'm only kidding but you can see how a lot of people will react to this).

I can smell your fear.

Think about what you have typed. Leeds couldn't retain him but now they can. You don't make any sense.

We couldn't afford to retain him in the face of the Union offer. Now that hasn;'t worked out we can afford to sign him.

If it's fans of clubs with penalised and recognised cap breaches then I couldn't give a tuppeny [ishi[/it given Leeds have a complete clean bill of health and have always acted within the cap. As has been pointed out further up the thread the RFL operate a LIVE CAP so if we simply cannot breach it. They brought that it because of clubs like, oh, let me think, which clubs have been penalised for cap breaches when it wasn't Live?

Would that be every other club that's won the GF?

No fear here, we wouldn't be winning anything even if your players decided to form a sect in Southern Texas and missed the rest of the season.

I know what you mean, but this new live cap is very difficult to break, even for Wigan!



There is quite a complex calculation to work out each players salary cap 'value' (as the RFL call it). This has to include all predicted win bonuses, perks such as cars and even a players image rights etc. This means that the cap value of £1.6m can never be breeched but in actual fact, many clubs will end the season not having paid this amount of money out to players in total, because they will not win every game and will not get every bonus the club has to account for on the cap... do you see what I mean?

Also, no, you can't adjust the cap half way through the season. So the club can't say, we have not paid as much win bonus out as we thought we would have to for the first half of the season, so we are going to increase the salaries of all our players by this 'saved' figure for the remainder of the season to bring the figure back into line for a total end season spend of £1.6m. No, once each month goes by the cap reduces in accordance with the predicted salary cap burden, not by the actual figure paid to players, which will probably be that figure or less, never more obviously.

yeah but as you did in your previous post you can spin it how you want, you can give true believers the facts and they will still cry conspiricey, fans are just the same especially with a club that provokes as much jelousy as leeds does.

the bluey comment doesn't say Leeds didn't have cash to keep him does it? It says they could match what wasps offer! same as nick scruton, Leeds wernt gonna offer what the bulls did so he left. bluey refers to a situation nrl teams find themselves in where marque players demand a lot of cap space so losing players after titles over there is inevatable. And again find any evidence of Leeds going on record saying they couldnt bring lee smith in. It was just paper talk and the sun at that?

But I agree small minded small town fans will no doubt be crying in their White lightning about it.

hhhmmmm... Is it a coincidence that we havent been having to pay win bonuses and needed space in the cap ?

Ya daft arrogant sod, on the other thread I said fair play if you've got him back. (Small town fan).

do you have a small mind? are you crying in your cheap cider? Are you crying conspiricy? if not I'm not talking about you am I dear boy!

Yes, no, no and I thought you were generalising.

I thank you sir for the correction

Who? Robbie? Sinny? Smudger? Never believe rumours emanating from Warrington!

28 appears to be the first available number.

A little bit of trivia: Keith Senior was given squad number 28 when he arrived late in the 1999 season at Headingley. I'm not sure if anyone at the club realised but that number had been awarded to and worn twice that season already by David Wrench and it wasn't even as if Wrench had left, he was still there for the following two seasons.

Other wearers of number 28 at Leeds:

1999 - David Wrench, Keith Senior
2000 - Jamie Jones-Buchanan
2001 - Andy Kirk
2003 - Liam Botham
2004 - Liam Botham
2005 - Ashley Gibson
2006 - Jordan Tansey
2008 - Simon Worrall

Now if only the press conference could have been called for Thursday morning instead of Wednesday Leeds could have had a field day.

Great for the club, great for RL in that we get back a quality player into our game and hopefully hand out a warning to any other players thinking of jumping in the Union shopping trolley.