Says who?

In his latest Star column, KC confirms we will be using the marquee allowance to offer better deals to our current players such as Roby and Big Alex. Sorry to burst the fantasy RL signings bubble...

Signed it months ago.

I suppose it depends on his ankle if it's a good deal for saints. It's not worked out for him injury wise here and he's basically missed a season and half in the two seasons he's been here.

It's worth noting the option was in his favour and no lt the clubs.

"If NRL clubs come hunting" - that's the key bit, were using it to try and keep the players we do have rather than trapping ourselves and risk losing our best players.

As nice as a "marquee" is, we don't have a great record with them and I'd rather us use it this way ...

Hasn't big Alex just signed a new deal ?


Id hope we can now offer Jones a better deal and keep him. He's still only Young and will get better and better. Hes brilliant to have as he covers Backrow and centre. He was the ideal reolament for Sia in that he can play the two pistions very well.

I think we will miss jones more than we think.

That's very kind of him, who's he given it to?

Woops! *Beneficiary

We did give Alex a new contract to stave off the Aussies after him, I'd be surprised if he's earning over 175k though as required by non homegrown players...

I think the Jones deal was agreed long ago - it's sad to see one of our own leave, but I don't believe he's worth locking in our marquee ... If in a few years the Aussies come for Percival/ Thompson/ Savelio ala Graham then it needs to be used, but using it to make space for squad players isn't really clever IMO

Ridiculous when they've both just signed new deals. So the club gets extra cap room to spend and just gives more money to existing players who had already agreed to stay? Great move

He wouldn't get £175k anyway.

No. The allowance has been applied to Robys salary so it now only counts towards 100k on the cap. We haven't given him any more money, just freed up the difference to spend elsewhere.

He means giving walmsley extra to keep him having him just signed a new deal.

That's not what has happened or what Cunningham said though. He said along the lines of if the NRL come sniffing when around Walmsley then we could potentially use the rule to keep him here.

If he's fit it's a no-brainer, really.

Quality southern-hemisphere playmakers are a dwindling commodity. I was going to say [i"when fit he's a cut above SL-standard scrum halves"[/i - but, hell, when INJURED he's a cut above SL standard.

Other than Roby and Walmsley- we currently haven't got anybody who NRL would be interested in and both are signed up relatively long term.
But realistically what is Roby earning ???? Possibly £200k - so making him our Marquee in reality only gives us £100k to spread around keeping others happy.
May help to keep Savelio and gone towards Walsh - but is that what this Marquee rule was brought in for ?
Not in my opinion - I thought the idea was to bring in some top class talent to a very average league. I'd love to see a Sam Burgess back where he belongs in an England RL shirt

I think you are jumping to your own conclusions there. That was only a small part of the reason.

May have been a small part to you - but just sharing a spare £100k between what we already have is not going to excite many people. If that was the idea of this then we should have just raised the cap slightly.
In my opinion the Marquee rule should only be used to attract or keep top class players in SL.
Personally I would prefer a reward for clubs producing their own players - say only 70% of their salary counts on the cap.

You can have as many "Marquee Clauses" and "Special Dispensations" as you like. You've still got to come up with the money, somehow.

Given that Rugby League isn't a cash rich sport the impact will ultimately be minimal.

Basically, those who kicked up the fuss will spend the money whilst the rest won't be able to afford the extravagance. Which only highlights the fiction currently being pumped out by Koukash and co. that it will be a "boon" to the entire sport.

The reality is Koukash is gaming the system. He's like most big businessmen in that he's impatient, wants immediate success and can't be bothered putting in place the kind of infrastructure projects which, whilst far less costly than buying talent, only yield tangible results several years down the line. I doubt he has any intentions of remaining at Salford for very much longer. At which point the club will likely join its former great rival, Swinton, on the RL scrapheap. If it exits in anything firmer than the rapidly fading memory of fans I'll be (pleasantly) surprised.

You mean like Graham? Or Eastmond?

KEEPING the top talent we can create is as a valid a use as BUYING for the sake of bringing in a name (seriously, Hohaia, Perry, Laffranchi and looking wider Bowen, Mason, Eastwood, Asotasi - has anyone successfully brought over a "marquee" in recent years?)

Roby won't be our marquee next year, nor will Walmsley (at this moment) - the argument is we can achieve our current recruitment and retention goals without the 100k freed up by naming Roby for the sake of naming Roby ... if we need to offer Roby/ Walmsley/ anyone else a huge contract to keep them here (ala Graham) then we will and not affect the balance of our side using this rule.

Just to add a bit of spin, you could say that when a "marquee" player is close to moving on or retiring that this would give the other players a reason to perform better as they want the £££ and the tag of been a "marquee" player. Don't the yanks called it an MVP?

Yes - would've been nice to keep them 2 - certainly Graham.
You also fail to mention people like Lyon, Gidley, Soliola, Barrett, Renouf, Vainakolo, etc etc etc who have come over during the confines of salary cap and ripped it up. If this rule is to be used then it should be used to entice that calibre of player to SL. Or as mentioned - keeping hold of top quality if you're lucky enough to produce somebody special. Not just top up the salary of the mediocre currently on show.

Also you can get lucky and pick a player up who no one fancied. George Carmont being a prime example, probably the best value for money overseas player I have seen at Wigan.

Yes you have, Percival. By the way contracts normally count for nothing.

Or was the offer withdrawn for fitness reasons.