I think he means that Cas and Wakefield will be highly prone to having clubs poaching their best players, as they aren't the most financially stable?....

And that's exactly why it would be very amusing if Graham signed for one of them.

Not done much home work has he probably just considering the Yorks clubs wanting to reduce the cap. In any event the game needs to stabilise and have a clear plan perhaps increasing teams in SL over an incremental time without relegation this would allow the UK game to develop its own talent instead of bringing in players from overseas at the end of their careers.

This, he's a brilliant prop and there is still life in the old dog yet. I can't see it being anywhere but saints and he will be a great signing for them, not as useful as Thompson in the long term but in the short term I don't think they will be weakened at all if they bring Graham back.

Correct, just makes sweeping statements on financial matters at all sorts of clubs, without having any real tangible knowledge behind them.

Sweeping financial statements? Which ones would they be? The jokes about the Wire cap and suggesting Wakefield and Cas might consider a bid for their players at the moment? Hardly making outrageous claims there.

The sweeping statements are all over our board, you even made one regarding Thompson. Not jokes, just your perception without any truth behind your comments, on financial matters at a number of clubs.

Stop pretending you didn't make any, and where did anyone say they were outrageous.

I think you are just going at Saddened because he's a Saints fan - what he says isn't exactly recent news, with regards to Cas and Wakey. Both are financially 2nd or 3rd tier. It's an embarrassment for our league that they are still allowed to be in the league in their present facilities.

As for his jibes at our financial dealings - even some of our own fans have had a genuine curiosity at some of our dealings over the years.

Saddened's posts are just trolling in the main, dressed up as somebody pretending to be our friend. Him being a Saints fan is irrelevant. The current financial footing of each and every club is not wholly in the public domain, and it's just guess work of how severe the issues from Covid19 affects each and every one. Lenegan has made a statement to Wigan supporters, looking for help to address what may well be a crisis, and other chairmen may follow suit. We'll just have to wait and see what comes to pass in the wake of this pandemic. As a collective, the future for SL is at best, rather uncertain. How uncertain, well, that is just guess work and conjecture.

They have managed to field competitive teams despite having a 2nd or 3rd tier budget. If you look at Castleford's recruitment and squad management over the period that Daryl Powell has been there and compare it to ours with presumably a 1st tier budget and modern facilities, the embarassment is on us



Anyway you may get your wish over the next few years as the aftermath of covid and the post-Brexit recession will likely push a few clubs to the wall and we may need to take a hard look at having a consolidation of the league with fewer clubs if the sport is to continue, and merged 'franchises'. But at some point that conversation might come to Warrington as well and ask is RL really viable in a town like Warrington without constant funding being pumped in by an owner. We don't have a huge stadium but it's not as though we have filled it and I wonder what the ceiling is for a club like us.

Sally, you can say that about all clubs and not just in our sport?

How many football clubs are self sufficient and not reliant on a sugar daddy pumping cash in?

By the way, I don't disagree on Cas doing very well on the field - However, rules clearly stated they should have been kicked out of the league unless they got a new ground, or updated Wheldon Road... that a club in 2020 is still playing in such a poor facility is an embarrassment for the sport as a whole.

Aside from a very generous owner what Warrington does have in its favour is that the town continues to grow in size. It’s no small task to turn people into RL fans but at least it is in our hands and we are not constrained by demography.

With regard to stadia, it's not been a lack of effort from those clubs to try and get their projects off the ground. We were fortunate to have ours built prior to the economic difficulties that led to the austerity measures, and councils being less able to provide backing. Also, Warrington BC were very much on board, whereas their counterparts in Wakefield have been far less helpful.

Yes, things have not moved on with the stadia for Wakefield or Castleford, and it's difficult to see them being built given the current issues. Not all venues are great, and you can include Toronto (and London before them in SL), which is something we'll have to live with presently.

[*

No point setting rules then if you aren't going to instill them. It just shows how poor those running the game are.

We may as well ignore the salary cap rules and when the league try to pull us up, then we just point to their inability to run the comp by other rules?

I'm not defending the RFL or SLE, whichever made the standard criteria for SL venues, back in the day. It's academic now as this part of SL qualification has been dropped some while ago, if my memory is correct, but the salary cap rules still apply.

Shows how sad our sport is, that it does away with a rule that effectively sets out to improve the standards and image of the game for the supporter and the clubs, while keeping a rule that helps to hold back the quality of the game and is basically a restraint of trade.

Rules are there to be broken, as we're all very aware of.

He'd maybe put Akuola to shame in terms of minutes on the pitch but would I swap him for Hill Cooper or Philbin ...not a chance...

he's quitting a sinking ship in the vain hope of finishing his career with a cup Final appearance in England Of which he has zero chance in the NRL with St George.

vanity project before returning to the NRL as a pundit...!!!

There was a time wh3n his return would have been massive news. Has the hallmarks of a very long lap of honour.

Just a heads up Saddended isn't a Saints fan he's a Pie Eater in disguise... Check out his profile pic , the Saints kit is covering a wigan shirt (hopped sleeves).

Confirmed

[urlhttps://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/53145064[/url

The RFL and Super League have confirmed that they have relaxed the regulations about going into administration. Clubs will no longer receive a 12 point deduction for going into administration along with other measures to help clubs survive. I still maintain there's a good chance there will be some very high quality players more readily available than there would have been normally.

That is a possibility. A lot depends on how exactly this Sky deal affects the cash flow of SL clubs, and whether there's still a need for salary realignment of the player pool in general given the current financial climate.
We could end up with a scenario where a high majority of players will be paid less, with the high quality players that you speak of, be more tempted by the likes of the NRL and RFU. We'll have to see how things pan out, but we need to get the game restarted, as Sky's deal is dependant on fixtures in 2020 being delivered.

Fair comment. Small consolation that RU are on a precipice financially as well and will be tightening their belts.somewhat

Difficult for RU clubs to justify signing league players at the moment, the success rate for league players doing well in union is not great and the covid restrictions make it harder to get a cross-code convert up to speed. They are having to make cutbacks with existing players so it risks upsetting a dressing room if players are cut or asked to reduce wages and then they sign a league player who takes time to adapt.