Lmao inflation is at an all time low get the he'll out if here, since the government's decided to change from the more reflective rpi and use the cpi which is far more favourable to them it's been advertised as low. Yet things are more expensive year on year!!

The way that inflation is calculated is flawed the deflation in retail is balancing out housing prices and a lot of generally stagnat priced items are disfiguring the tru rates of inflation. Also inflation is year upon year are you trying to say that since the cap was introduced the price you pay for a beer a chocolate bar your gas electricity petrol pasta etc has stayed the same price or gone down or have your wages increased sufficiently to not have. Felt this?? NO it has not so realistically the value of the cap has declined considerably since it was introduced resulting in clubs to be able to recruit a smaller pool of players as contracts get increased just to match cost of living.


The doctor is 100% correct to be pushing for cap to be scrapped readjusted. It's not fit for purpose the overall quality has not rise in super league rather it has dipped to an equal level. The rfl are antiquated and inept in the views and actions.

Sounds a good idea if it can be funded....more bums on seats , increased prices , better advertising revenue, better sponsorship, more tv money. Dead easy !

A bit harsh if you ask me, whether I disagree or not.

well some might think he's talking balls.

A by product of the cap and the aus dollar / sterling exchange rate is that the England side should be a lot stronger. Not since the early nineties have we had so many players playing in the NRL. This has also strengthened the French national side because there are a lot more French players in UK based SL clubs.
If (massive if) England are successful in the 4 nations and by some miracle manage to lift the world cup the cap will double overnight because of the additional interest and sponsorship. Players would almost become household names overnight. I know it is a complete dream but you never know with Wayne Bennett in charge. It would be the biggest thing to happen to rugby league in this country. It would be even better if it happened in a year when every other national sporting team failed miserably. It would also mean more interest in world club challenges and make all of the international series more meaningful.
Look at the 2003 rugger world cup and the 2005 Ashes.
Revenues will not increase dramatically until there is some significant international success. You may not get jaguar sponsoring TV coverage of super league but I am convinced SL would do better than mushy peas as a sponsor with England as world cup winners. Then the cap can be raised and attract the best players

The man is embarrassing. Whether the RFL is an effective governing body or not is one thing and worthy of debate. Running Twitter polls and having public conversations about particular (private?) matters as a Chairman of a professional Rugby League Club in support of your one man (or maybe two man with the Wakefield chairman) campaign is excruciating. Immature comments about Nigel Wood's weight, for example, are the last thing you'd expect in a twitter conversation including contributions from a rugby league chairman. Could you imagine Broomhead or Moran engaging in that sort of rubbish?

The man is a nutter who spouts rubbish most of the time.

That's the money post.
Exactly. The game needs to be truly international then big sponsorship will roll in.
We don't give the home nation international enough support. We go in and out only at World Cups.
We need to rival the 6 nations every year.
It doesn't matter how poor the rival is, so long as it is a regular fixture. Being a poor side hasn't done Italy or Scotland for that matter any harm. So long as there is an international against a quality the fans will turn up to support their country. It doesn't matter how one sided initially. Strength will develop over a prolonged period.

Eg if Warrington Town v Back St Numpties would we go?
I doubt it, however, Warrington Town V Man Utd... Too friggin right we will. Town would get battered but we'd be there because we want to see our team tested at the highest level.

It's the same with international, the rfl just don't get it.
We should have a home nations every year, it should be full on and given next to nothing to the BBC to replace their loss to commercial TV.
England Scotland Wales France Ireland and get Holland Germany and Greece involved if we can....hey even Canada.

I was trying to be a bit more polite, but yeah.

From what I've heard and read the *Good Doctor* has called a press conference / meeting to consider a vote of no confidence in the RFL. I haven't read anywhere that it's purpose is a bleat about the salary cap...If he's after a chance to have the no confidence vote he's no chance, in fact I can't see many if not any of the club chairmen turning up...He's just a blow-hard fake.

I think this might give him the opportunity to quit the game and Salford if he doesn't get backing and what he wants. He is used to getting his own way and he would leave Salford in a bad way if he walks and just blame everyone else.

Sadly it'd more deep routed and personal than just a spat at the rfl. Doc has an issue with Dave Woods.

The BBC commentator?

Whether you like koukash or not is irrelevant to whether or not you agree with what he is saying.

The RFL are pretty poor at marketing, promoting and improving the game, the crowds, the awareness, the media coverage, everything really.

I have 'no confidence' that the current group of people in charge will ever make things better than they are now.

My thoughts too. How on earth has Dave Woods got embroiled in this???

Ahoy there Brian Brady ,i think the good doctor needs to start playing play your cards right at these here quiz nights to get a few bob in his marquee fund.

I think on the subject of spreading the international game ,the RFL would need plenty of money & clout to usurp the pull of RU internationals. The RFU have the luxury of rubbing shoulders with the top bosses of top companies & top establishment figures to attract the biggest paying advertisers. Marketing & publicity backed by wealth is what their business is based on.
Maybe even a cameo role of Prince Harry on sky & in the south stand on a wet & windy night would give a shot in the arm to RL though.

Lol. Doh! Only since Nigel went into hiding.

The strange thing is that the richer sports such as football and RU don't provide a better product, they just convince their supporters that's what they've done and then they take more money off them. It's a bit like the King's new clothes.

What really annoys me is that most adverts for sky sports don't even include superleague even though it was one of the mainstays of sky in its early days.

Even BBC2 used RL to get it off the ground in the 60s but i don't think our sport was even mentioned in its 50th anniversary celebrations.

That's got to be a pretty spacious hiding place.

1.8m in 1999 is the equivalent of 2.8m today. So there's a million pounds worth of qualify missing from each team. Most teams first 17 are good could be improved but it's the quality in depth every club is missing. That mil could tempt a few big names over here from nrl too which will help with image and potential marketing for the club's and rfl.

Certainly increasing the Cap to £2.8m would allow clubs to bring in expensive (talented) signings. But the problem would be could clubs afford it ? At the moment each SL club takes home £1.8m from Sky, which in turn pays the salary bill. Would they be able to fork out another £1m though ? It's not long ago that a decision to cut the U18, U16 was taken by the majority of the SL clubs because they couldn't afford it. I think there were only 3 clubs that voted against; ourselves, Saints plus 1 other. At the moment there are only 4-5 SL clubs running a Reserves team - because of the cost. So the effect of raising the Cap will mean that clubs like HKR, Widnes, Cas etc will be unable to afford it and will attract lower quality players to their squads. That will inevitably see the top 4-5 rich teams thrashing the lower clubs each week, which will not be great for attendances in the lower end of the league, which in turn will make them financially vulnerable. And will Sky wan't to show games where the outcome is almost a given ?

Raising the Cap is a double edged sword. We do desperately need to see better quality players in SL because the standard of rugby is pretty poor nowadays. But if you increase it by a substantial amount I suspect we will end up with an effective SL of 5-6 teams.

The increase could be staggered over 5-7 years. And not allowed to spend more than can afford. There are a fair few teams turning a profit now also. The increase should also serve as an incentive for those who cannot afford the full cap to ook for ways to improve attendances and alternative ways of raising cash?? Simon morans money has undoubtedly helped us massively, also the stadium change and a more professional attitude off the pitch also has played as big a part we had a plan and spending early was part if it.. There's a fine balance that needs to be found a one off marquee players not going to cut it.

Could raise it 250k a year for next four years and assess it then it cannot increase constantly and a staggered implementation will allow planning and the chance to get the right player.

Throwing money at somthing doesn't guarantee success Salford spring to mind nor does not spending to capstan you are whipping boys Wakefield?? The money we have spent on and off tbe pitch has on the whole been a good investment and gets us to the position.we're in now, turning profit.

I think that planning is the key as there is only so far we can stretch the player pool at present and in the first instance a huge injection of cash may just bump up salaries of average players (I'm not saying that's totally unacceptable) rather than attracting new top talent or retaining our current stars

Koukash has complained about Catalans signing 9 overseas born players not including Myler and Broughton. Surprised he didn't mention Widnes who have signed another Australian this week bringing their total overseas number to 11 !