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Saints and Leeds reign as the best two teams were pretty much down to:
- Good youth players making it into the starting 13
- Consistency with pivot positions (1, 6, 7, 9, 13)
- Keeping hold of their best players

1 - Why are Wigan not able to keep hold of their best players but other clubs such as Saints & Leeds have? Whether that is youth players or those that are older, we cannot seem to keep players.

2 - Are we the victims of our own success? I.E. we cannot keep hold of our youth because they are the ones the NRL are after or is there something else going on? How did Saints and Leeds manage?

I dont agree with some players getting a massive amount more than others! I’ve never agreed to the Marquee Player rule!

There should be some sort of wage structure where it raises on a scale of age, performance, games played etc.

Perhaps that’s where we fail in keeping our players & having no space on the SC?

josie andrews wrote: ↑Tue Mar 12, 2019 1:04 pm I dont agree with some players getting a massive amount more than others! I’ve never agreed to the Marquee Player rule!

There should be some sort of wage structure where it raises on a scale of age, performance, games played etc.

Perhaps that’s where we fail in keeping our players & having no space on the SC?

That would suggest other clubs are doing that and we aren't?

The wage structure you suggested above wouldn't work with the salary cap.

Clubs do impose wage structures whereby a player signing a new contract would get something along the lines of:

Year 1 - £50k
Year 2 - £70k
Year 3 - £80K

The problem with this is that it assumes players get better and are of more worth to the club which often isn't and hasn't been the case with Wigan.

I would love somebody to dig out from the last 5 years the number of articles related to players leaving / cap space / improved contracts. The number of times IL has been quoted saying "Although X player left, the cap space has been filled by giving improved contracts to X and Y."

Maybe that is our problem with the cap. IL and KR have been giving improved contracts to average players and it has finally killed us.

nathan_rugby wrote: ↑Tue Mar 12, 2019 12:48 pm Saints and Leeds reign as the best two teams were pretty much down to:
- Good youth players making it into the starting 13
- Consistency with pivot positions (1, 6, 7, 9, 13)
- Keeping hold of their best players

1 - Why are Wigan not able to keep hold of their best players but other clubs such as Saints & Leeds have? Whether that is youth players or those that are older, we cannot seem to keep players.

2 - Are we the victims of our own success? I.E. we cannot keep hold of our youth because they are the ones the NRL are after or is there something else going on? How did Saints and Leeds manage?

Hows this for a theory because i think it is a good point

Its because we don't sign any star players anymore where as Leeds and Saints tend to smatter their team with proven quality.

Trouble is whenever one of our youth players shows the slightest bit of promise they basically become our most valuable player, so they demand big wages and because there is no one to offset the top wages you have to give it to them.

Youve got to sign some quality players to lead the younger players we are basically a feeder for the NRL at the moment

It would be good to cut 20% off the Cap if the player is home grown... players who are loyal or stalwarts should have their wages cut off the Cap by a percentage if they are signed for more than, say, 7 years.

We have developed some fine players but many are not as good as fans think or teams like Widnes and Leigh would not be littered with them.

Over the last ten years Wigan have produced Internationals in the 1, 7, 9 and 13 positions. Can you say the same for Leeds and Saints?
Wigan have had as many as 11 players in the 17. They have less overseas players than Saints or Leeds.

Many supporters on here wanted rid of George, Sutty etc. so it would be ironic if they now moaned about us being a feeder team for the NRL.

Just to add to your point Brian, which team has produced the largest amount of international players? Answers on a post card please!

Wigan lose many players to the nrl because they give the players a “get out of jail free card” by saying if they don’t make it you can comeback to us.
Same as happened with Bateman, he’s having 2 years in the nrl and then coming back to Wigan. If the club didn’t offer this if might deter them from going, if not you win some you lose some that’s life