Are Wire our Storm ?

[thomo]

paul wood - £135K a year - for real?

Solomona might have been a gamble signing but I bet he isnt playing for pie tokens and beer vouchers

[Kittwazzer]

.

what gets me is what if a club offers a player so £100k a year while they play and then a pension for the next five years when the are not playing - does this count on the cap.

My answer would be yes. IIRC, Wigan were caught out by this when Rads came back and played for free. DaveO is pretty knowledgeable on the finer points if he is reading this.

[thomo]

but what is a player is given a retainer for the next five years once he retires - ie for scouting or corporate speaking etc

[cpwigan]

You cannot pay players anything post their playing career if you abide by the rules of the salary cap. Personally, I think Wire do what the Storm did.

[weststand-rich]

paul wood - £135K a year - for real?

Solomona might have been a gamble signing but I bet he isnt playing for pie tokens and beer vouchers

For real! The person who told me that information has 100% credability. It really opened my eyes to the Wire, because at the time he was at the bottom of the pile in their prop pecking order and he injured his shoulder so badly that retirement was a real possibility for a while.

Like CP, I think Wire operate just like the storm and have the cap wages topped up from outside sources that just do not register on the salary cap radar.

[Kittwazzer]

You cannot pay players anything post their playing career if you abide by the rules of the salary cap. Personally, I think Wire do what the Storm did.

Which would mean that they are now even more on their guard against any slip ups!

Not sure I am totally against what they are doing. IMO the Salary Cap as it stands is a barrier to our game going forward. It leaves us vulnerable to raids by Union who have more money to spend. And let's not forget, it is only there to protect the smaller clubs who will probably never be in a position to be worried by it!

[cpwigan]

If everybody was cheating then I would agree KW and actually it produces a higher standard of RL for the clubs concerned but if you are cheating and nobody else is then anything won becomes tainted and worthless akin to a steroid cheat winning an Olympic Gold.

[Matthew]

What annoys me is that every RL fan in the country smells a rat; yet the RFL do not seem in the slightest bit interested.

I agree with CP - I think that they are running some sort of Storm style cap; either that or an outside source is paying family members/3rd parties.

I think that it is unfair on teams that don't just buy players wholesale fashion and actually develop some of their own. As far as I can see, the only difference between wire and wakefield is wire's millionaire owner.

[weststand-rich]

I am by large in favour of the cap to stop one club dominating sucess like we did in the 80s/90s. As good as it was, when you're turning up to watch a game and the only real prospect is to predict the winning scoreline then competition is stifled.

I'm not sure the cap as is is working. The pay our lads get for a physically brutal game with a 10 year life is laughable compared to the spoils of even an average tennis player.

[cpwigan]

Can you imagine the publicity Matthew. Many things are swept under the carpet rather than face the truth.