Re: Holy s*** - NRL salary cap rises to $7M : Mon May 09, 2011 9:36 pm  

glasgowsaint wrote:

NZ
Australia
France
England
South Africa
Wales
Ireland
Argentina

The top five are in that list could be considered top class and the bottom three are definitely competitive on their day. Therefore they can have a meaningful competition.

Yes I agree. Compare that to our 3

Re: Holy s*** - NRL salary cap rises to $7M : Mon May 09, 2011 9:49 pm  

It will be interesting to see how this pans out. Will we see a mass evacuation of the UK as those mercenary antipodeans fly home?

It will also be interesting to see how those who have agreed or are negotiating contracts with SL clubs react? The likes of Soliola, Puletua, Laffranchi, Waterhouse (If he's really in negotiations) could well decide they are better off in the NRL. £100,000 more is a big deal and that is the figure being quoted by some media outlets.

Could this be the 'things happening back home' that TP is on about?

I don't think it will affect British born players too much as there are truly only a handful of British players good enough for a squad place in the NRL. But I would agree that any big names will be off next time their deals are up. Makes me very relieved Robes signed when he did. Wigan will no doubt think the same of Tomkins.

People are saying the RFL 'has to raise the cap', mostly Wigan fans. It simply cannot do that. Our clubs are struggling massively to survive financially so giving the likes of Hull KR and Wigan more room to spend money they don't have will only lead to more clubs going into administration and also cause some ridiculously wide gaps in the strengths of clubs on the field.

Massively puts the pressure on Lewis. But to be fair to Sky they have done so much for rugby league as a sport that we genuinely don't deserve any massive handouts. Given the financial climate in this country we are very unlikely to see any either, particularly as there will likely not be ANY competition for the rights.

Re: Holy s*** - NRL salary cap rises to $7M : Mon May 09, 2011 10:45 pm  

This has been coming, and the obvious effect is that within a year or two all the southern hemisphere better players will be gone

Re: Holy s*** - NRL salary cap rises to $7M : Mon May 09, 2011 11:27 pm  

That's a huge increase, but being the biggest sport on TV over there it warrants it. Also, the players get away with nothing over there and they can't wash their cars in front of the house without being scrutinized, I suppose that should be reflected in the pay.

Interesting times. RL could have some troublesome times ahead in England, it seems to be the case that RU has the same troubles in Australia.

Re: Holy s*** - NRL salary cap rises to $7M : Tue May 10, 2011 12:16 am  

I agree the RFL must do as much as they can to stop the potential bleeding of ENG stars to the NRL but i also think that people are overreacting slightly.

The amount of island players that are currently in the NRL and NSW rugby is phenomenal, they are recruiting more and more each year too. They are big guys with plenty of speed, power and aggression. The quality that a player from the SL will need to have to be competitive in the NRL has been bumped up significantly and some of the players that people think could make it down under would merely be back ups to the first grade.

Australian clubs have players they may believe are better than any SL player in that position too so the SL "star" drops further down the depth chart.

Lets not get ahead of ourselves just yet.

Re: Holy s*** - NRL salary cap rises to $7M : Tue May 10, 2011 6:34 am  

The Chief wrote:

If Sky want to pay peanuts, they will get monkeys because all the organ grinders will be down under earning their coin there!

It's a catch 22 situationfor Sky here. If they don't pay more, their product quality will suffer and they will be hit in the pocket with cancelled subscriptions.

Exactly. RL is obviously well watched and gets decent slots on sky, so sky needs to protect its investment in RL and make sure they have the finance to compete.

Re: Holy s*** - NRL salary cap rises to $7M : Tue May 10, 2011 7:10 pm  

Personally I am made up with this if it's the case.

There's no doubt they will come over for some of our talent but surely this has got to be better than union coming in for our young talent.

If the likes of Kyle had this chance which do most posters think where he would have gone,I would put my money on the NRL.

Re: Holy s*** - NRL salary cap rises to $7M : Tue May 10, 2011 9:49 pm  

Doomed I tell ye , all Doomed !!!

Wonder if we'll be able to get a proper amount of NRL on british tv again so at least we can watch all our good players play ?

Re: Holy s*** - NRL salary cap rises to $7M : Tue May 10, 2011 10:48 pm  

No1 Saint wrote:

Doomed I tell ye , all Doomed !!!

Wonder if we'll be able to get a proper amount of NRL on british tv again so at least we can watch all our good players play ?

Just pay a few quid extra a month and get 4/5 games a week on premier sports.

Re: Holy s*** - NRL salary cap rises to $7M : Tue May 10, 2011 10:53 pm  

As I've said before, this should give our TV rights negotiators at the RFL a shot in the arm. Sky will not want a 2nd rate product, etc etc.

We should also continue to talk to ESPN, ITV (1,2,3 & 4) & C4 about both competitions. All of SL, the Championship, Challenge Cup and all Internationals has got to be worth more than the current £20M p.a. (Sky £17M & BBC £3M).

We should be aiming for a minimum 50% uplift given healthy viewing figures.
After all yawnion got a 45% increase starting this year even with their appalling viewing figures for Guinness Prem.