I’ve got a column in me about Israel Folau and all that. But the aftermath of Easter doesn’t seem the right time to write it and this probably isn’t the right place.
I reckon I’ve also got a column in me about Phil Gould leaving Penrith. But he’s such a blood enigma I can’t get my mental ducks lined up to write it.
One of them quacks or waddles or otherwise steps out of line every time I try to type the first word.
I don’t like blokes at dummy half throwing the ball into defenders to get an offside penalty, as is happening in Super League at the moment. I liked Aussie ref Matt Rossleigh’s decision to penalise it in the Championship the other day.
But that subject is obscure and rather boring – and, breaking news, they just amended to rules to fix it anyway.
I loved the fact that Mark Evans, bass player in the classic line-up of AC/DC, was shown on Fox wearing a Parramatta jersey and lining up a drop goal surrounded by kids on the field at Bankwest Stadium on Monday!
Maybe I could tie that in with the teams being named for the World Cup Nines at the same venue in October. Are they the teams that should be competing? Once more, Nines is very niche – although I will bore you with some columns about it in future.
What I’ve settled on is a subject I heard Jon Wilkin discuss on the weekly BBC podcast yesterday.
Wilkin, the former England international who now plays for Toronto, suggested that the best way for the British game to enjoy a renaissance would be to scrap the salary cap.
This is quite a common refrain in Britain, where the sporting landscape is dominated by the Premier League, in which there are no such restrictions.
Wilkin, a very eloquent and thoughtful man, said that the salary cap was intended to even up the competition but still only four sides have ever won Super League.
Therefore, he argued, the salary cap was a failure. So far, so familiar. But he added another dimension to his argument by saying good sides should be dismantled by the cap, yet in all his time with a very successful St Helens side he never received a really serious offer to join a lower club.
Good players filtered to the top clubs and stayed there even after they won silverware, which should not happen. The salary cap in Super League had failed to have an equalising effect.
Well, Wigan and Leeds are currently in the bottom four, so perhaps the salary cap ship is finally coming in.
But the pattern Wilkin describes suggests that the cap is not working properly.
One reason could be nefarious: 14 teams have had points deducted for salary cap breaches in the UK since 2001. Wigan beat a deduction on appeal only earlier this year. Players are staying at top clubs for less – that sometimes suggests what in Sydney are referred to as ‘the McDonalds car park’.
Would Hull FC fans be keen on the removal of a salary cap? (AAP Image/Craig Golding)
Another could be financial: clubs all get the same grant out of television money but spend it different ways, meaning the first-team squads are not of the same real or imagined value across the board. Some clubs can’t afford marquee players.
And it’s a legitimate question whether fans in Britain want parity anyway or whether they would prefer to have Wigan, St Helens, Leeds and Warrington scoring 50-point wins against the rest each weekend. When discussing this, it’s important to take into account the differences in the actual sports between soccer and rugby league.
In soccer, 4-0 is probably 50 or 60-0. But if your team is on the receiving end, which result makes you feel worse? What result would most discourage you from coming back next weekend?
When people in either hemisphere talk about scrapping the salary cap, I always have apocalyptic visions of huge scores, clubs going broke, a concentration of teams in places where there are no fans but rich people and the reverse – no full-time pro teams in cities and towns that live and breathe the game.
Because rugby league flourishes in poor places.
I don’t agree with Jon that no salary cap will result in a better spectacle. If Leeds were to sign 13 NRL stars, does that mean they would win 100-0 in an entertaining fashion or just by scoring 20 tries running right over the top of their opposition?
The shortest way to the try line is the best, after all.
Overall it’s difficult to see how removing the salary cap would increase revenue in Britain.
That’s the reason the real value of Jon’s pay packet has decreased. In the social media age the focus on the Premier League has multiplied while the partial collapse of traditional media has seen fringe and regional sports like rugby league receive less coverage.
In an atomised age for public life, only the biggest stars and properties can survive. They get bigger through the magnifying glass of 24-hour digital scrutiny. The rest gets lost in the white noise.
The best hope for British rugby league probably lies where Jon is right now, in Toronto. This weekend he plays his first home game for his new club on the other side of the Atlantic.
Will Toronto bring more cash to the Super League? (Richard Lautens/Toronto Star via Getty Images)
New audiences, sponsors and broadcasters have the potential to wake British rugby league from its torpor.
While I’ve been critical of clubs for parochialism in the past, they were impressively progressive when they voted to allow the RFL to keep talking to prospective new sides Ottawa and New York.
But when you consider how little is known about the investors in either club and how sketchy the details of the bids are, they may be more than aware of the issues detailed above and therefore outward-looking and progressive.
They may just be desperate.
christos sintos
Roar Rookie
A bit off topic here, but I need a piece of advice and maybe Steve or somebody could help me...I'm about to visit the UK (coming from greece that is) next month and I will finally have a chance to watch for the first time ever a RL game live...so, before booking my tickets for the Huddersfield vs St.Helens Challenge cup game I would like to ask...where is better to be seated? In the middle of the field? next to the goal line? somewhere in between at 20m or so from the goal line? And should I go for the very front row or a bit further back would be adviced? Thanx in advance guys!
mushi
Roar Guru
It's tricky I think in the players sign up to it through a kind of Eba. Remember every contract is a restraint of trade in some fashion, so the test is essentially how reasonable it is. Also in the judgment on the draft case I think the judge highlighted that the salary cap provided stability and a measure of parity and as such the draft unreasonable. So if they overturn the cap they might get a draft.
Fred
Guest
Fair comment
Peter Piper
Guest
Fred, Superleague has been run on a shoestring for decades with many of their clubs lurching from one financial crisis to the next. Many have been in and out of administration on more than one occasion. Television coverage of games is poor and national media is similar and income from those sources is very low compared to ours. The lower divisions are akin to QCup with many clubs made up of part timers, again a necessary financial situation. I will admit that things have picked up in the last few years. Access to the media with more digital outlets is helping enormously as did the last 2 World Cups but revenue wise they are still far behind our game. Catalans and Toronto have helped to spread the word which is what I was saying about growth. Toulouse would be great too and at least the English game has an easier pathway for admitting these teams. Wigan and leeds may be at the base of the pack but don't be fooled, at least one of those will play finals footy at the end of the season. Don't get me wrong, I would love to see RL and especially the ESL with its overseas teams take off in a very big way. They have been bold enough to embrace change and expansion in this way and deserve every success.... now if only we could get a team in Perth.
Max
Guest
Correct! The NRL cap is all smoke and mirrors. It was the draft that was supposed to spread the talent. The cap was meant to stop clubs going broke. But the NSWRL lost the draft and ever since the NRL have using the cap to deliver what the draft was for. Someone should legally challenge the cap as a restraint of trade.
Fred
Guest
Peter, Super League doesn't have the NRL's money, but it is hardly 'staring at extinction'. As I commented below, they just set a new attendance record, and this happened while two of the big 4 - Wigan and Leeds - are at the bottom of the ladder! Catalans has been an impressive success, and when (not if) they are joined by Toulouse, creating a French derby, they'll thrive even more.
Peter Piper
Guest
One of the reasons why the top 4 Superleague teams dominate and win the comp every year is because of the Salary Cap. Every team spends its cap, so in theory every club should have an equal roster. But every player wants to play for a winning team, a team that has a better than average chance of playing in the big one so every player wants to play for one of the big 4 even if they are offering less money. This means that lower order clubs have to pay substantially more to attract the best players to win comps but they are prevented from doing so because of the cap. So even when a cash cow investor comes along like Koukash at Salford, the team can't break out because of the cap. Similar mechanisms work here with clubs like the Titans, Tigers & Knights though it is probably less pronounced. It is very hard to build a Roosters like Roster with these clubs because an up and coming star quickly gets poached as soon as his credentials start to appear. The cap is good in that it stops players sending clubs broke but don't believe that it evens up the comp.
mushi
Roar Guru
I’ve always puzzled at the idea that we believe that a salary cap is about parity and not wage control. If you think about the contact decisions then all things being equal the better team has a lasting advantage under a cap. 1. They already have a better team so in all likelihood their quality > cap 2. Recruitment of established performers costs more than retention – if you need to pay more to pull good players away than what their existing team is willing to pay, then your average cost per unit of production goes down and thus quality < cap for the recruiting team 3. All else being equal people would rather win than lose so bad teams need to pay more than average (qualitycap) 4. Coaches want good players so are more attracted to jobs with good teams (and aren’t covered under the cap) 5. Winning or playing big matches is generally better for third party revenue so a player can accept less knowing that they’ve got upside so quality > cap
Max
Guest
Funny that league introduced caps around the same time that RU went pro and for the 20 years since a whole world pool of rugby footballers have been potentially on the market for NRL and Super League clubs. All the salary cap has really done is give the media 20 years of stories portraying RL as full of cheats. No cap, no cheats. No cap, plenty of RU players come to RL. Vote 1 #Wilkin.
Fred
Guest
Super League has just set an attendance record for a regular season club round: https://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-league/47993463
Peter Piper
Guest
Rugby League in the UK has spent decades and lots of money trying to break out of the M62 corridor. It has held its Magic Weekend in non traditional areas for years trying desperately to spread the word. When the London Broncos cane along, their cheered from the roof tops and gave them every advantage it was possible to give this fledgling club. They welcomed the French as a way to develop and expand because they are desperate to expand. They are desperate to expand because they have been staring at extinction for so long. Their clubs are cash strapped in a way that makes even the poorest of NRL clubs look like millionaires. Their tv deals and sponsorship deals are paltry because the big boys in town want to be associated with the big boys in sport and that isn't RL. They know that no one ever shrank to greatness. They know that they are not the no.1 sport nor 2, 3, or even 4. They know that it is expand or die, that this is the only way they can remain a professional sport so when the Americans come knocking with that rarely seen commodity money in their pockets, they are welcomed with open arms. Its the same logic as to why they embraced Superleague and the same reason they will embrace these new teams. Its a chance, just a chance but they know very well that its a chance they just have to take.