King is a "Home Grown" Marquee Player and hence only costs £50K on the Salary Cap.
Yes so picking some numbers out of the air, if Vaughan was on £200k he would count as £150k on our cap, so a saving of £50k. If King was on £150k he would count as £50k on our cap, so a saving of £100k.
Thewlis i'm happy with,he has great hands, good engine, lots of speed etc. He hasn't shined because Tai is more of a defensive centre than a strike centre. If he was playing outside of jake Wardle, Tim Lafai, Hiku etc He'd be well further up the try charts, I'm happy with him. Musgrove has played bog standard low minutes this year, I know Burgess rates him higher than his actual displays though, so this will keep Max Wood from playing more games than him. Wood has a much better engine, better skills and a slightly better impact than him......but Musgrove gets the nod every week over him, bit of unjust favouritism there i think.
Yes so picking some numbers out of the air, if Vaughan was on £200k he would count as £150k on our cap, so a saving of £50k. If King was on £150k he would count as £50k on our cap, so a saving of £100k.
The rule that was introduced in 2024 with the allowance for a 3rd Marquee Player specified that the player had to be Federation trained, so Vaughan wouldn`t have qualified to be used in that role.
Tai has just 2 try assists in 18 games. That's nowhere near good enough for a centre for a team that wants to win a GF. Wrench has 4 in 9 games.
In fact we only have 9 assists across both centres.
You would wonder why Tai has had so any games if you looked at his attacking/skills & stats but to balance things up we ought to mention that he does flatten a few & at times it provides a great lift for the side. Not many run through Tai & most come of worse. Big Sam obviously puts defence high up on his priorities when picking a team. We also seem very obsessed with using our backs to carry the ball up, presumably to rest our forwards for defensive work, and he's pretty good at this too when it is very very tough. Lindop, obviously, will be a better all round centre in time.
The rule that was introduced in 2024 with the allowance for a 3rd Marquee Player specified that the player had to be Federation trained, so Vaughan wouldn`t have qualified to be used in that role.
I thought as we had Williams on Marquee as Fed trained we could have 2x overseas marquees if we wanted?
You would wonder why Tai has had so any games if you looked at his attacking/skills & stats but to balance things up we ought to mention that he does flatten a few & at times it provides a great lift for the side. Not many run through Tai & most come of worse. Big Sam obviously puts defence high up on his priorities when picking a team. We also seem very obsessed with using our backs to carry the ball up, presumably to rest our forwards for defensive work, and he's pretty good at this too when it is very very tough. Lindop, obviously, will be a better all round centre in time.
We have no alternative. Ratchford, Wrench injured and Lindop is being eased in as he is developing.
You are right Tai offers a lot in defence and in exit carries but not a lot with the ball.
So in effect another £160k to be spent on the cap.
£40k for 4 international players (Williams, Nicholson, Harrison & Currie all played internationally this year). £50k for Club trained dispensation - would imagine we qualify for this given the amount of youth players in the squad? 2x £35k players off cap - maybe Leyland is one?
Obviously Wigan, Saints & Leeds etc will have the same extra to play with - but at least we know we should have plenty of cap space left for a decent player to come in.
So in effect another £160k to be spent on the cap.
£40k for 4 international players (Williams, Nicholson, Harrison & Currie all played internationally this year). £50k for Club trained dispensation - would imagine we qualify for this given the amount of youth players in the squad? 2x £35k players off cap - maybe Leyland is one?
Obviously Wigan, Saints & Leeds etc will have the same extra to play with - but at least we know we should have plenty of cap space left for a decent player to come in.
The fact that we have used all of our Quota Spots gives us a problem with signing another player that would improve our 17 man squad.
Most British/French players that are any good are already retained for the 2025 season.