A bit like Bradford in the early 00's? They would often steam roller teams and average players like Naylor and McAvoy would look good, but on the occasions teams stood up to them, they had very few ideas or options.

Alternatively, I cant recall which year it was, but Leeds had a fantastic set of backs and halfbacks, but didnt get anywhere because they had no props. Well, they had props, but you know what I mean.

It'll win you the last World Cup and the 2005 Tri-Nations, zilling the Australians in the process.

Are you seriously saying the kiwi back line is average?

says in paper today we are big admirers of salford prop ray cashmere not a bad player

He's too soft

There's one huge reason we can't have both. The "full stop" kind of reason - The Salary Cap. In a league such as SL where talent is at a premium rather ten-a-penny, unless you strike lucky and sign a team of Jamie Lyonesque players with mesmerising skills and absolute application who play purely for the game rather than they money it's impossible to hire a great pack and a great back line AND stay under the salary cap.







Different competition. Different dynamics. The Australians have a huge talent pool to pick from, which means it's impossible for a select group of players to hold the clubs to ransom (as has often been the case in Britain). An NRL club can afford to hire 13 good players because there are so MANY good players undercutting each other in order to find work. If your prize winger bangs on the chairman's table and demands a 40% raise you can afford to phuck him off because you know there are three or four other as talented or potentially as talented players always available. Salaries go down (relatively rather than absolutely) and it becomes easier to finance a good team without falling foul of the salary cap.

And we seem to think he is nailed on for you??

Well someone on here knows his GF very well and shes told them hes going to sign for wigan.

How do you explain the multiple Salary Cap breaches? Especially the phenomenal amount that Canterbury over spent by.

Stupidity. Paying over the odds. Look, I'm not suggesting you can buy the entire Australian test team and stay under the cap. But it is possible to buy a very good one, as recent NRL winning teamsheets suggest.

The same principal you were on about before where you can replace a good player with another good player for less money is what Leeds have done for years, if you've got a good academy then you can do this, that's why Leeds squad has been the strongest and deepest in the league for years. They've brought a lot of good players into there team through there academy for a lot less money than the people they were replacing.



The clubs with the best academies, Leeds, Wigan, yourselfs and (maybe) Wire are the ones who benefit from the cap the most when managed properly.



We didn't do it well for a long time, now we're sorting it out. Until clubs learn that you have to rely on your academy more and more and invest into them, the standard is going to be poor in the league.