Re: Twelve Ways To Make Rugby League Great Again : Sat Aug 11, 2018 11:22 pm
puroresu_boy wrote:
It is a problem in a salary capped sport. The NRL is salary capped and they have had more than 4 sides winning the premiership in the same time period.
If we actually had a salary cap system that worked we possibly have a real competition where from 1 - 8 there was a genuine exciting play off system where anyone could win like you see in the NRL.
What we have is salary cap which isnt maxed out by all sides and then the same sides year on year reaching or winning the Grand Final.
A salary cap should mean that its genuinely possible for the majority of sides to believe they can win it. We are well away from that.
If we actually had a salary cap system that worked we possibly have a real competition where from 1 - 8 there was a genuine exciting play off system where anyone could win like you see in the NRL.
What we have is salary cap which isnt maxed out by all sides and then the same sides year on year reaching or winning the Grand Final.
A salary cap should mean that its genuinely possible for the majority of sides to believe they can win it. We are well away from that.
There can only be 1 or 2 sides who aren’t at or near maxing the salary cap. I’d say probably Widnes, maybe Salford now (but were maxing it under Koukash). That doesn’t explain why the other 10 teams aren’t winning the comp between them and it’s concentrated at 3 clubs now.
I think we worry over the salary cap far too much in RL and obsess about it not increasing and that’s the cause of our woes. I think the other advantages the NRL has far outweigh any increased salary cap.
Namely:
- their feeder club system
- their league structure
The feeder club system is by far the best way to develop players. I’m sure I read a stat a while ago that the average of NRL debut was around 24 years old. The SL equivalent must be a lot lower, I’d guess at around 19 or 20. Their youngsters get those valuable extra years playing against men in their second grade. Ours have to make the step up 3 or 4 years earlier and then get sporadic game time during that time.
Their league structure is massively advantageous toward a comp where multiple teams can be successful over a few years. No threat of relegations means that clubs can plan for next season and the season after without having to panic about this year and the clubs future. Then the bottom half of the table clubs get a helping hand by only having to play the top teams from last year once. This is a huge advantage and is often overlooked when we compare the 2 comps.