loinertillidie wrote:
My understanding is that Hetherington got spooked by the figures. When Leeds Tykes were in the Premiership and looking to cement their stature as a club, it was explained to both Caddick and Hetherington that for the money that they were paying their International RL players they wouldn't get anyone good enough to compete in the Premiership. If they wanted to compete they had to pay the cash.
Caddick got this and was happy to go go for it, Hetherington flat refused to pay middle of the road Union players twice what World Class League players were on.
For me allowing Hetherington to have his way killed Carnegie as a club. It takes time, had Caddick persisted the Union side would be a serious brand. As it is it is failing.
I'm not surprised GH was spooked by the figures, they're mind bending. Two top players at many RU clubs will earn the entire SL cap. Saracens lose 2-3 million quid a year on top of a cap of 7.5 million + the extra they are allowed to spend over that for their internationals and plus all the money they were siphoning into player "businesses".
It's a shame, I agree, there must be loads of great young players who have to travel elsewhere to play.