Edited: Uncalled for.
I think the cap is far too small, considering it has to take into account a 25 man squad(usually). Whats the cap, 3.5 mill? So for a 25 man squad that's an average of $140 000 per player. Which is ludicrous when you have players who are arguably worth $1 million alone. Clubs struggle to keep stars with that cap. We need a much higher cap to start with. I also think there needs to be some kind of program within the cap to allow clubs to keep local juniors local, while still being able to buy big names from outside. I know at Parramatta we've had to let go a lot of promising juniors over the years because of the cap, it was a decision between the present and the future that shouldn't exist. Maybe an allowance of, say, $2 million for local juniors contracts, on top of a higher cap? Or incentives for local juniors to stay local from the NRL? I'm not sure, I'm not great with this business stuff, but there needs to be something for local juniors who want to stay local, and who the club wants to stay local. SBW is a good case in point. For mine, he is a Dogs junior as they brought him up through the lower grades to make him the player he is now. They may lose him (I personally think he'll stay, but for the sake of argument) because the cap restricts them in the way they can go about it. He is probably worth about 300 grand, IMO. His manager will push that up as high as he can, because player managers are merkins. So, say a conservative estimate gets his value up to 400 grand. The Dogs now face a choice, him, or one of the other "stars" off contract this season? They can't keep them all, even though from all reports there is a mutual desire for those players to stay. So what can they do? As player values increase, players are being squeezed out of sides by the cap. Adam Dykes is another good case in point. He was always a Shark at heart, and admittedly I'm not sure why he was let go, but his attitude is a good pointer. Say SBW is forced to leave, and goes to, say, Newcastle. He hates it there, longs to play for the Dogs, his club, but can't. And so he starts playing like crap, because the desire isn't there, and winds up becoming a sub rate first grader. Talent wasted. The NRL needs to accept that it isn't a business. I mean, it is in many ways, but players have hearts. They have homes within the game. They aren't all mercenaries after the cash. Nathan Hindmarsh loves the Eels, they are a part of him as much as he is a part of them. Same for Danny Buderus and Newcastle. Same for Simon Woolford, Jason Croker and Canberra.
On the flipside of this, clubs may be so pressed to retain these type of guys that they miss out on stars, or lose some juniors, or players who like the club but could play somewhere else. There needs to be a system in place that rewards local juniors and true clubmen, not a salary cap that basically means they're in a lottery as to whether they stay or go....
. My appologies if i read something between the lines that wasn't intended. 
