For the good of the game we may have to start making decisions that won't sit well with all clubs. We are never going to reach a situation where all clubs are equal financially, however some clubs are in a position to keep the great players in our game. That's my point, the game is the big issue. I'm all for giving the clubs power and making them stronger, but at the moment we must consider the game as a whole. Losing players like Israel is sad for our game, kids are confused, the neighbours dogs are howling, it's been terrible.
So in regards to the SALARY CAP it should be reset at a maximum and a minimum. The minimum should be whatever the NRL grant is, if that is up to $3.9 million, that's the cap minimum. But if a club can afford it, they should be able to spend up to $2 million more than this and all clubs should have the opportunity to sign a marquee type player that is not included in the cap. Forget equalisation, ove the medium to long term any efforts to artificially equalise anything never works, it just wastes time and time is money.
This post, along with the keeping squads together post should form the goals of any new system.
I base my reasoning on sound principles. No matter what comp it is, sport and in life, there are always more successful teams and less successful teams. To have
balance in this great fact of life is
almost impossible to maintain.
If you had
balance, what you in fact end up with
is mediocrity across the board over the long term.
The other end of the spectrum is open market like the European soccer leagues, but they are finding out just now this does not allow everyone to survive fairly (as 50% of euro clubs are broke). This is a result of recent leaps in tv income. They are considering a salary cap - indeed - believe its essential now.
The NRL needs to pick a road But they
must forget balance
I believe like in the posts I pointed out: you must promote teams staying together and breeding young players (we dont have a draft) AND you must forget anal balancing.
So I think the cap should be even softer than it is now. Believe it or not this will help reflect real life desires in us humans than any artificial restriction.....and note how vague yet effective soccers new salary cap may be.
Over the coming years I propose more: long serving player discounts, youngster discounts, cross code discounts
Instead of striving for winning clubs to lift trophies,
what people love is winning teams that are built in front of our eyes.....and even winner-supporters need a break from winning to hunger for it again.
thats your 'balance' thats your perfect comp, and its a different way at getting balance. But lets not seek perfection, because at this rate cronulla will never win in plain sight, and the broncos always seem to be come near the top, so why try!? I am enjoying watching a young broncos team grow up again
BUT allowing cronulla to build a long term team right now for cheaper (salary cap terms) means they one day might win something without compromising the real-life mimicing effect which drives our human spirit. ATM monetary limitation alone is not enough, they need to be moved to retain and train players, make it feel "cronulla" when they win, and save some coin. No hard caps, it robs clubs, stops them from achieving greatness for the "mediocre" effect.
We need to mimic real life as much as possible, triumph and trajedy, success and failure, without killing anyone for real
AND this issue is a different one from clubs being able to spend more money. thats about the next tv deal and the amount of money you have to spend should never enter into a salary cap discussion because it skewers the system of the cap....you can have a brilliant cap discussion without mentioning any money. the two are separate.
