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Definitely a lot less depth this year and bar partington the lads we have brought in haven’t been improvements on what we had(so far)

Yes it looks strange,I’m presuming these new contracts for Watkins burgess etc are where some of our moneys gone!just looks a strange squad just no cover in the backs and about 10 2nd rowers!some of it is luck,Leigh at the minute are doing well with a small squad but no injuries as yet,

We definitely have our best squad in decades and can beat anyone on our day. Our forwards play greater than the sum of their parts and we have some class in the backs. Rowley is our superpower though, imo. He gives the lads confidence and freedom to be better as a team. I'm not having a go at the players in any way. We're the best team to watch in SL (most week... lookig to you Hull KR and Wakey 🤣). It's just, on paper, I don't see how we are spending nearly £2 million.

Those players on £20k don't count towards the cap, I don't think. Only the highest 25 paid players do, which I think is a joke. It's another way for the bigger teams to spend even more money on their overall roster. It should be the top 30 like it is in the NRL.

The academy dispensation (another thing in the favour of the big teams) is quite negligible, though for Saints having say, Roby and Lomax as marquee palyers, they only count as £70k and not £150k (another joke to benefit certain teams)... Warrington don't have that with Williams and who ever else (McGuire, Vaughan, Dufty?). Nor do Hull. Leeds probably don't with their current squad. I imagine Farrell may be one for Wigan but no other local lad. Catalans marquee player will not be the French lads. So for most teams their marquee players are costing £300k on the cap, leaving £1.8m for the other 23 players. So, basically we aren't using the second marquee spot but are spending the rest. So, if we take away Brodie's wage we are spending around £1.8 on, not just the other 24 players, but the entire squad - 26 is it? If so, that's £70k for each of those 26 players, on average. For that money I think we should a bit more quality in the pack and as cover for the backs. I was shocked when I heard how much we were spending, I thought we'd have been around £1.8 including Brodie... leaving around £300k to spend (a £150k type of prop, another quality prop in the £80-100k, and some depth in the outside backs £50-£70 split between two players).

Warrington:

Thewlis
Wrench
Darbyshire
Lynch
Thewlis Jr
Dean
Hayes
Philbin
Thomas
Reddeclife
Schingler
Doolan
Currie
Whitehead
Holroyd

So 15 of their 34 man squad is either on academy graduate £20k or is eligible for salary cap discount

Realistically the difference is that the youngsters enable the big clubs to name 22 man squads during injury crises unlike us getting to 19.

By the way I think we do pay relatively high wages for the quality of our players. Partly cos we have to. Players will play for less cash if they are more likely to win trophies (or the club has a recent history of doing so) and if they have been there since they were kids. Part of it is just cos that’s what we do.

But realistically most other SL clubs have a 25 man squad who have a chance of playing regularly plus kids to give cover in emergencies and rest an extra player or two through the season. Our top 20 or so are paid a similar level to other clubs top 20-25 but we discount less against marquee and home grown rules. Think we are £3-400k below salary cap. For most clubs c£150k of that will be 7 young players who have little chance of playing more than a game or two.


Other SL clubs without a cat 1 academy

Leigh have a 28 man squad and haven’t had a proper academy for years.
Hull KR have 31 and will benefit from the old City of Hull academy
Cas have 36 (!!) but haven’t had the disruption in their junior development that we have

All 3 of those will be closer to the cap than us but I wouldn’t swap our squad for any of theirs.

Not very confident for Sunday with this squad tbh. Backs are still good but with the way we’ve been playing and how safe hudds play.

Good squad that.
Quite fancy us against this rigid boring lot.
Thought we looked better with atkin at acting half than Borough and moved it around quicker

I am normally glass half full but this weekends game has me concerned. Hudds have big forwards, we have 3 Props and no specialist hooker. We will only win if we can contain their forwards otherwise it is a long afternoon. The clubs lust for 2nd rows make no sense, we need personnel in - a back or Prop, look at the business KR/Wakey are doing this season, player swaps.