Why not allow one marquee player a year, providing the club can afford it? Then each following year an additional 10% of the salary would be subject to the salary cap?

Sorry but I think he will be even more constricted at Souths than at Wigan. Reynolds plays on the right, George will play on the left, and never the twain shall meet. If you really think Wane is stifling George have a look at Souths for a bit next season, they really are dull. Waney's Wigan look like the Harlem Globetrotters in comparison to Madge's Souths .

I have a radical idea. Allow clubs to pay players what they can afford to pay them?!

The standard of SL is woeful at the moment the NRL is light years ahead, you can't begrudge a lad going to test himself against the best in the World. The only way however we will raise standards is if we are able to bring over a few quality Auzzies rather than the journey men we are currently only able to attract. We also need to limit overseas players so we only bring ones who will significantly raise standards.

We have been trying to stop average overseas players from coming over for years and still most clubs are absolutely full of them.

Force clubs to develop their own, pay players what they are worth and ensure only quality overseas signings would be considered by limiting each team to 3. I don't buy this employment law argument regarding access to work there are clearly loop holes that could be exploited.

As for Williams, some of the figures being thrown around are pure fantasy in my opinion. He is still a prospect and for me he still has to string a consistent season together. Clearly he is very talented and potentially outstanding but he is still some way off justifying anywhere near the money being mentioned.

He probably will lift his wage up by moving but I highly doubt if he does go that will be the motivation for him going.

As frustrating as it is for us fans until the RFL sort the game out and stop pandering to the lowest common denominator under the premis a competitive season is a quality season then we will always lose our best players to a far superior competition.

Spot on. Souths are indeed dull, dull, dull.

Most clubs aren't even taking advantage of the marquee player rule.

We seem to have been in a state of stagnation now for so long in the British game that I can barely remember a time when we weren't. You've really got to go back to the early 90s to find an era when we were pushing the Aussies hard internationally and when there were lots of star players on our domestic scene.

But as you seem to imply in your last post, Geoff, you sometimes get the feeling that many British clubs are quite happy not even to try and compete at a higher level.

Superficially, you wonder why - when it's always the same three or four teams who win the silverware. But in actual fact it's probably another repercussion of the salary cap. Why should the likes of Wakey feel any drive to get their act together when the RFL have already indicated that they favour dumbing down from the top as a means of levelling things out?

Like when we spent £440000 on Martin Offiah?

Back when 440000 quid was a lot of money?

Been watching those old games on Wigan TV. Truly back then we had star-studded squads. And it showed in the quality of the football.

The tempo of the game was much quicker than today's yawnathons.
IT takes teams today 5 minutes while they scratch their rollacks to decide what they are going to do with a penalty.
Ive enjoyed the Wigan v Saints matches as much for the crowds reactions as the rugby. The ST try at Murreyfield still makes me laugh as the Saints backs hadn't got a clue how to stop him or even see the move coming.

A.O.P. Maybe I was placing to much emphasis on the Souths connection, the point I was trying to make was at Wigan his effectiveness seems to be restricted with this strict left-side right-side role for the halfbacks.
If both halfbacks are of similar ability I can almost come to terms with the system which seems to be in vogue at present, but like I have pointed out by being allowed to roam from the left to the right on the odd occasion Wigan may get more out of George.
The element of surprise George popping up on the left could have opposing defences wondering how to combat this.

The best sides are never too rigid about it. The Cowboys play mostly Morgan on the right and JT on the left, alongside his pal Gavin Cooper. But they are prepared to mix it up a bit too.

The paradox at Wigan was that Smith and Williams were not at all the same kind of player, and hence the left/right split, as you say, didn't sit so well.