Super League still facing questions, from salary cap cuts to when to resume play

Super League teams are each allowed two marquee players whose salary cap hit is limited to 150,000 pounds ($255,890) no matter their actual pay. The Wolfpack’s marquee players are Williams and Australian-born Samoan international back Ricky Leutele.

Toronto coach Brian McDermott wonders about the mechanics of reducing the salary caps with so little lead time.

“I really do question how that can happen over the space of 12 months,” McDermott said of the proposed cut. “I think a fair warning has to be given to all clubs. Because most clubs will have recruited or are in mid-recruitment for next year. Some clubs will have concluded their recruitment for 2021, so you can hardly reduce their salary cap.

“Any reduction in salary cap is going to have a direct impact on the names that we can recruit.”

The Wolfpack have had salary cap issues this season, arguing that they have to pay a premium to get players to leave their families and stay part of the season in Canada. Attempts to sign England international Kallum Watkins have dragged on in recent weeks.

Inglis retired in April 2019, citing knee and shoulder injuries. He played 263 NRL matches for the Melbourne Storm and South Sydney Rabbitohs as well as 39 test matches for Australia and 32 State of Origins for Queensland.

In retiring with more than a season-and-a-half remaining on Rabbitohs’ contract, the six-foot-four, 231-pounder reportedly left some $1.5 million Australian ($1.37 million) on the table.

Warrington is owned by music promoter Simon Moran, who tied for 851st on the recent Times of London “Rich List: 2020” with a net worth of 142 million pounds ($242.4 million), sandwiched between Phil Collins and Adele.

McDermott called the hard-running Inglis “one of the legends of the game.”

“A great capture for Warrington,” he added

The transatlantic Wolfpack (0-6-0) are currently on hiatus in England and have not played since March 11, when they blanked Huddersfield Giants 18-0 in the fifth round of the Challenge Cup.

While the British government has given a provisional green light to sporting events behind closed doors in June, Hull Kingston Rovers owner Neil Hudgell said in a letter to club members that he does not expect games before July at the earliest while COVID-19 protocol is worked through.

The lengthy hiatus has McDermott worried about his players.

“How long can you expect a player to keep motivated for or to live a certain lifestyle for? Without being able to put into action some of the things they’re planning for,” asked the Wolfpack coach, a former England and Great Britain international. “That’s the question I’d be asking right now, if I was a player.

“We ask players to live a certain lifestyle for 10 months a year, 10 1/2 months a year — this is including pre-season — where they are restricted from doing what they want, when they want. For the majority of that 10 1/2 months, they have a game to look forward to at the weekend. So while they do find it a very tough and very disciplined regime that they live under, the payback is they get to put into play or they get to action some of that plan.

“At the moment we’re asking those players to live that disciplined lifestyle in terms of diet and nutrition and physical activity and training and conditioning, yet they don’t get to have that release of a game on the weekend.”

McDermott suggests the players stand down for a time if the season is not to resume until later this summer — to avoid physical and mental burnout.

Toronto and France’s Catalan are the two non-English clubs in Super League.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 19, 2020.

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Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

Super League still facing questions, from salary cap cuts to when to resume play

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