We are lead to believe, with no reason to think otherwise, that Bradford are now back in the black with the finances looking healthy again. This of course is excellent news and we all look forward to bolstering the team and making some major signings in the next few years to put us back up at the top where we belong. It's as simple as that! Or is it...
The fact that we have technically infringed the salary cap in the last few years tells you something quite significant. Whilst we have struggled on with a weakened squad we have filled the salary cap. Quite a stunning fact when you think about it.
Firstly and most importantly I believe the salary cap is an excellent tool in allowing clubs to compete on an even playing field. Every year you'll hear the Waldorf and Stadler of Sky Sports bleating on about 'The closest year yet' or 'The competition just gets stronger, we say it every year and it's true'. Yes guys we get the picture (and yes you love the 'Entertainers of Super League' too you needn't repeat that ad infinitum every season. It's dull, get over it.)
Secondly it stops the cash rich Wiggin's of the world signing up all the top players and then falsely ruling the game for generations.
It does for me, however, shift the focus of fans eyes to other teams involved in RL. 'What are you carping on about? Keighley? Barrow?' I hear you ask. No. I am talking about back office accounting and contract negotiations teams.
At the minute in the league Leeds, it pains me to say, rule the roost and appear at times to be unstoppable. To pay them a compliment for once, their success appears to be based on their academy bringing on a squad that has played and matured together for several seasons so that the understanding between them is almost automatic. It also has the major benefit of being cheap. Most of the starlets were signed on junior contracts early and so have being playing well above their value for a season or two now.
Their situation mirrors, almost exactly, where our beloved Bulls were at the beginning of this century. Pryce, Peacock, Fielden, Reardon and to some extent Deacon had come through the ranks, were cheap and playing very well. Then came the contract ends and we simply could not afford to pay them their worth and keep the team together.
Many people will cite Noble or Caisley as a factor in driving players away but the simple reasons appear to be that Reardon was offered more than double to play at Warrington, Peacock was offered more, Fielden went for 90k erm sorry for the challenge and Pryce went for cash.
Numerous Sts fans will tell me over and over 'It wasn't the money for Pryce he wanted to play 6'. Really? We'll my more reliable sources say he was offered more and Bradford deliberated on the damage to the Salary Cap that would ensue and by the time they'd matched the offer, he'd signed and the deed was done. I stand to be corrected if anyone out there knows the exact truth but it does lead you to look closely at this salary cap idea.
Leeds' dominance and strong squad we have looked at and the encouraging thing to note is that if they are to stay within the cap some players are going to have to go. They can't continue with the same squad and add players like Buderas without the loss of Ellis and I suspect others. Look at 1-17 with Leeds and you can see the longer they stay together the higher the wage bill becomes and having two excellent hookers like Buderas and Diskin is going to be costly. Peacock has signed for another term. Lauititi will not be coming cheap nor will Donald, Toopi, Webb, Senior and Sinfield. With Ellis and Senior already heading to the door and the quick fix Aussie raid you can see a season or two's uncertainty ahead.
Every other team in the league appears much of a muchness with quality in most of the starting berths and some solid players on the interchange bench. In this respect the salary cap is spot on (we even resorted to playing McAvoy in the starting 13 for goodness sake!) and we have to say the Sky mantra is correct and games and comps are getting closer.
There is one interesting exception to this. A team that gets a minor slap on the wrist for a minor infringement of the cap but yet boasts no less that 17 internationals in their ranks. All this on an average crowd no more than ours. A team that is rightly called the entertainers I suppose and is a star studded unit that, although you'd hate to admit it, have that much skill packed in it's almost a pleasure to watch them. Step forward St Helen's.
I have a friend who is a St's fan, and in true glory hunter tradition comes from.....Wakefield! She will happily tell me that players will take a pay cut to go play for St's because it's a privilege and they are guaranteed to win something. What is truly scary is she actually believes this!!! She believes that grown men, in a short career which carries the very real danger of being cut shorter (Karl Pratt for example) will take less than they are worth just to play for Saints. Seems like Wakefield is a large village...
You can see why she makes these protestations; Wellens, Gardner, Gidley, Meli, Tallau, Pryce, Long before we get to Cayless, Sculthorpe, Cunningham, Gilmour etc. I'd be twitchy about the cap with that lot in harness!
So looking at our squad in comparison to St Helen's, we are weaker but we are spending the same amount of money on it? Similar sized crowds and I'd suspect similar turn over in the merchandise department? On second thoughts, maybe she is right, maybe people will take a cut to play for Sts. Or maybe, just maybe, their management have got something right.
Putting aside accusations of teams making overseas payments or signing players to play Union when they will never even train with the 15 man squad (we have to accept St Helen's are abiding by the rules otherwise the RFL would have come down on them) my eyes are firmly open now.
When we sit now, with our finances in order, to look at our next signings we make, I urge the Bradford Board to sign the greatest team in Super League, one that achieves the unthinkable and has taken more international scalps than any other team...
The St Helen's finance and contract negotiation team.