If you were offering marquee to a homegrown I'd use it on Newman, not to ensure he doesn't sign elsewhere but more to get as much of his wage off the cap as possible, given his injury record. O'Connor might interest other teams, but would they break the bank for him? I doubt it. Holroyd should get upgraded for sure.

On the flip side we'll no doubt see some of our current highest earners leave at the end of the year. Tetevano, one of the halfbacks, and maybe Bentley. I'd not break the bank for any of them, and I see no point in re-signing someone like Tetevano on a lower wage. I'd rather take a chance on an unproven overseas player who might actually play every week in the position they were signed in and not get sent off multiple times a year.

Last off-season was about shifting some dead wood and adding to the size of the squad. Both done. Next year just has to be about quality, particularly in the spine. I'd personally like to see a quality fullback and halfback. Next would be a genuine centre. Without them I don't see us doing much more than this year.

We have a huge amount of cap space for next year, two of our highest paid players will be leaving for a start (tet and Sezer)

I know we all get excited about Newman but he has holes in his game in D and he is a bit of a showboater and has a problem with his discipline (gobbing off to refs), plus what looks like recurring injury problems. He is not the Messiah. For sure he is a great athlete going forward and an entertainer but he’s not Marquee yet.

I don’t know how I feel about them making the salary cap ever more complex and putting exemptions in. Is the cost of administering the system worth the benefit? Or should it be scrapped altogether with some kind of revenue-based percentage calculation per club?

You could argue it has levelled the comp out a bit (although Saints?) but SL looks weaker than it has been for a long time with respect to raids from competitor codes.

saints have got lucky, maybe planned they would argue, that there 1,6,7 and 9 are home grown and have exemptions.
therefore they can spend more elsewhere

JJB said it yesterday about the salary cap, "it's not a race to the bottom"
Great quote and spot on

What exemptions do you think homegrown players have? The only allowance home grown players have is a one time “home grown player allowance” which counts for £5,000 pa for up to 10 players (up to a total of 10 players). The 10 players don’t need to all be at the club and can be playing in the UK, France or Australia for the club to maintain the benefit.

There was a period where Lomax was on a central contract along with a couple of others but I thought that stopped a while back?

You can argue that they’re on cheaper contracts due to being homegrown rather than being bought in, but that’s about it. The marquee rule is the only benefit now to recognise home grown; which is why the new rules ultimately won’t work; yes it may allow clubs to protect one junior from being poached; but what happens when the next one comes off the production line? Anything to help the clubs deal with poaching needed to be across multiple home grown players (for example by increasing the minimum earning threshold before being counted on the cap for young/ homegrown players way more significantly; whilst the 30k is a move in the right direction, NRL clubs can offer 80k as their minimum contract without blinking so there’s still a huge discrepancy. Allowing teams to have the first 50k would be a better step).

As for Saints specifically, our youth development seems a little odd at the moment. We seem to be incredible at developing spine players and props (watch out for Roberts, Robertson and Whitby in the halves in the near future; the latter of which has been compared favourably to Dodd, and similarly Delaney, Stephans and Cowen are all tipped to follow the likes of Thompson and Lees) but can’t seem to bring through an outside back or backrower for love nor money at the moment. Maybe it is luck (all youth development is to a certain extent) but there also seems to be a pattern.

I’d say Holdroyd / Newman. Both are going to be the best in SL and NRL worthy

Luke Brooks being linked with us again.

The new marquee rule might make it more viable?

Harry Newman is not the hot property most are making him out to be and I’m starting to doubt a top club would risk offering a big contract.

If he went to the NRL/RU right now he'd have clauses letting them stop paying if he got injured. No way would they take a risk on a long-term deal, as no insurer would cover it.

What Sts have shown (and Leeds before) is that if you get the core of the team right, and its competitive every year, then a bunch of other players will stick around for a bit less than they could earn elsewhere. Some will chase the cash in the short-term, but more than people might expect would be willing to earn a bit less and win things. Its not life-changing money in RL regardless of the team you play for.

Wests want to keep him now, I think.

Given whose available, I'd definitely take Brooks. Decent age, and doesn't seem to be injury prone, and better than what we currently have.

Sheens has said he wants to offer him a contract. How much that contract will be worth and for how long are the crucial questions. Suspect Leeds would be prepared to offer him more over a three/four year period.