Thursday 20 April 2017 09:50, UK
Phil Clarke asks if Super League teams should publicise a match-day 17's percentage of the club's total salary cap...
We live in an age in which information is shared more openly. It's probably the internet that's primarily responsible, but whatever the reason we now have access to, and awareness of, things which were deemed private in the past.
In Rugby League, clubs announce the length of contracts that their players sign, and most fans know when one of their team is in the last year of his contract.
They often release statements detailing the injury that a player has suffered and when he's expected to be back. Some of them decide to tell their supporters who they've signed for next season, even when they are only halfway through the current one, but at present none of them say much about the salary cap - well not publicly.
You often hear fans talk about a certain result being a good win for them based on the team they had out on the field. Well, how about when a team is announced, the club state what percentage of their salary cap they have in their match-day 17?
I don't want to know what each player earns, that's a private matter, but I would be fascinated to see how a team with, say, 50% of their salary cap gets on against a team with 80%. I am of course assuming that all of the teams spend up to the salary cap, which is perhaps another thing that supporters might want to know.
The principle exists I suppose with fantasy teams, where plenty of fans play at being chairman or chief executive of a Super League club.
They have a budget and know that injuries or suspensions are part of the game. It's up to you how you spread your money across your highest-paid 25 players, as well as how important you think the players in jerseys 26-35 are, and what they deserve to be paid.
Most of the leading clubs now take this into account and track their win/loss records against the amount of money that they have out on the field.
It might not satisfy their fans if the team lose, but it helps to give some context to the result and indicate if your team is playing to its potential. It can also influence future contract negotiations if the team doesn't win when a player is in the team.
You can start to understand results better when you see a team that has several squad numbers on the back of their jerseys that are higher than 30 - I know that occasionally a big-name player may be given a high squad number like Todd Carney in 29, but these are very rare examples.
I suppose it's possible that you could spend up to 90% of your salary cap on your best 17 players, but this is unlikely. I'd imagine that if the big-name players were all injured and you had your lowest paid 17 players, it would still be above 30% of your money out on the field.
Would it provide extra motivation for the team or is it inevitable that they will lose? Does it add to the game, and do supporters want to know this information?
It's probably only a matter of time before a sport somewhere in the world does this. In this age of the fantasy league, should we go first?
