Backing from Sky and First Utility could help plug the drain of talent

Looking around the official launch of the competition’s 19th season at Manchester’s Event City yesterday, there were plenty of the usual stars of the game on show.

Whether that be Huddersfield Giants’ Man of Steel Danny Brough, the enigmatic Salford City Reds half-back Rangi Chase, Wigan Warriors’ prolific winger Josh Charnley or – before jetting off to Portugal for the club’s warm-weather training – Leeds Rhinos and England captain Kevin Sinfield, they were all there brimming with confidence and exuberance as the season draws ever closer.

Well, as Hull FC’s Tom Lineham put it, some were perhaps getting a little jaded “after their 200th interview”.

Admittedly, there is only so much that can be said before a ball is hurled in anger and the sooner the season kicks off for real – champions Wigan host Huddersfield on Friday – the better it will be for everyone.

Some of them, meanwhile, looked a little out of place, especially when departing in their full playing kit yet armed with a carrier bag of goodies from the various sponsors that have helped give the domestic sport such a lift in recent weeks.

It is that improved commercial return, though, that has raised confidence levels for the sport of late and possibly enabled serious discussions about the potential of introducing salary cap exemptions for marque players from 2015.

It has been on the agenda before but never really received fulsome support given many clubs were not even able to afford the standard cap – around £1.7m for the last few years – let alone have the luxury of splashing out even further to try to secure a player of, let us say, for example, Sonny Bill Williams’s calibre.

Looking at the financial plight of Bradford Bulls, London Broncos and Wakefield Trinity Wildcats, many clubs are clearly still not in that position.

However, the new broadcast deal secured with Sky Sports until 2021 – reportedly worth more than £200m – has not only eased those troubled clubs’ immediate financial future but offered the more affluent Super League members the chance to plough more money into player recruitment.

Of course, whether a player like Williams would ever want to play for Salford is another matter, but that club’s generous benefactor Marwan Koukash – who once said he was bidding for the New Zealand superstar – would at least have more room in which to facilitate such a deal.

The chance to recruit some of the NRL’s best talent has diminished recently due to the restraints of the cap here and the swelling of cash on offer Down Under where the salary limit is now around £4m.

But, with Wigan preparing to head Down Under to face the NRL champions Sydney Roosters later this month, RFL chief executive Nigel Wood spoke enthusiastically yesterday of Super League’s “world-class clubs” and its need for its elite teams “to be cut loose to be internationally competitive”.

That prompted questions about whether that entailed the cap being less stringent.

“That is entirely a matter for the clubs,” said Wood.

“But the centre (the RFL) has been promoting the introduction of a marque player allowance for a couple of years now.

“One of the central advantages of the (Sky) contract extension is that we can move the funding for clubs to salary cap level pretty quickly.

“That has been a long-term aspiration for the sport, and it should be a terrific boost for the standard of the competition.”

Broken down, it is clear to see why most clubs were so delighted to see Super League’s involvement with Sky extended in a deal that has increased its worth by around 30 per cent although Wigan’s chairman Ian Lenagan continues to believe more could have been secured.

Effectively, the clubs will all receive a £300,000 top-up on their £1.2m allocation from the existing Sky deal this season and those that ultimately make up the 12-team competition in 2015 will see that rise again to £1.8m.

Although the cap itself might not alter greatly, the ability to invest some of that additional money on a player with the so-called X-factor would only enrich the competition further.

Plenty of coaches are keen on the idea and, importantly, so are an increasing number of club powerbrokers, not just Koukash but the likes of Leeds’s Gary Hetherington and Hull FC’s Adam Pearson.

Most importantly, though, any potential change in that cap ruling would allow clubs to do their best to ensure the game’s best talent does not get enticed away to the NRL.

Retaining the likes of Brough, Lineham, O’Loughlin, Ryan Hall, Ben Crooks and co is crucial to enable Super League to continue attracting fresh sponsors like its new title partner First Utility.

With Sam Tomkins departing champions Wigan for New Zealand Warriors and the Burgess brothers already doing their stuff for South Sydney, just like England colleague James Graham is at Canterbury, the lure for Britain’s finest talent is clear for all to see.

Yesterday’s launch pointed towards a brighter future for the sport and – for all the familiar faces being there – there was also a fresh feel ahead of what the campaign might have in store.

Super League has got some of its glitz back and it needs to ensure that does not fade again anytime soon.

Now the RFL have done their bit by delivering the deals which have secured funds to safeguard the sport for the foreseeable future, it will be intriguing to see if clubs agree to take a bold step of their own and push for an era of “marque” quality.