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Saints Boss Backs Central Contracts

St Helens Head Coach Keiron Cunningham has come out in favour of plans to award central contracts to the top English players in Super League.

The selected players could be in line for a £25,000 bonus on top of their wages in a bid to stop the flow of talent down under to the NRL.

One player is already believed to be earning this boost with two more to follow this year, despite some clubs seemingly being unaware of the system. This is something the RFL dispute saying the clubs were informed twice of this change 18 months ago.

It only seems a matter of time now before central contracts are brought in for all England players to stop the player drain to the Southern Hemisphere. It is believed the deals could also give the RFL extra marketing opportunities with the players. Central contracts for our star players are something we have long been in favour of here at SARL and in a recent Twitter Poll 58% of our followers backed central contracts so it seems the Rugby League Family cautiously is behind the idea.

There was an embarrassing U-turn from the RFL on plans to have an England camp in Dubai last month and there are calls for the Governing body to have the final say on player availability as they do in other sports such as Cricket and the 15 man code.

Cunningham was quoted in the Daily Mirror as saying: “The salary cap is going up in the NRL again next year and it could be $10million.

“I believe central contracts is a good idea and it would help clubs keep hold of players. It shows willing from the league , if we’re not going to increase the salary cap then we’ve got to do something.”

What are your views on central contracts, is it the way forward to help Super League and the England national side?

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