Wigan chief lays bare salary cap struggles as alarming scenario made clear

Wigan Warriors CEO Kris Radlinski has made clear the severity of the salary cap struggles facing clubs in the game producing young talent.

Last weekend, Warriors head coach Matt Peet fielded a side made up almost entirely of young players that had come through the club’s youth system in a Super League clash away against Hull KR.

This weekend, the two clubs square off again in the Challenge Cup final at Wembley. There will be far fewer of those very young players involved, but the Cherry and Whites’ squad is still expected to be littered with their own talent.

That, of course, includes the likes of experienced half-back Harry Smith and veteran back-rower Liam Farrell.

But it also includes at least two 20-year-olds in the shape of Noah Hodkinson and Jack Farrimond.

And it’s youngsters like that pair who Wigan currently face an uphill battle to keep hold of due to the salary cap restrictions in the game.

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‘These lads should be earning more than they’re earning… they’re going to play at Wembley and yet we can’t pay them what they deserve’

Playmaker Farrimond made his first-team debut back in 2024, but Saturday’s showpiece at Wembley against KR will only be his 30th appearance for Wigan.

Hodkinson meanwhile only made his senior debut for the club back in March, with this weekend’s Challenge Cup final bringing his seventh game at first-team level in a Warriors shirt.

When asked about retaining young talent like those two, Radlinski said: “It’s an impossible challenge.

“Noah’s going to play in a cup final at the weekend, and if he has the game that he did in the semi-final (against St Helens), he could get man-of-the-match.

“But there’s nothing within the rules to allow me to pay him any more money.

“I fully understand salary cap and sustainability, but we need to protect it, because we’re not currently.

“These lads should be earning more than they’re earning… they’re going to play at Wembley, play in front of thousands of people live on TV and yet we can’t pay them what they deserve.

“Noah’s had a breakthrough season. Now he has played, there should be an avenue there to reward him, because there will be other clubs, other codes and other sports looking at taking a gamble on this kid.

“We’re unprotected to be able to do anything about it.”

‘We raise these issues all the time, it’s making people aware that the challenges are very, very real’

Super League’s salary cap has been frozen at £2.1 million per annum since 2020.

There have been tweaks in how that cap can be distributed between a squad since, but the figure has remained the same, and no further allowances have been made to try and help clubs keep hold of their homegrown talent.

Radlinski admitted: “Everyone knows the issues, but it’s a bit chicken and egg.

“Until we know the investment that’s coming in (to the British game), the rules we’re playing with, we can’t really change anything here.

“We raise these issues all the time, it’s making people aware that the challenges are very, very real.

“Unless we do something, there are players going to the NRL that are solid players and they’re demanding a salary which can be life-changing.

“They can go there for two years, fail, and come back to pick it back up but they’ll be half a million quid richer.

“I personally think we’ve got to storytell better. If you’re 19/20/21, why not go to Australia for a couple of years and get paid a lot of money?

“What’s our counter argument to that? What story are we telling? We’ve got to get to a place where we can do that.

“We’re not a second-choice, we’re actually a destination, that’s what I’d like to get to.”

‘If somebody does what Noah has done, we should be able to reward them for that kind of thing’

Ahead of the 2026 campaign, Wigan bid farewell to three of their youth products in the shape of Liam Byrne, Harvie Hill and Jacob Douglas.

The trio joined fellow Super League clubs Warrington Wolves, Hull FC and St Helens respectively.

Where Hill was concerned in particular, the reasons behind his departure included Wigan’s hands being largely tied on their salary cap, which is being stretched to its maximum capacity.

Fearing they haven’t seen the last of exits like that, CEO Radlinski said: “There will come a time in another six months or 12 months or two years where I’ll have to make a decision on a player that I don’t want to lose, but there’s just no way to retain him.

“We’ll always produce players and we’ll always go out and attract talent. But somehow, it’s finding that balance, like the breakthrough season kind of thing.

“If somebody does what Noah (Hodkinson) has done, for example, we should be able to reward them for that kind of thing.

“We’ll never stop investing in our youth, it’s worked for us for many years.

“But I think we need a serious conversation.

“We look at salary cap through the eyes of an accountant, and I’d like us to look at it through the eyes of Walt Disney… we need to be imaginative and tell a story of where the game is going to be.

“It can’t just be about profits and losses.”

‘You can go and work at Costa Coffee and earn a similar wage to some players, and that can’t be a good look for our sport’

Radlinski himself broke through the youth system of boyhood club Wigan and went on to enjoy an illustrious career donning cherry and white as he racked up over 300 first-team appearances.

Now, he is among the main stakeholders when it comes to decisions on players’ futures, with the purse strings often unable to be opened up to the extent that all involved would like in an ideal world.

The solution is not a straightforward one, but Radlinski has ideas to propose to the powers that be at the Rugby Football League (RFL), as he explains: “At this moment in time, there are players earning under £30,000 who are under-21 and aren’t on your cap.

“We’re having to make decisions on players come 22, and statistics show we are a late-man duration sport, so why are we making decisions then?

“As a start, I’d put that up to 23. If a player is 23, you can’t put them on £30,000, I’d put that up to £50,000.

“That’s just one way of at least giving a player a bit of something.

“You can go and work at Costa Coffee and earn a similar wage to some players, and that can’t be a good look for our sport when we’ve got elite players playing at Wembley choosing which of those careers they want.

“We’ve got to make it attractive and I don’t think at this moment in time that the proposition is as good as it should be.”