POLICING the salary cap properly is the best way to ensure top quality competition in Super League.

There were rock solid financial reasons why the cap was brought in for the long term health of the game of Rugby League as a whole and noone should be allowed to flaunt that.

Clubs are threatened with fines if they exceed the cap at the moment but I don't see much being done to carry that out.

Even if it was being enforced, I still don't think it goes far enough - I'd like to see teams have points deducted for busting the cap.

Fines are not the worst way to hurt a club with lots of money but taking points away from them certainly is.

And I'd even go as far as taking prize money off any team that wins Super League by breaking the rules. If they've effectively won the competition illegally then we shouldn't handing over £250,000 to them.

Winning Super League brings in a lot of extra income through merchandise, improved sponsorship and revenue through the gates so it needs something drastic to really get the message across that ignoring the salary cap is not an option.

Super League needs to show solidarity on this one and lay down the law.

The problem is our game was started by five blokes hiding away in a hotel in Huddersfield and I sometimes think that mentality of deceit has stayed with us through the last century.

It's not a question of wanting to hamstring anyone. If you've got more fans coming through the gates, good merchandise and a solid financial backing then of course you can go out and hire the best players.

The smaller clubs should not be jealous of those who enjoy that kind of success, they've got to emulate it and reach for the top themselves. Having a 'cut down the tall poppy' type attitude doesn't help anyone.

But buying success short term by ignoring the cap and giving yourself an unfair advantage isn't on and should be punished.

Another idea to be looked at to keep up a high level of competition is using a draft system for young players similar to the way they do in American football where the best go to the club with the most problems.

That keeps everyone healthy, ensures a close competition from year to year and stops one team from dominating too much.

The match between Leeds and London tonight sees the welcome introduction of a four way communication system between the referee, the linesmen and the coaching referee.

Anything that helps the bloke in the middle to make the right decisions has got to be encouraged and technology seems to be the best way to do that so we need to utilise it.

There were two tries given at a crucial period in our game on Sunday that I wasn't happy with and felt the linesmen could have played a valuable part in pointing out the problems.

As the game gets faster, it inevitably becomes harder for the referee to see everything that's going on across the field so he needs the help. There's no doubt whose in charge, but the other officials can provide him with extra information.

I'm particularly keen to see the linesmen handle the 10 metre rule at play-the-balls because there have been a number of games I've watched this year where there's been disgraceful off side problems.

It's getting worse and worse. It nullifies attacking options and clogs up the game. It frustrates the fans as well and needs to be dealt with.

The rule is stringently policed in Australia and it should be over here. If players keep getting penalised for it, they'll soon learn because it will cost them football games.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.