The root of the problem is that the NRL promised all the clubs 130 per cent of the salary cap. So, as you'll be aware if you've been following this, it's in League Central's interests to keep the salary cap as low as possible.

If the solution next year is to allow all clubs to honour their commitments – a similar official blind eye that helped St George Illawarra and Melbourne accommodate orphaned players at the end of the '90s and led to them playing each other in the 1999 grand final – I am not convinced we'll ever get the salary cap back.

Many clubs have been searching for a gap in the fence, a hole at the back of the cap, and if they got through it once they would never be evicted.

Discord has always been a staunch defender of the salary cap, pointing out that we have suburbs playing, in one case, an entire country and that we need artificial barriers to have a meaningful competition in our small, divided market. I would never object to the salary cap on the same basis as colleague Peter FitzSimons; professional sport is not for the players, it's for the fans and the imperative to attract more viewers and more participants.

But looking around the attendances so far this season – yes, I know it's been raining – I'm starting to wonder if a free for all, survival of the fittest scenario might not bring the NRL kicking and screaming into the 21st century. Sure, you may be loyal to your club first but if you landed here from Mars – or New York – would you not be stunned about such an elite competition, with a $2 billion TV rights deal, being played among Sydney suburbs in front of empty seats?