The cap it was put in place around the turn of the century to act as a safeguard. You had a situation where a couple of big-money guys went into a club, were paid more money than a player was potentially worth for his market value at that time and then they disappeared. Richmond and Newcastle were in the early days paying wages that were unsustainable, not just for those clubs but through wage inflation for the others. Richmond went to the wall and many others nearly followed, so the salary cap was brought in to almost save clubs from themselves.