KEY POINTS:
There is less concern at the Warriors than at other NRL clubs regarding changes to the Super League player import quotas and big money offers from England.
Kangaroos, New South Wales and Storm wing/centre Matt King is rumoured to be the latest to sign in England, with both Wigan and Hull declaring they have made huge offers and an announcement on his decision expected next week.
He will join more than 90 Australian and New Zealand-bred players with the Super League's 12 clubs, with others including Dragons half Matt Head, Roosters utility Chris Flannery and Cowboys wing Rod Jensen having signed and gone mid-season. The Broncos Shaun Berrigan is another leaving for Britain.
It is the age of the departees that is causing angst at the NRL, with some claiming the quality of the competition will drop as all the superstars flee for pay-packets three times those on offer in the Australasian competition.
Berrigan is 28 and like King, 26, is a current test player while Head is just 22. It used to be the 30-plus types who left to play out their last couple of years.
The Super League has increased its import allowance from three players to five, the point causing concern at NRL clubs.
At the same time it is introducing a rule whereby five of the allowable 25 players in the top squad must come from a club's development academy and be aged 21 or under. Its stated aim is to cut imports gradually over four years and to bring through those juniors.
The side-step whereby players with English or Irish passports did not count as imports will go. So will the side-step which followed a European Court ruling that workers from developing nations trading with the EU could not be denied job opportunities - several former Warriors of Polynesian background went to Super League that way.
"I think we've probably been affected more in the past with the Polynesian players able to get in," said Warriors chief executive Wayne Scurrah when asked if the changes in England were of concern. "It's probably going to affect the other clubs as much as it used to affect the Warriors."
The player drain is sure to be top of the agenda when chief executives of the 16 NRL clubs meet on July 19.
NRL chief executive David Gallop has had a phone hook-up with English counterpart Richard Lewis and the ERL's financial officer Nigel Wood to question their intentions.
"They made it clear that they want to encourage more home-grown players in their competition," Gallop said.
"As a result, they see less opportunities in the future for Australian players to play in the Super League, and they wanted that message to be made clear down here."
Gallop also asked the English league to strictly enforce its salary cap of £1.9 million ($4.9 million).
King is reputedly being offered between A$600,000 and A$700,000. Top salary at an NRL club is around A$400,000 and that's for halfbacks and five-eighths, not wingers.
Raising the A$4million cap would put some NRL clubs under financial strain if they tried to spend to its full level because most don't make money now - usually just the Broncos.
The alternative is to have rich and poor clubs and end up with a competition like Super League, where Bradford, St Helens, Wigan, Leeds and Hull play off the finals every season and the likes of Salford and Wakefield struggle for survival and to avoid being relegated like Widnes.
