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Warriors centre Brent Tate believes the Sonny Bill Williams saga is evidence the sport he loves is on a knife edge.
It's been a brutal few weeks for the sport as two of its biggest stars - Mark Gasnier and Sonny Bill Williams - left for the 15-man code. All roads seem to lead back to a dissatisfaction with the salary cap.
"The salary cap could be done a lot better," said Tate, "but I can also see why it is in place.
"A lot of clubs in Sydney are doing it really tough with the new pokie law."
A 'pokie tax' has sent many registered leagues clubs, for years the sport's lifeblood, into decline.
"It's a real fine line we're treading at the moment."
Williams is set to challenge the legality of the $4.1 million cap if the NRL tries to block his move to Tana Umaga's Toulon, arguing it's a restraint of trade, denying him the chance to earn his market value.
But as Tate points out, lifting the cap won't necessarily lift salaries, as Sydney clubs in particular feel the pinch in difficult economic times.
Last week, NRL chief executive David Gallop said affordability was the motivating factor behind the cap more than a bid for parity across the competition.
"It's not the case that there are large amounts of cash out there that could be paid to players if the salary cap was removed," he said.
"It's set at a level most of our clubs can afford."
That doesn't stop Tate believing urgent changes should be made in how it is administered or else many more will follow the likes of Gasnier, Williams, Craig Gower and Luke Rooney out the door.
"We need to start rewarding players that have been at clubs for a long time," Tate said. "It needs tweaking. Stuff like rep payments could be made different."
In other words, having incentive-based payments for making State of Origin and test teams sit outside the salary cap.
"We need to keep these sort of guys in the game but again it is a real fine line because, as I said, there's some clubs that would be struggling to afford much more but it does need tweaking."
There should be no surprise that the subject of Williams was not far from most players' minds in the Warriors gym during the week.
"I just feel that he's such a good guy and he's not normally like this. I just hope it gets sorted out before it gets ugly and goes to court. The game doesn't need that and Sonny doesn't need that."
While Tate felt that Gasnier had shown up Williams in terms of leaving the game in the right way rather than running out on team-mates mid-season, he does not begrudge either wanting a change in direction.
"I know myself when I was at Brisbane that I needed a change. Obviously Gas felt the same way. You can't begrudge guys that. It's sad from the point of view that we're not going to see Gas and Sonny Bill running around next year but nobody's irreplaceable. There's always young kids coming through.
"We've still got Israel [Folau] and Greg Inglis and people love watching those sorts of guys play."
