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2014 new boys thread!

I bleed blue & gold

I bleed blue & gold

First Grade
Messages
8,850
Lee Mossop delighted to have won Challenge Cup with Wigan ahead of end-of-season switch to Parramatta and eyes return


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Wembley grin: Wigan’s Lee Mossop celebrates with fans after winning the Challenge Cup (Picture: Getty Images)

Lee Mossop can join Parramatta safe in the knowledge he has left his legacy at Wigan.
Having helped the Warriors to their second Challenge Cup triumph in three years, with Saturday’s 16-0 win over Hull at Wembley, the Cumbrian forward is relishing the challenge of Australia’s NRL competition.
‘It’s nice to be able to make your mark at the club,’ said the 24-year-old. ‘I’ll know I’ve left something behind when I go which is pleasing.
‘The Challenge Cup is a fantastic competition and I’m privileged to have won it. It’s certainly one of the biggest highlights of my career and will always remain in that way.
‘The best thing though is to be able to win with this group of lads. They aren’t just teammates, they’re mates.
‘I’m really familiar in my current surroundings and it’s going to be difficult to leave them the end of the season. Hopefully I’ll do so having won the Grand Final and represented England.

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Tussle: Wigan’s Mossop tackled by Danny Houghton of Hull FC during the Challenge Cup final (Picture: Getty Images)

‘It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to play down under as rugby league is probably their main sport and a chance to challenge myself.’
Mossop has signed a two year deal with the Eels who hold an option for a third but Wigan will have the first option when he chooses to return to the Super League.
‘I’m excited to have a couple of years in Australia but I can’t see myself spending the rest of my career out there,’ he admitted.
‘I will come back at some point, hopefully after achieving something and bettered myself in the Austalian game, and to Wigan if they’d have me.
‘It’s a fantastic club and one I’m honoured to have represented. They showed faith in me when they scouted me from Cumbria and put a lot of faith in my development.’

http://metro.co.uk/2013/08/26/lee-m...switch-to-parramatta-and-eyes-return-3938023/
 
I bleed blue & gold

I bleed blue & gold

First Grade
Messages
8,850
From the little i have seen of him, he seems like he will be a 'smarter' player for us, compared to some that we have/had. F*ck knows we need some brains.
 
T

The Elephant In The room

Bench
Messages
4,980
Just on players heading out from the UK to play in the NRL, did anyone hear Luke Burgess on the Big sports Breakfast this monring. Basically said that he and Sam decided to head on out to Oz after enjoying a holiday in the sun during the Uk off season. There is a lot to be said for lifestyle, so it shouldn't surprise when Super League players ae willing to play in the NRL for less than you would otherwise expect. No different to the thousands of Aussies that head to the UK each year to work, with the side benefit of travelling around Europe on the cheap.
 
Joshuatheeel

Joshuatheeel

Moderator
Staff member
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20,191
. As Ricky Stuart weighs up whether to coach the besieged Eels or accept a lucrative contract tabled by his spiritual home, Canberra, his decision could determine if prized recruit William Hopoate plays at Parramatta next season.
Hopoate's manager, Tyran Smith, is closely monitoring the turmoil at the once-proud Eels. Another crack in the club's foundations occurred during the week when a group of football club members started a secret campaign to secure the 106 signatures required to force an extraordinary general meeting.
They intend to demand accountability from the board and management for the direction Parramatta has taken in the past few years.
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William Hopoate plays for the Sea Eagles. Photo: Getty Images
Smith stressed that Hopoate was on course to head to Parramatta, but it could be assumed one likely interested party - if that changed - would be the Canterbury Bulldogs.
Apart from being coached by Des Hasler, who led Hopoate and Manly to the premiership title in 2011, the club made a lucrative but unsuccessful bid for dual international Israel Folau while troubled fullback Ben Barba was released to play for Brisbane.
There was widespread speculation on Saturday night that Parramatta could part ways with Stuart as early as Sunday although chairman Steve Sharp, when contacted by Fairfax Media, denied rumours of a late-night board meeting or suggestions that the coach was Raiders-bound. ''He has given us no indication he wants to leave and there's no reason for us to believe he won't be seeing out the final two years of his contract,'' Sharp said. Smith is sure Hopoate, who represented NSW at State of Origin level before spending two years as a Mormon missionary in south-east Queensland, would want to honour his deal.
However, he said his duty was to ensure the 21-year-old utility back would join a club that would allow for him to fulfil his potential.
''I'm watching what's going on at Parramatta very closely," said Smith, a former New Zealand international who now heads Sports Player Management.
"William is an extremely loyal person and while he wouldn't know much about what is happening at Parramatta [because his mission forbids him from watching television, listening to the radio or reading newspapers], he'd want to honour the deal. y opinion is if everything stays the same, William will definitely fulfil his commitments at Parramatta." When prompted, Smith conceded ''everything stays the same" means Stuart - one of the Raiders' favourite sons who played 203 games for the club and is considered the ideal man to replace recently sacked coach David Furner - remaining at the helm of Parramatta.
"If Ricky was to leave the club I would need to look at Parramatta and see whether going to the club would be in the best interest of my client," he said. "He has to be in an environment that will be good for him. If there is a lot of turmoil in a club it's hard for any team [to do well]. It also extends to people like [football manager] Peter Nolan because he was there from the start in regards to Will and the plan that we've had.
''Then there's Ciriaco Mescia, who has been flying to Queensland with me to train him. They're still part of the club and that's all a consideration … but the turmoil …, if it [worsens], things will need to be reassessed." Hopoate, who signed a two-year, $1.7 million deal with the Eels after Manly won the title two years ago, was identified by then coach Stephen Kearney as a player who would be a leader and set standards that would lift the club.
However, there are growing concerns about the potential problems of Hopoate playing for a club struggling to make any impact on the premiership except for being the NRL's soap opera. Smith said the fitness tests Parramatta had conducted on Hopoate during his sabbatical suggested he was already of first-grade standard.
"He will go into the off-season ahead of many of his teammates in that regard because he's so fresh," Smith said on Saturday.
"For any NRL club, a player of his status, his talent, for what he's already achieved and for his mental toughness and his high morals, he'd appeal to plenty of people."
Hopoate's fitness is described as excellent, but Smith wants to revisit the idea of allowing him to play a handful of rugby union matches in Japan to fine tune his co-ordination before the 2014 NRL season. "A hit of rugby in Japan would be a good thing for him," he said. "His speed and strength is good [but Japanese rugby] would allow for William to get his timing back ahead of schedule."
Click to expand...

http://m.smh.com.au/rugby-league/le...ting-cold-feet-about-eels-20130831-2sxg0.html
 
IFR33K

IFR33K

Coach
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17,043
Bigfella said:
Exactly. Our club has never signed a contract with a player who then pulled out.

Hock? Papalli?
Click to expand...

Hock, yes.

Papalli was well within his rights to pull out, whether we like the rules or not.

Hoppa has a contract, and a massive one at that. I'm not sure any other club could come near the $$$ we are supposedly paying him.

I dare say we were probably paying him in 2012 and 2013, so I can't see him bailing next year.
 
I bleed blue & gold

I bleed blue & gold

First Grade
Messages
8,850
Next Season Will Be A Honeymoon For One Parra Player

September 9, 2013


By STEVE MASCORD
FEW Parramatta fans would regard this season without Nathan Hindmarsh and under new coach Ricky Stuart as a honeymoon – but 2014 has already been designated by one star Eel as being exactly that.

Wigan forward Lee Mossop walked off Wembley at the weekend a Challenge Cup winner and his thoughts immediately turned to his new destination, Sydney’s west.
“I get married on December 21st. It’s in Lancashire. It looks like Australia is going to be the honeymoon,” he said.
“I’ll have two days off and it will be into the pre-season training. That’ll be a good honeymoon, won’t it?
“If I’m in the World Cup squad, the final’s on November 30 and then I have a few weeks off.”
The fact his career in England only has a couple of months to run left him in a reflective mood in the famous Wembley dressing sheds.
“I’ve just been sat there for five minutes, never spoke to anyone, just trying to soak it in,” he said, “because this could be the last time I do this for a number of years with this group of people, if ever.”
Mossop wasn’t even aware that former team-mate Gareth Hock would not be joining him.
“I didn’t know, I had no clue,” he said. “But if he’s not going, he’ll have his reasons. You’ve got to do what’s best for you. If he’s got family over here, that would have a part in it.”
He said he was unsure what a current team-mate, Sam Tomkins, had planned. “As a player,Sam’s a closed book,” he said.
“Whatever team he’s at, be it Wigan or over there, they’ll be lucky to have a player like him. I’m provileged to play alongside him.
“If that was the last time we play together, then he’s special.”
Wigan went into Saturday’s game as overwhelming favourites. “I was thinking about it during the week, what it would mean to win, and I think I was more scared of losing, to be honest,” said Mossop.
“To have this as the last chance to win with my best group of mates (and lose) would have been horrible.”
Mossop said Wigan great Andy Farrell told the players “we are the best team out of the two of us and we were the only ones who could lose the game.”

http://stevemascord.com/2013/09/09/next-season-will-be-a-honeymoon-for-one-parra-player/
 
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