Back to the future

[dimitri]

Ray Cashmere was quite impressive for the Tiges, and if the Sharkies had have picked him up you'd have been tonking yourself over him and telling us what a spunk he is. If you don't know who Aaron Gorrell is you've had your head in a Cleo magazine all your life.

LeagueXIII, watching a bit of Queensland Cup, and a little bit of Bartercard Cup, two feeder comps not alligned to supposedly the best second grade league, the Premier League, its my opinion there's more than enough quality coming through. There's players coming through left right and centre from various sources, look at the last two or so years worth of debutants - Sonny Bill Williams, Benji Marshall, Greg Inglis, Louis Anderson, Tim Smith, Brett Delaney, Ben Smith, Matthew Head, Jarred Mullen, Sia Soliola, Manu Vatuvei, Beau Champion, Kevin Kingston, Todd Carney, Nathan Smith, Marshall Chalk, Cooper Cronk, Brett White, Matt King, Brett Stewart - there's been a load of good quality players coming through recently, there's more coming through in the various comps (Premier League/Queensland Cup/Bartercard Cup), to think we're short of talent IMO is not accurate.

couldnt agree more

 

[nqboy]

I'm pretty keen to see how Cashmere goes for us. Peter Parr and Co have a good eye for talent.

 

[t-ba]

I apologise for not having intricate knowledge of various nuffies in the game.

You seem to know enough about Michael Witt

 

[glockers]

Nice call on Witt.

Anyone who insults nuffies yet worships Witt is a hypocrite.

I would call Witt the Covell of five eights but hell he is worse than that.

He is more like the Kaufusi of five eights.

 

[shaggy]

hopefully the penrtih v storm game should have a pretty big crowd, the next team 4 expansion should be centeral coast then perth/second nz then adelaide (as much as i hate 2 admit it), which makes 20, best way would be divisons of 10 each with maybe jim beam cup & other teams underneath, but 4 some reason news dont want divisons

player depth would be no problem if ian millwards propsition of no overseas based players playin in the uk + drafts external & interal, meaning no more junior rep teams

 

[nqboy]

hopefully the penrtih v storm game should have a pretty big crowd, the next team 4 expansion should be centeral coast then perth/second nz then adelaide (as much as i hate 2 admit it), which makes 20, best way would be divisons of 10 each with maybe jim beam cup & other teams underneath, but 4 some reason news dont want divisons

player depth would be no problem if ian millwards propsition of no overseas based players playin in the uk + drafts external & interal, meaning no more junior rep teams

CC Bears, Southern Orcas, the return of the Western Reds and hopefully, in time, the Rams. Bring it on.

 

[nqboy]

But they have to lay the foundations by scheduling trials and NRL fixtures each years, gradually increasing in frequency, coupled with coaching clinics and coach and ref development courses. AND they have to get NRL on national television, prime time.

 

[The Colonel]

You say there's little depth, well let's take just the players leaving for overseas and form a 17.

1 Peachey
2 Donald
3 Harris
4 Franze
5 Meli
6 Myles
7 Jones
8 Jason Cayless
9 Sullivan
10 Rauhihi
11 Fletcher
12 Hindmarsh
13 Meyers

Bench

Paleaaesina
Betham
Logan
Henderson

Bear in mind, you're likely to pick up 2-3 marquee players when you draft your initial squad ala Gold Coast with Bailey, Campbell, Carney etc., even the Auckland Warriors did with Dean Bell, Greg Alexander, Phil Blake, Dennis Betts and Andy Platt. Then you mix in the local talent of the region, a few more disgruntled benchies and I think there's ample player talent to garner another NRL team, or perhaps even two NRL teams.

Even look at some of the players who regularly were outside their club's top 17, Berrick Barnes, Tame Tupou, Charlie Tonga, Brenton Bowen, Neil Sweeney, Aaron Gorrell, Daniel Holdsworth, Chris Shepperd, Reece Simmonds, Nick Youngquest, Jack Afamasaga, Brett Delaney, Luke O'Dwyer, Henry and Marcus Perenara, Ray Cashmere, Bronson Harrison - thats only looking through half the squads, I really couldn't be ar$ed going through the rest of them. And then you read half the posts in here, this bloke is a gun, ya ya ya, but the coach says there's nowhere to put him... and we're short of depth?

Short of depth is a reference you use for the A-League IMO.

The Premier League sides for Parramatta, St George and a couple of others had the talent to finish in the top eight this year.

 

[nqboy]

The Premier League sides for Parramatta, St George and a couple of others had the talent to finish in the top eight this year.

Maybe the talent but probably not the consistency if they were playing at the top level.

 

[shaggy]

But they have to lay the foundations by scheduling trials and NRL fixtures each years, gradually increasing in frequency, coupled with coaching clinics and coach and ref development courses. AND they have to get NRL on national television, prime time.

i no, im not talking straight away but it can be done, the last bit is the easiest if the afl go with 7 & 10 not 9

(all in local state time zones)
friday nights as per nsw/qld/act
sundays till 1- afl 9 programming
1-2 sunday roast
2-3 footy show
3-4 double episodes of boots & all from series 1 leading up 2 the sunday arvo game @ 4pm
easy

 

[BuffaloRules]

The following players left their clubs to go to the ESL/France for season 2006:-

Ben Harris
David Myles
Alex Chan
Stacey Jones
Iafeta Paleaaesina
Monty Betham
Karl Te Mata
Francis Meli
Ian Hindmarsh
David Peachey
Scott Donald
Paul Rauhihi
Ian Henderson
Paul Franze
Bryan Fletcher
Scott Logan
Jason Cayless
John Wilson

Out of those you have a world class test match halfback, you have Cayless who's a test front rower, you have Fletcher who's a former test/NSW star, Rauhihi is a test front rower, Paleaaesina is a terrific impact man who played test football this year, John Wilson is a journeyman who seems to know his way to the try line, Alex Chan is a former test front rower, Peachey is a former NSW fullback, Meli/Betham had played test football, Ben Harris had big wraps prior to his injury... there's a whole lot of top players lost right there. You take a combination of a few of those players wanting to stay in Australasia but not finding a contract here due to the salary cap, and some of those bench players and added depth players who are of decent quality who also want regular first XIII action and you come up with the fact that the comment there's not enough depth is a fallacy.

I agree that you have listed some reasonable players there, but you could add another 6 teams to the NRL and it still wouldn't stop players going to the ESL for the following reasons;

1 -They get offered more money than what they can get here
2- They pay less tax ( bank accounts set up in the channel islands)
3- They dont have to train as hard
4- The standard is less demanding and players careers can be extended
5- Its a chance to live/work in another country
.

 

[bluesbreaker]

I agree that you have listed some reasonable players there, but you could add another 6 teams to the NRL and it still wouldn't stop players going to the ESL for the following reasons;

1 -They get offered more money than what they can get here
2- They pay less tax ( bank accounts set up in the channel islands)
3- They dont have to train as hard
4- The standard is less demanding and players careers can be extended
5- Its a chance to live/work in another country
.

Somehow, I think you've missed his point.

 

[Iafeta]

The Premier League sides for Parramatta, St George and a couple of others had the talent to finish in the top eight this year.

Yep, you could field good sides with 7-8 youngsters, 4-5 cheap reliable journeymen, a couple of marquee players and a couple of old hard heads.

As I say, watching the Qld Cup and Bartercard Cup a little bit, there are some tremendous young players there. Even that PL grand final, my goodness there was some good play there.

 

[ali]

I don't believe in this not enough depth bullsh*t. Look at all the players coming out of NZ. If there are suddenly less good players around, are we suggesting that there has been a dramatic fall in the quality of players being produced in Australia?

10 years ago you would have been lucky to find 20 first grade quality Kiwis. Now we have 3 or 4 teams worth, and that's just in the NRL. I'm sure we'll also find that the funding for junior development in Australia is far above what it was a decade or so ago. So I conclude, that all you people who think there isn't enough good players to support another team or 2 are just dillusional.

The biggest problem is losing players to the UK. And there's nothing that can be done about that unless the NRL convinces the EU to change it's working laws. Hence it's not going to happen. But hopefully the exodus will not increase, and with even more Kiwi teens being signed by NRL clubs (just check the list of off season signings for Cronulla, our club is now over 20% Kiwi) and hopefully in the future multiple Papuans, we'll continue to increase the player pool.

 

[Knightmare]

Newcastle were one of the first teams to begin recruiting Kiwi players in number- Sam Stewart and John Schuster spring to mind from those early days.

 

[innsaneink]

Newcastle were one of the first teams to begin recruiting Kiwi players in number- Sam Stewart and John Schuster spring to mind from those early days.

Tony Kemp.

 

[Stagger eel]

the Bears did recruit Fred Ah Kuoi and Mark Graham in the early 80's.

 

[Perth Red]

I see little to give me much hope the NRL has any idea about how to expand the game beyond NSW and Q'land. Good example was last year the two WA games ended up costing the WARL over 50 grand. That's a schools development officer we don't have this year because the NRL refused to underwrite the games in the name of expansion.

then we wonder why the AFL tonks us in TV money?

 

[nqboy]

Maintain the rage PR, I'm with you brother.

 

[dimitri]

I see little to give me much hope the NRL has any idea about how to expand the game beyond NSW and Q'land. Good example was last year the two WA games ended up costing the WARL over 50 grand. That's a schools development officer we don't have this year because the NRL refused to underwrite the games in the name of expansion.

then we wonder why the AFL tonks us in TV money?

thats bloody disgusting

and to think that News Ltd still take money out of the game each year