Import figures

[East Coast Tiger]

I this month's RLR there is a list of all the players that are from Australia/NZ/PNG that have played in this year's SL and in all of the past 10 SL seasons. It lists 98 players this year compared to 68 last year and just 28 in the first year of SL in '96. I'm not entirely certain about the accuracy of the figures but it suggests the number of imports is still rising even though the quota limit has been reduced. What's more with more French players in the SL this year than ever before the number of British players must be at an all-time low.
For the record here are the figures from the lists provided (assuming they are correct and I've counted correctly):
2006: 98
2005: 68
2004: 77
2003: 71
2002: 63
2001: 74
2000: 66
1999: 81
1998: 39
1997: 34
1996: 28

 

[bartman]

Wow, and that's not including imported players in National Leagues.

There are talented British juniors and academy players ready to come through, just a lot harder for them to step up the levels all the way to Superleague. I wonder how many rep-level academy players from the last ten years have given up and never made it through to Superleague?

 

[Evil Homer]

Overseas players in SL as far as I can make out:

Bradford
1.Michael Withers
2.Marcus Bai
3.Ben Harris
4.Shontayne Hape
5.Lesley Vainkiolo
6.Stanley Gene
7.Joe Vagana
8.Brad Meyers
9.Chris McKenna

Cas
1.Luke Dyer
2.Danny Nutley
3.Ben Roarty
4.Deon Bird
5.Gray Viane
6.Richard Fa'aoso
7.Willie Manu
8.Ryan McGoldrick
9.Brad Davis
10.Adam Fletcher

Quins
1.Nick Bradley-Qalilawa
2.Luke Dorn
3.Matt Gafa
4.Solomon Haumono
5.Daniel Heckenberg
6.Lee Hopkins
7.Thomas Leuluai
8.Filimone Lolohea
9.Zeb 'Lucky' Luisi
10.Mark McLinden
11.Henry Paul
12.Chad Randall
13.Tyrone Smith
14.Karl Temata
15.Mark Tookey
16.Pat Weisner

Hudds
1.Michael De Vere
2.Robbie Paul
3.Brad Drew
4.Jim Gannon
5.Chris Nero

Hull FC
1.Sid Domic
2.Richard Swain
3.Shayne McMenemy
4.Motu Tony

Leeds
1.Ali Lauitiiti
2.Clinton Toopi
3.Scott Donald
4.Shane Millard
5.Willie Poching

Catalans
1.Justin Murphy
2.John Wilson
3.Mark Hughes
4.Stacey Jones
5.Christopher Beattie
6.Ian Hindmarsh
7.Sean Rudder
8.Alex Chan

Salford
1.Aaron Moule
2.Andrew Dunemann
3.Sean Rutgerson
4.Junior Langi
5.John Wilshere
6.Danny Lima
7.David Gower

Saints
1.Jamie Lyon
2.Willie Talau
3.Francis Meli
4.Jason Cayless
5.Jason Hooper
6.Vinnie Anderson
7.Maurie Fa'asavalu

Wakey
1.Colum Halpenny
2.Ned Catic
3.Olivier Elima
4.Duncan Macgillivray
5.Monty Betham
6.David Solomona
7.Michael Korkidas
8.Sam Obst
9.Ben Jeffries
10.Semi Tadulala
11.Jason Demetriou
12.Adam Watene
13.James Evans

Warrington
1.Brent Grose
2.Henry Fa'afili
3.Toa Kohe-Love
4.Michael Sullivan
5.Chris Leikvoll
6.Logan Swann
7.Paul Rauhihi

Wigan
1.Pat Richards
2.David Vaealiki
3.Brett Dallas
4.Scott Logan
5.Iafeta Paleaaesina
6.Bryan Fletcher
7.Mick Dobson


Not included Cats french players because that would defeat the whole object of their team.


I make that 91 in total,with Wakefield,Quins and Cas providing nearly 40 of them.

 

[bartman]

Nice work EH! So there's only 7 mystery men remaining...

I'd imagine Nathan Blacklock counts in this year's figures as would Jerry Seu Seu. And Ben Roarty played this year too I think?

4 left...

 

[Evil Homer]

Roarty is on the list.

There's a chance the 3 Henderson brothers have been counted as overseas players,but they were all born in the UK so I haven't counted them.Also Damien Blanch and Pat Weisner were released from their contracts and are now playing in NL1,so I didn't count them as SL players,but they are probably the two missing ones.

 

[bartman]

Oops, I was looking at Hudds for Roarty

Bingo, 98 imported players.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

I've got the full list here. It includes the likes of Albert Torrens who only playted a few games and got hurt and also includes players who were shipped off to NL1 or elsewhere. So basically it's anyone that played SL this year. Without typing out the list the club numbers were as follows:
Bradford: 10
Cas: 10
Catalans: 8
Hudds: 6
Hull: 5
Leeds: 6
Quins: 14
Saints: 6
Salford: 6
Wakey: 11
Wire: 7
Wigan: 9

Again these are from the list compiled by Peter Roberts in September's RLR. I don't know exactly how accurate they are without looking closely at who is on the lists and who might be missing and without having squad lists from each club. But it does indicate the numbers are higher than in past years. It's pretty bad that there is even more than in 1999 when the full impact of the Super League World Club Challenge fiasco hit England with clubs so convinced they needed Aussies to be strong and when Gateshead gave SL a second non-heartland club packed with Aussies.

 

[The Observer]

I don't know how RLR counted 28 players for the 1996 season.

According to the Rothmans RL 1996 yearbook, in 1996, there were 97 overseas players at the 11 English clubs. This is NOT including Paris St Germain, who had a squad of 43, AFAICT 27 were French players. The 16 imports were 2 NZers, 10 Australians, 1 Russian/Moldovan, 1 Englishman, 1 Welshman and one other.

SL 1996 overseas players
Aus - 46
NZ - 26
France - 3
Fiji - 5
Samoa - 11
Tonga - 5
SA - 1

Division 1 & 2 overseas players 1996
Australia - 51
NZ - 28
Cook Islands - 1
Fiji - 1
France - 1
Kenya - 1
PNG - 3
South Africa - 5
Samoa - 5
Tonga - 10

 

[whatsdoing1982]

It needs to be a maximum of 5 imports in your squad of 25. That means non European players.
This way you can still get some variety from overseas but still encourage the home grown talent. Thats not 5 per year. Thats 5 in total.
Eventually I think it should be 3.
I think the Super League should have an agreement that all clubs must have 3 max per club by the 2009 season.
This will increase european talent and therefore improve the european international sides.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

I don't know how RLR counted 28 players for the 1996 season.

According to the Rothmans RL 1996 yearbook, in 1996, there were 97 overseas players at the 11 English clubs. This is NOT including Paris St Germain, who had a squad of 43, AFAICT 27 were French players. The 16 imports were 2 NZers, 10 Australians, 1 Russian/Moldovan, 1 Englishman, 1 Welshman and one other.

SL 1996 overseas players
Aus - 46
NZ - 26
France - 3
Fiji - 5
Samoa - 11
Tonga - 5
SA - 1

Division 1 & 2 overseas players 1996
Australia - 51
NZ - 28
Cook Islands - 1
Fiji - 1
France - 1
Kenya - 1
PNG - 3
South Africa - 5
Samoa - 5
Tonga - 10

Yeah I doubt the figures too. I think they might just be counting those who played with clubs that are still in SL. Anyway I guess the point is that 98 players is still a hell of a lot in a 12 team. It would have to be more than 20 per cent of the total number of players who played this year and there was about 20 French players this year too so the number of British players would be down on previous years.

 

[bartman]

Will have to try and get myself some of the older Yearbooks, they were great in the detail they went into.

Ok, so it may not be increasing as much as first thought. But it's still a lot and has implications for the future international arena and players seeing and getting a career pathway through the game (and not jumping over to union like Stephen Myler or giving up).

Think back to when Great Britain were more than competitive and better than Australia, and Australians wanted to spend their off season to sample and learn from the English competition... There were hardly any Aussies or others around in English teams.

 

[Evil Homer]

It needs to be a maximum of 5 imports in your squad of 25. That means non European players.
This way you can still get some variety from overseas but still encourage the home grown talent. Thats not 5 per year. Thats 5 in total.
Eventually I think it should be 3.
I think the Super League should have an agreement that all clubs must have 3 max per club by the 2009 season.
This will increase european talent and therefore improve the european international sides.

This is already the case!!!

 

[The Observer]

Australian NRL clubs also import a lot of players, mostly from NZ, but a handful originate from the UK and PIs. When I last counted, there were around 50 players who learned their trade outside Aus.

 

[bartman]

Good point Obs. Aussies are used to claiming anything nearby and thinking of it as our own... Phar Lap, Russell Crowe, Split Enz/Crowded House etc.

 

[whatsdoing1982]

This is already the case!!!

How is it already the case. We have talked about this before. Look at the list above. Look at Bradford Bulls for example.
1.Michael Withers
2.Marcus Bai
3.Ben Harris
4.Shontayne Hape
5.Lesley Vainkiolo
6.Stanley Gene
7.Joe Vagana
8.Brad Meyers
9.Chris McKenna

Their is 9.

 

[The Observer]

My guess was close, and I've probably underestimated the number by omitting Jersey Flegg Under 19's imports and Qld Cup feeder comp players. In 2006, Australian NRL clubs had 42 imports - products from overseas comps. 2 Englishmen, 1 Irishmen, 1 South African, 38 NZers. This is ignoring the Warriors with their NZ contingent.

Brisbane - 4 (Anderson, Eastwood, Tupou, Vaeau + Joe Clarke, Clydedales)
Bulldogs - 3 (Asotasi, Williams, Ngawini)
Canberra - 2 (Raston, J Williams)
Dragons - 0
Manly - 3 (Finefeuiaki, K Leuluai, Matai)
Melbourne - 3 (Kidwell, Tagataeese, Turner + Samau?)
Newcastle - 3 (Carney, Royal, Smith)
Nth QLD - 2 (Faiumu, Taniuelu)
Roosters - 4 (Edmondson, Mellars, Morley, Soliola)
Souths - 2 (Faalogo, Galuvao)
Parra - 5 (Afamasaga, Moi Moi, H Perenara, M Perenara, Jeremy Smith)
Penrith - 0 (Peters - PNG?)
Sharks - 7 (Laiseni, Latu, P Leuluai, Maiava, Manua, Stosic, Vagana)
Wests Tigers - 4 (Chase, Marshall, Saffy, Whatuira)
Warriors - 8 (Byrne, Fien, Gatis, Luck, Martin, Rovelli, Villasanti, Webb) - the rest are NZers.

whatsdoin1982, the official quota is 3 players. Players can get off quota by several means - eg if they hold an EU passport, or under the Kolpak rule (eg Fiji, samoan, Tongan passport holders).

 

[bartman]

Their is 9.

It's about EU laws and definitions, UK passport conditions, and what Superleague thinks it can and can't do in terms of the national laws.

The quota is three per club now. Most Pacific Islander players don't count, because of EU employment laws and a court ruling. Superleague doesn't think it can challenge that. People that have lived in the UK for four-five years qualify for citizenship don't count, because of national laws Superleague don't think they can challenge.

 

[Evil Homer]

How is it already the case. We have talked about this before. Look at the list above. Look at Bradford Bulls for example.
1.Michael Withers
2.Marcus Bai
3.Ben Harris
4.Shontayne Hape
5.Lesley Vainkiolo
6.Stanley Gene
7.Joe Vagana
8.Brad Meyers
9.Chris McKenna

Their is 9.

It would be illegal under EU laws to deny employment to the majority of those players.They are known as Kolpaks: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolpak

Australia is fortunately not in the EU trade union,so the limit is 3 Australian players,although again there are ways round this such as obtaining passports for the players from possible EU countries of their heritage.

 

[The Observer]

The official quota could be reduced from 3 to 2 players, and that limit could be made the standard across SL, NLs 1 & 2, Quins and Catalans included. Given the number of players that can come off quota, a small reduction in the quota would help.

The RFL should take advantage of the fact that so many players of PI descent come to SL, off quota, under the Kolpak rule, by scheduling an England/GB game against a combined Pacific Islanders team (instead of the Kiwis).

 

[Evil Homer]

I think 2 quota players would get to the point where it would lower the quality of the league.3 is a good number IMO.

I don't think 50 between 9 clubs is too bad,and considering Wakefield will probably be down next year and Cas will have no need for the 'SL survival Aussies' anymore,there is no need to change the rule IMO.