Luke O'Donnell signs with unnamed English club

[applesauce]

Seems to me that the decreased quota in SL is starting to take effect. It will be down to 4 in a few years so NRL clubs should be prepared to lose quality not quantity. Exception being one team has a higher quota.

Wigan are looking to replace Paleasena, Phelps, Riddell & Phil Bailey with Hoffman, Finch & maybe Quinn. That's an example of the way it's going to be in coming years IMO. Still alot better than any if them going to Union and all these people saying we're "losing them to the game" need to open their mind a bit.

Without thinking "losing them to the game" don't you think purely on a game quality level that this has gone far enough?

Hunt left, people scream "who cares", "who needs him", "he will be replaced".

And judging by the way Hoffman is playing and now Boyd is going in a Fullback role wouldn't it be great if we had a player like Hunt still running around adding to the level of RL players and fullbacks.

I am sure the Souths would love Hoffman or Hunt had he stayed in the game instead of an ageing Wesser. It would keep the bar raised for the standard of which we expect all our Fullbacks to play.

SBW to some degree has been replaced in some ways by Burgess but imagine if both were running around week in week out and then head to head. The more players on their level the more kids will base their games on them as moulds and then take themselves to the next level again.

I am not directing this at you but I hate it when people think we should sit on our hands and watch this production line will keep rolling out players. Why not reach for the sky and make the game even more skillful etc.

The quality we could expect from players and games would be so much further ahead of where it is now if we could hold onto the talent we develop in the first place. That would be the number 1 tactic in fighting off the advances of the AFL and wining the hearts of young fans.

Once we expand with 2 more teams the quality will drop dramatically, (look at what the Titans have done). Everyone knows the solution salary cap, TV deal, IC, etc all need to happen asap and correctly. I just hope the new clubs get a 50% discount on players the get back from the SL or something. Maybe the NRL could help them out like the AFL have with GCFC and GWS.

 

[Manu Vatuvei]

Good riddance to the dirtiest player in the game, who is horribly overrated, I think in large part because he's so dirty (it's an attitude unique to RL fans).