I'm sick of hearing about union 'raids' on League as if it's some kind of threat. It's like a raid of gnats on battleship!
Put it this way. Name the best league players of the last 10 years - post Superleague. Then name the next best 10, and soon, until you come to the best Union buy - it would be Blacklock down in the mid 30's somewhere, with Tequiri, Rogers, Sailor and Schifcofske sprinkled in the next 30.
Then, go back 2 decades (75-85), and do the same, but this time count the ex-Union players coming to League. Bang, in the top 10, sit Ray Price and Wally Lewis, with Michael O'Connor possibly in the next 10.
The point, of course, was that Union's threats are more bluff than anything. Price joining Parramatta was not a 'raid' organised by the whole code with a truckload of money and a promise of a Kangaroo Tour, it was a phone call by Terry Fearnley, offering to pay some$ to suppliment his building income.
Union's arrogance has been their constant undoing. They have failed to realise that 2 genuine superstars of their creation, Catchpole and Campese, stand alone as the players that League would have loved to have snared. Set against a backdrop of Messenger, Kearney, Price, 2xThornetts, Mossop, Bath, Brass, O'Connor, Lewis, Stuart, Fairfax et-al, and you get the true tale of which code has gained the max of cross-code pollination.
Consider also what has happened to the League men that chased the dollar, and the media beatup sport that they thought was supposed to be a greater challenge, and superior, to League.
Tequiri has done pretty well, although I wonder if there is a nagging thought as to where the challenge really lays, seeing the likes of Rooney, Lewis, Grothe, Mini, Carney, King, Vatuvei and Inglis rise in his absence
Matt Rogers got all his wishes in UNion, until the day came when he gave unfavorable comments about club union, and saw every living Wallaby line up and sink the boot in. Matt would have seen the irony between being Union's wonderkid on a good day, and simply a "marngo" on others.
Wendell got his M&M type head on every billboard in the country, but the bloke who never scored a try in Origin never got much support when he got plastered in South Africa, with even the Springboks coach crapping on about his 'league' culture, as if a bloody Impala rooter would know what League was anyway! They sure lined up to steer him away from the darker influences when it counted too. League has had it's problems, but for every bad boy there's someone there to pick you up. I'd bet heavily that the likes of Lockyer and Bennet and probably Meninga have been more prevalent in Wendy's life since his cocaine test than the likes of Jones, Dwyer, Eales etc.
Tingha Blacklock got promised the same world that the other 3 did, but it didn't involve crowds, nor probably hot showers, decent training conditions, and beer. He made the best union defences looke utterly rediculous, and decided more of a challenge lay with the defence of Souths.
Matt Giteau took the Duncan Macrae option: a Wallaby career or the less secure battle for first grade, with no guarantees. He took the latter.
Clinton Schifcofske took the Andy Farrel/Jonathon Davies option: the softer, slower code will extend my career by many years.
Ryan Cross took the Andrew Johns option: mention the Union threat, and milk it for all it's worth. Trouble was, the cow was dry, and Easts bid him adieu! It was either Perth or Les Catalans for 10th of the money.
So, with that for a recent history, Union's planned raid has all the same ingredients of Saddam Hussein's famous 'mother of all wars' quote. Watch them target Hindmarsh, SBW, Benji, Inglis and Lockyer, and come away with Nathan Merrit instead, who will be come an all time great in their code, and never allowed into the bar at City Tatts.
