Residency rule extended to 5 years

[roughyedspud]

And whos fault is that?? Nothing is stopping tonga from arranging something..

 

[myrrh ken]

Now your blaming poor ol Tonga for failing to keep their players! Thought they were the victims in all this!

 

[roughyedspud]

Nope...blaming tonga for not arranging games....keep up boy

 

[myrrh ken]

I'm sure you'll help chip in for the upfront expenditure won't you

 

[jim_57]

Turning the Pacific Tests in to a Pacific Cup with the winner getting to host or at least play NZ or Australia end of year would be a good start.

 

[roughyedspud]

I'm sure you'll help chip in for the upfront expenditure won't you

Grants are available from the RLIF...but you wouldn't know this...

France have no one to play..lebanon have no one to play...games or series could have been arranged..

Competition can be blamed on the RLIF...but one off games & tests series are down to the home governing bodies to sort out..

A france v tonga test series would have paid for itself....

 

[spinnerhowland]

This does NOTHING to protect a minimum number of spots for the Domestic Players in any Tier 2 nation.

 

[Evil Homer]

This does NOTHING to protect a minimum number of spots for the Domestic Players in any Tier 2 nation.

There should be no need for rules to enforce that.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

There is when countries are given walk up starts at international level despite not meeting even bare minimum domestic standards.

 

[hutch]

Countries now will have no incentive to develop their own players ever again. Just wait til big 3 pick their squad and take the scraps.
Dual Players will have no incentive to stick to a tier 2 nation, ever.
Players actually from tier 2 nations (radradra, hurrell etc) will be poached in greater numbers as soon as 5 years is up.
Rugby league takes the easy option and quick fix yet again and nothing changes in the next 20 years!

 

[adamkungl]

It's not the change we wanted but i doubt things will get any worse, let's not overreact.
There was already nothing stopping from players switching to the big 3 currently.

I'd suggest the best things smaller nations can do here are
-be proactive - don't wait for the scraps. Compete. Get players to commit. Plan for the future.
-organise as many games as possible to give players the incentive to commit.
-from point 2, develop sponsorship opportunities for team and player funding.
-build pathways from the local to the professional game (eg PNG Hunters).
-relentlessly hassle the NRL for support in all of the above.


Not much has changed here for the worse, in practical terms.

At least we'll have no players in the no man's land between 2 countries.

 

[miguel de cervantes]

yeah, good post ^^

countries need to be more proactive. follow canada's lead.

 

[RL The greatest game]

I still maintain that once you have played for a country at senior level you shouldn't be allowed to play for another country.

 

[adamkungl]

I still maintain that once you have played for a country at senior level you shouldn't be allowed to play for another country.

At some point you have to do the best with the situation you have - maybe it will change but it's clearly not on the cards in the short term.

 

[roughyedspud]

Thats why we need a 4 year wc cycle lock in period..its not what most of us want,one nation for life,but its probably the best we could hope for

 

[The Partisan]

Unfortunately i think regular representative opportunities and the dollar will always outweigh sporadic opportunities and national pride in a current player's mind. (People in his ear ...with own agendas...probably contribute to this situation.)

Long for the day when this won't be the case ...but think it won't be any time soon.

 

[adamkungl]

Maybe smaller teams should aim to get sponsorships for their elite talent to hold them. If money and opportunity are why players would defect, you've got to find ways to match them.

Obviously Samoa won't be able to afford the match payments NZ and Aus offer for the entire squad, but it might be feasible to retain a small number of key influential players with financial incentives.

it's a bit sad to be discussing financial incentives for international representation but that's the environment that's being encouraged by the rules of the game. And hey, after all it's what Rugby League was founded on.

 

[siv]

I still maintain that once you have played for a country at senior level you shouldn't be allowed to play for another country.

There will always be sutuations where "never" should apply

Lets say I moved my family to Japan to live and wanted to play league for my adopted country

This is where the 5y residency rule actually fails

 

[siv]

But I agree until we get regular tests occurring in the Pacific not much will change

 

[spinnerhowland]

There should be no need for rules to enforce that.

And again we will see a 14 team tournament where 80% of the players are Aus, NZ or English.
Unless NGB's are willing to commit to domestic players, then the locals are always going to be shunned purely for the desire to make games "look good".
Demanding 33% of a team being domestic is hardly too much to ask if the RLIF expects those same players to develop RL in their home nation to the point of meeting membership criteria.
Tired of the "You guys do all the hard work on the ground, then we will fly in others to be in the photos on front of the thing you built for the press".