Re: Rob Butler : Wed Nov 25, 2020 6:44 pm  

Over 120 years of Rugby League so we're not doing too bad with our player development after just 40. Its about time RFL followed football & introduced compensation for clubs developing players even if they move at the end of their contracts.

Re: Rob Butler : Thu Nov 26, 2020 10:52 am  

Honkytonk wrote:

Rather he was making it in SL with us, tbh, I take no pleasure watching our promising youngsters leave for other sides, I find it gutting tbh.

Trouble is that unless we can get back to SL - AND stay there- it is going to be this way for the forseeable.
Perhaps one or two might return later in their careers (like Dixon) to provide us with some experience.
I had hoped LMS might but .....

Re: Rob Butler : Thu Nov 26, 2020 11:04 am  

RfE wrote:

Trouble is that unless we can get back to SL - AND stay there- it is going to be this way for the forseeable.
Perhaps one or two might return later in their careers (like Dixon) to provide us with some experience.
I had hoped LMS might but .....

Its a point Ive been making for a while, and you wont get there by having a team full of kids

Re: Rob Butler : Thu Nov 26, 2020 11:32 am  

Deeper issue here that we might be overlooking. Rob is a Medway product and so has been playing the game since a very young age. The Broncos pick people up at 15/16 and can still deliver - just think what we would be producing if we started at 7!

Re: Rob Butler : Thu Nov 26, 2020 11:33 am  

The thing is that once these players leave, they are very unlikely to return to London.
LMS for example probably has a very nice life, living in the Liverpool area.
Coming to London. He would either have to live away from his family. Or his lifestyle would suffer, due to house prices and the cost of living in London. For what ? A one or at best two year deal to play for the Broncos.
Would you do that ? I know I would not.

Re: Rob Butler : Thu Nov 26, 2020 11:52 am  

Victor wrote:

The thing is that once these players leave, they are very unlikely to return to London.
LMS for example probably has a very nice life, living in the Liverpool area.
Coming to London. He would either have to live away from his family. Or his lifestyle would suffer, due to house prices and the cost of living in London. For what ? A one or at best two year deal to play for the Broncos.
Would you do that ? I know I would not.

Agreed Vic, its the main reason why when in SL Broncos should have been given a bigger slice of the pie to keep it a level playing field. Sadly as we all know, short-sightedness in the north would never allow that to happen despite the money Fulham pumped into the game when setting up in 1980 & the benefit they got from snapping up the Fulham free agents.

Re: Rob Butler : Thu Nov 26, 2020 12:24 pm  

Victor wrote:

The thing is that once these players leave, they are very unlikely to return to London.
LMS for example probably has a very nice life, living in the Liverpool area.
Coming to London. He would either have to live away from his family. Or his lifestyle would suffer, due to house prices and the cost of living in London. For what ? A one or at best two year deal to play for the Broncos.
Would you do that ? I know I would not.

I have supported LMS a lot at St Helens, and we have chatted, I hoped he would return to play for us, but I fully understand when he was offered a one year extension at Saints, and the salary he is on, for his self and his family it would be difficult to turn down, especially not knowing our future status. I do think he will return one day to live in The South, but it may be too late for us.

Very few players developed in London who have moved to London have failed, they do us Proud! not many clubs can claim how many players they have developed for Super League as we have, we can but hope that we will achieve the position that players do not feel they have to move for success on and off the field. There has to be major investment into London RL if it to be long term success, there is clear evidence what we have done in development of young players, it would be tragic if that was ever lost, Sky viewing figures also show audience figures in the South are important, to have their own successful Super League Club would be an added bonus, but sadly at this time with Covid-19 Super League & The RFL just seem to be rowing hard to survive!