Re: Rumours and signings v8 : Tue Apr 24, 2012 3:08 pm  

No surprises that Huddersfield and Warrington are the two clubs poaching the young lads from the struggling club. Going off their squads they have 8 players between them that are from their academy in their first 17 (4 each). We alone have 11. Im sure Saints and Leeds have a similar number to us also. Pathetic from two of the top clubs in the country.

Re: Rumours and signings v8 : Tue Apr 24, 2012 3:12 pm  

more needs to be made of exemption and salary cap.....ie if they are academy progressed lads from within club then they shouldnt count on cap for first 3 years from 1st appearance in first team.....would make sure that all clubs then worked on their academy prospects

Re: Rumours and signings v8 : Tue Apr 24, 2012 3:51 pm  

pie.warrior wrote:

more needs to be made of exemption and salary cap.....ie if they are academy progressed lads from within club then they shouldnt count on cap for first 3 years from 1st appearance in first team.....would make sure that all clubs then worked on their academy prospects

Bradford wont be spending upto the max cap anyway so it wouldnt make a bit of difference to them, what people are failing to grasp is that most RL clubs cant afford to spend upto the cap max without making losses or getting bailed out by sugar daddies. Work is required to raise income not raise ways how to spend more money the clubs dont have.

Re: Rumours and signings v8 : Tue Apr 24, 2012 4:04 pm  

Warrington and Huddersfield trying to cheery pick the best youngsters from other clubs is nothing new.

I say a Giants fan didn't know what I was on about when I posted they did that on a thread on the Saints board. He must not have heard of Eden, Wardle, Patrick, Molloy etc.

Re: Rumours and signings v8 : Tue Apr 24, 2012 4:07 pm  

pie.warrior wrote:

more needs to be made of exemption and salary cap.....ie if they are academy progressed lads from within club then they shouldnt count on cap for first 3 years from 1st appearance in first team.....would make sure that all clubs then worked on their academy prospects

The cap already have "add-ons" for home-grown players.

Ironically given FIOS un-informed post above, under your system I wouldn't be suprised if Warrington would benefit more than Wigan at the present time!

Re: Rumours and signings v8 : Tue Apr 24, 2012 4:07 pm  

FIOS wrote:

Phil wilkinson has tweeted that SOL has rejected NRL offers to stay with us

Excellent news.

Finch and McIlorum to follow ASAP with any luck and then Lenagan can get working to bring in any targets him and Wane may have identified.

Re: Rumours and signings v8 : Tue Apr 24, 2012 4:29 pm  

Paul Youane wrote:

The cap already have "add-ons" for home-grown players.

Ironically given FIOS un-informed post above, under your system I wouldn't be suprised if Warrington would benefit more than Wigan at the present time!

how do you figure that one out? correct me if i am wrong, but squad numbers 1-17 you dont have any home grown player making their début in the last 3 seasons? i am no expert on the warrington squad, so i could well be wrong but i see 5 players who would come under this system. (currie, evans,burke, o'brien and dwyer)

I think Wigan would have 10.
Charnley
Farrell
marsh
mellor
hughes
russell
l tomkins
king
spencer
crosby

Re: Rumours and signings v8 : Tue Apr 24, 2012 9:03 pm  

FIOS wrote:

No surprises that Huddersfield and Warrington are the two clubs poaching the young lads from the struggling club. Going off their squads they have 8 players between them that are from their academy in their first 17 (4 each). We alone have 11. Im sure Saints and Leeds have a similar number to us also. Pathetic from two of the top clubs in the country.

Simply incorrect, not counting the likes of Eden, Wardle and Patrick, Giants have seven players who have played multiple SL games each this season who would fit what appears to be your definition that Giants are there first professional club.

Several others rejected by others who made first team debut at Huddersfield. To be blunt, when you are crap with no money you do not get first choice of the best kids. As the Giants have built as a club so the youth development has improved. Not as good as Wigan yet, but improved greatly in recent years a trend that should continue.

On top of all that Giants are not after John Bateman, this has come from Peter Hood at Bradford trying to start an auction.

Re: Rumours and signings v8 : Wed Apr 25, 2012 2:00 pm  

In my opinion i dont think that mellor is ready for a starting spot, he seems like a genuine talent and one which could blossom in the future, his problem is that he is coming to the age where he should be getting much more regular game time, only time will tell if he will have a spot at wigan in the future. Plus the gap that tommy leaves in our team will be nothing short of a huge one, which makes me feel that the need for a quality signing (with our abundance of ca space) instead of blooding a youngster will be of greater value if we intend to continue to push for every competition.

With names like Soward, Dureau and brough being thrown around, these are the style of player who we need to replace tommy, which will give us the one thing that tommy lacks, a kicking game. The weaker selection of the 3 has to be brough, due to his age and rumoured attitude problems, it isnt worth the risk of unsettling the team if there are other options out there. With dureau, there isnt much to say, which team in SL wouldnt want him! He seems the real deal, has great elements to his game and is a joy to watch, but the challenge for us would be to lure him away from sunny France and a team he seems settled in, i for one would be over the moon if he was the replacement. Now soward is the luxury type of signing that we should be looking to bring over to fill quota spots, he is pure quality, got a fantastic kicking game, passing game and running game, would be very excited at a finch/soward partnership! The big thing he lacks is defence, but if STI have been able to accomodate him in there WCC winning team, im sure we can leave him stood inbetween hansen and lima, should sort his problem! Its just whether a play consistantly on the brink of a NSW team would be willing to come over.

As for our centre problem with the more than likely, but sad departure of carmont, it seems that we need to be in the market for a centre, giving gelling time to mature and fulfil his potential. Carmont does so much for the team in both attack and defence, consistantly running around like a spring chicken (excuse the pun), we need a centre that can do it all. Although reknowned for eing injury prone, i cant look past the quality of Steve Matai, he hits hard, very hard and is a good consistant centre. I am only highlighting Matai as he seems a much more realistic target as oppose to SKD, inglis, hidges, tonga and the rest. Preferably i would like to look into an english centre but thre isnt much quality out there that hasnt already been snapped up.

If, with our cap space and quota spots this was possible, how about a starting team of...

1. tomkins
2. charnley
3. goulding
4. matai
5. richards
6. finch
7. soward
8. mossop
9. mcillorum
10. lima
11. hansen
12. hock
13. SOL

What are other peoples thoughts on these players? Or does ayone have any alternatives that we havent covered?

Re: Rumours and signings v8 : Wed Apr 25, 2012 3:48 pm  

I'd prefer to try to limit our overseas recruitment to one this year if at all possible. We'd probably then be looking at around 4 overseas players in the 17 which is about right.