And 3 more kids sign up full-time www.castigers.com/article.php?id=1826&ref=nf

And 3 more kids sign up full-time www.castigers.com/article.php?id=1826&ref=nf

Had a watch of that myself. Looks promising if he's the chap - about time we got a blockbusting back rower and only 22 so likely to get better.

Seems to have some strength about him. Also the fact he has some NRL games under his belt is a big plus

Could be a very good signing for us

Our other forum is stating that Mika has signed for Hull KR.

Yes just seen that, what a bummer, seriously how many overseas players have they got, what a joke, this overseas malarky needs sorting, what have we got, 3, but now Chase plays for England, so 2, HKR must have 10.

im not so sure your saying youve signed him dont think we have as we (hull kr have a nod fed spot free let alone a quota spot

Surely there is some major irony here!!??
You're actually justifying that Chase is no longer an overseas player lol!!

Not breaking any rules, not bending any rules. We are producing players that are coming to international standard and should have over 20 players at first team level next season. While it is not essential for the England squad to be full of English players what is the problem with clubs having overseas players in these kinds of numbers?

I'm just a bit peeved because I want Con Mika down the lane.

Understandable having watched the highlights of him on youtube but highlights of someones career can make anyone look fantastic.

He's been a bit part player only playing about 14 games in 2 years for the Knights. Is he a player that does an ocasional good thing or someone just not given the game time due to a wealth of talent in his position already in the Newcastle side?

Nothing wrong with having them. It's the fact you've got so many of them and don't seem like ever wanting to reduce them.

But surely the emergance of Scott Taylor, Jordan Cox, Kris Welham, Sam Latus, Louis Sheriff, Liam Watts, Josh Hodgson...etc makes up for us having those numbers? The development of Welham has a lot to do with work Jake Webster has done for him, Cox and Taylor always praise Mick Vella, Ben Galea and Clint Newton. These players may not have come through had it not been for the overseas stars that are signed.

My honest opinion is that had Sandercock been appointed before we started making signings we would not have had Lincoln Withers and Ryan O'Hara nor probably G.Horne, David Hodgson and it seems certainly not Misi Taulapapa. Who knows who would have come in but with Withers and O'Hara being exempt we would have had 2 less.

I actually think the way to tackle this is to have a maximum number of overseas players that can play in a game rather than how many are in the squad. As long as there are 8 home grown, 5 fed-trained and a maximum of 4 overseas players in your 17 each week means you would have to still produce your own but you could rotate the stars meaning the quality of those stars stays at the same level all season. The salary cap would dictate how many overseas stars you could have in your squad as would the maximum number of players in your first team, 20's and 18's (which is currently 65 all together).

As long as there is a notable effort in producing English talent as most clubs are at the moment I do not see why there is such a big emphasis put on how many we have over in this country. What we do need to do though is allow greater wages for home grown stars. No matter what people think of the Tomkins brothers, Kyle Eastmond...etc they are world class players who will or would improve our international game. If the clubs were able to offer these players the money Union clubs obviously are or the RFL were to help with these payments to keep these stars in the sport and or country maybe overseas stars would start to dwindle due to clubs being more keen to fill their squads with a higher quality home grown stars.

Taylor and Cox are decent prospects but only Hodgson, Watts and Welham are established juniors and even then Hodgson came from Hull FC and Liam Watts came from Cas, not through the Hull KR system. Latus covers when you have injuries.

But it would be even better if those players were replacing the outgoing deadwood like Newton, Vella, etc rather than just being filled with more and more overseas players.

Hodgson would not be playing SL at Hull FC, reguardless of where he was initially trained. Tom Briscoe was a Fev lad but they don't get the credit for his England success!!

Yes it would be better if Cox was able to replace Clint, Taylor was able to replace Vella, Carlisle was able to replace Fisher, Salter to replace Webster...etc but the fact is we'd be bottom of the SL before long as these are not ready to replace them 100%. The fact our depth improves means we can hopefully achieve more in the game which will encourage more kids in the area to play and get better which will in the future get us to the point where we don't need the amount we now have.

It still isn't a problem though I mean Dobson can apply for residency along with Galea, Lovegrove is English (50%), so as long as these players can play for England what's the problem?!!!!