Quote: tvoc "He was and they didn't. Smash the robbing tw**ts.'"
That kinda how I thought it was (Great to have to back to TVOC to confirm these sort of things by the way), but wanted to be sure before having a go on here.
So, next Sunday, let's take a page out of Russell Crowe's idea of the South Sydney Book Of Feuds (for those of you that haven't seen the South Sydney Story late night on Channel 4, Crowe comissioned a book to be written that listed all the 'crimes' committed by the other NRL teams against Souths, especially during their time out of the top flight) and open our very own one at the page listed for Manly....
Now this might come of a shock to some of you that weren't around 14 or so years ago watching Leeds, but there is some 'previous' between ourselves and the team from the former penal colony. Some of us have long memories in these parts (just look how long Alex Murphy has been villified for) and this particular one has been on ice a while, but since this is the first meeting of the two teams since then, it is the perfect time to remind ourselves that what we're up against next week is certainly nothing to be respected. Nor should you be mistaken that something from the NRL is the massive paradigm of virtue. So, as in the old adage, revenge is a dish best served ice cold.
We're talking a time just before the start of Summer Rugby ... The Leeds club was reeling at the time from the failed aftermath of a very expensive arms race with Wigan to be the top RL club in the country, a cost that we almost paid so dearly for that we could well have been at Elland Road now, Headingley be some supermarket or housing estate and we'd be a whim of Ken Bates & co. It cost Wigan their ground and certainly is a contributary factory to their current state even now. Certainly in the season directly following the start of Summer Rugby in the UK, the Leeds team sheet is filled with names you'll never hear of again (or even before), a mixture of loyal old stagers seeing out the last seasons of their careers and kids, which is why we were very lucky to stay up that season. The old Leeds board had more or less sold the club down the financial river and in some games, even refused to turn up to watch and support the team. If you don't like Hetherington, then he's a cake-walk compared to the massive mismanagement that went on prior to his arrival.
Anyway, back to Innes and Manly .... Of course, playing Winter RL at the time, some players went down under in our UK off-season and played for an aussie side, just in the same way that we had players here from ARL clubs that arrived in late October and went home in March. Craig Innes had been signed by Dougie Laughton from the All-Blacks RU after the '91 kick & clap world cup and in true Laughton style, he had turned Innes in to a great player in a decent Leeds side and would be fair to say, was one of the standout centres in the game at the time.
With things in turmoil here, Innes went off to play for the summer with the Perth Western Red, whilst still a contracted player with Leeds. No problem with this and both Hanley & Schofield had done similar things whilst they were at Leeds. Indeed, many of the 'great' British players made the journey down under during the off season and perhaps it is one of those things were British rugby has suffered during the switch to Summer (players not getting NRL experience)
Whilst down under and in anticipation of a return to Leeds to play on for us and fulfill his contract, Innes was approached by Manly to go play for them. Indeed, it could be suggested that he was induced to break his Leeds contract. He went down under and never came back. Leeds were aligned to the SL, whilst Manly were in the ARL. Leeds being skint at the time couldn't or wouldn't fight them in the courts and the ARL were more than happy to register Innes and allow him to play, because he'd come from SL. The SL / RFL weren't going to do anything about it either, so we were generally shafted by it all.
I've got very little beef with Innes for going, if he wanted to and given the chaos going on here, it was probably the best choice for him at the time. However, as with any player move whilst under contract Leeds were within their rights to expect a transfer fee for his services. Given the state of the British game at the time (Think of Offiah's £400K+ move to Wigan) and what Innes's market value would have been at the time, you could have reasonably expected anything between £150K to £250K to secure his services .... Leeds never saw a cent of that cash (althought I understand subsequently we did receive a payment years later, but I bet it was nothing in the region of those figures) at a time when the club was skint and could have done with the money just to keep going.
To put it in to present day context, think of a Rob Burrow or Kevin Sinfield (both of whom have a couple more years left on their respective Leeds contracts to run at the moment), going down under for the Tri Nations getting a big cheque off an NRL team and basically not coming home again ... And Leeds not seeing a dime of a fee for their services. That's basically what happend with Innes and it stank. The NRL players we get are either at the end of their contracts and thus, are free to move between clubs or with the likes of Toopi, move after their old NRL contract has been voided by their previous club. Neither was applicable in the case of Innes and I am sure, now you know some of what went on, can think up something to describe their actions.
So, when you're thinking about giving Manly some polite applause for turning up next week, just spare a thought to what they did to our club during one of its darkest hours and let's hope that your present 17 go some of the way to repaying that massive injustice to our club by (to paraphrase 'Flower Of Scotland') send Hasler's army home to think again.
That's pretty much what happend, wasn't it ?
