On the Australia v England living thing, the countries are so different it's difficult to compare.

I'm no beach person, ive been here nearly 4 months and havent been to the beach yet, well Ive been to Manly beach, but that was only because the had a wine festival on

I live in the Inner West (near Balmain!) and what appeals to me are all the harbours and the rivers that are round here, it is absolutely beautiful, but saying that England can be just as beautiful, and I think it is at it's most beautiful in Winter. It's winter here at the moment and its 22degrees and not a cloud in the sky, seems a bit weird actually!

Food is tons better here, the quality of the produce is far better, especially seafood.

TV is quite simply terrible over here, apart from the amount of RL on that is

And the wine is far better, you can't get most of whats produced from here in England, I think they just send all the sh@t!

One hing I do like over here is their attitude, very friendly and very down to earth and I havent seen anything that resembles a chav, allthough there are a few 'bogans' as they say round these parts!

I'm really coming from the point of view that no SL side should sign any Aussie/Kiwi unless they are real quality, if at all possible. An overseas rosta of Webb, Donald, Delaney, Leuluai, Buderus, Lauti'iti and possibly Eastwood is far, far too many IMO and frankly depressing. We have after all managed to win the GF three times with never with more than five overseas players - last year only three.

If Delaney turns out to be solid but not spectacular, will people care that Coady, Ratu, Watkins or whoever are being kept out of the team by him? TBH it smacks of the sort of signing that a coach may like as it gives him an easy selection option.

As I say, I'll support him and Leeds, but it's just depressing. And that has nothing whatsoever to do with the salary cap.

Totally agree, to have 3 of the back 5 as overseas players is not how I would want it and (assuming Eastwood comes over next season) 7 of the 17 being overseas does not help the game in this country.

BTW not sure if you were talking about the GF or the season but if the latter there were 4 last season including Toopi.

www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sp ... Leeds.html

www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sp ... Leeds.html

And ? i think you just might possibly have missed all the quotes and links in the early part of the thread...

Can't be a[irse[/id reading all 19 pages - have we written him off yet ?

How did you guess (I haven't though)

Does seem from various sources/opinions that the Bulldogs centre (Millard) that we were looking to bring in for this season until Idris got injured and is now rumoured to be signing for the Bulls is the much better prospect of the two,so I guess we'll have to see who has done the better bit of business.

completely agree, players like Webb, Lauiti'iti, Eastwood and Buderus would add to any league, all four are world class players (imo), it is, as you say, depressing that we cannot bring through a british player the quality of Donald or Lueluai, who are, im sorry to say, pretty average antipodeans who have come over here and been among the best.

I would however disagree that it isnt down to the SC, i think it is, i think the SC encourages this type of signing, or certainly this format of SC.

if we had no SC, then leeds could have spend more to keep smith (and he deserves it, the lad is a fantastic prospect, to expect him not to earn as much as he can in his short career is crazy) or they could have spent more bringing in a hodges, inglis,

or if we had ans SC that actively encouraged british players, then we could have stuck with Coady, Watkins and Ratu, because everyone else would be doing the same

as it is, we probably didnt really have a choice other than to go for a player like this, throwing one of those three in against experienced pros (how many young centres are currently playing SL, very few) would have meant leeds were playing with one hand behind their back, and the money simply isnt available to sign a better standard

for some reason we always seem to be offering clubs a way out, we should be saying, produce your own or pay the price, but we dont because people seem obsessed with equalling out the game, regardless of the fact it is damaging it

these are the reasons why the best two centres in this comp are a past it Aussie in Gidley and a past it Brit in Senior,

we should be either forced to be playing, Watkins or Coady or Ratu or we should be allowed to bring in the best,

Rather like McF, I ain't reading 19 pages.
Whatever you think about overseas players, just remember, it could be worse, you could watch soccer, no f***ing chance of seeing a home-grown player!!!!!!

What should happen is that a player who comes through the clubs academy system AND is from their own service area then only a percentage of their salary should be counted against the salary cap.

It would encourage clubs to invest in their own youth in their own areas.

why? some service areas are naturally better than others, some bigger some smaller?

what if a youngster moves house from one to another? what about those on the boundries?

surely if a club is poor and bringing through players wasting a whole service area on them is a bad thing?

what would be wrong with competition in youth development? surely that is what will drive success and evolution not protectionism?

It is monies earned by the player paid by his new employer so why doesn't it count?