Quote: No1 Saint "People who want someone to blame for Connolly leaving should blame the board of the time. They wanted the transfer fee money and he was essentially sold while in Aus. Remember this is pre bosman so the power was most certainly with the clubs not the players.'"
Not really fully accurate.
The noises coming from Connolly whilst he was guesting for Canterbury in Aus, were that he wanted to sign for them permanently. Connolly had been refusing to sign a new contract at Saints, and had only 3 months left to run on it. There was an agreement between the RFL and ARL that inter-comp transfer fees be limited to £70k, and Saints were terrified of losing their prize asset for (what was then) a peanuts fee. Wi*an had sniffed around before and been rebuffed by the Saints board.
The Board asked Connolly once more to sign their new contract, but he declined. Connolly said years later in an interview that he'd already given a verbal agreement to sign a 3 year deal at Canterbury. In a bit of a panic, the board contacted wi*an and said Connolly was up for sale, £250k, take it or leave it. They took it. Connolly got a chunky pay rise and the almost guarantee of silverware.
The Saints fall-back plan was to sign Newlove, but by the time the Connolly transfer went through, Newlove had signed for Bratfud for £245k from Fev.
Connolly leaving came soon after Saints had lost colossal packman Kevin Ward to career-ending injury, and after losing the league to title to the scum only on points difference after a tense 8-8 draw at Central Dump. After so many years of pain, many Saints supporters had hoped the end of the dark ages were nigh, but the loss of Connolly to, of all teams, wi*an, was the final straw and he became the focal point for the anger & frustration. I remember screaming 'Judas!' at him with the rest of the Scaff. I laughed when I heard his car got done in. I wished him a plague of boils - and worse.
Years on, the rational side of me realises I was daft. He was looking out for his career, same as anyone would. The contract Saints were offering was poor (between £20k and £25k, depending on which account you heard at the time) - certainly a hell of a lot lower than the overseas players and some veterans were on. There was a culture of paying homegrown players less, a kind of "you should be playing for the love of yer hometown team, lad" attitude.
The Saints board were always a bit of a shambles and, although anyone could see their point in securing the best price when faced with losing their best player, to sell him to the scum verges on criminal. Especially when their Laurel & Hardy act saw us miss out on the only top-class replacement in the market.
As it happened, there was only another 3 [long] years to wait before we stepped out of that smelly, rancid, retard-accented shadow and took Super League and summer rugby by storm.
Just a pity we've been on the decline again since Anderson left.
