As did Phil Clarke as a player. Shame he's such a crap pundit.

And what's your point?

When Saints signed Long and Gleeson they knew it could be problematic, after all they are from wigin.

If Clarkes company has advised a player to break a contract, then the line that he has done nothing wrong does not hold.

Has clerkes company advised him to break a contract?

Regards

King James

I've no opinion on Phil Clarke or his brother as I don't know much about it or them tbh. Tbh I can't see how Phil Clarke working for sky sports can infulance DS leaving cas for sale. Yes, he can big players up and try and put value on players but at the end of the day, it's the player himself with the final say.

You make out Sean Long is a monster lol. He's done some crazy stuff over the years and most famous being the betting scandal but other than that he's not been bad and the is much worse other players have done which has put rugby league in a bad light.

I think Sean has done a little more than few individual awards. For a Start, he's won many team awards also. I don't recall any negative comments on long when he's been on back page of national papers in challenge cup/grand final winning photos.

I also seem to recall nearly every young saints supporter wearing the number 7 shirt with Long wrote on back. Maybe it's possible he infulanced few of today's super league stars and got young kids playing rugby league.

You might choose to remember a modern super league great for his betting scandal or walking off GB tour but I'll remember the joy he gave me and thousands and thousands of others when he's produced magic on the field, won awards, won trophies for my team. He's brought me much more joy than misery.

IMO he was the best big game player ever to play super league. The amount of games he's won us with moments of brilliance us unreal. Kicks off touchlines, winning Drop goals, match winning tries plus match winning performances.

Other radio companies came in for me in my career, I met them, listened and decided to stay and ended up with a better contract, a rugby player does not know how long his career will last, for me I say best of luck to Denny, and all the attack on Andrew Clarke as well as his brother is a complete joke, if an agent or management did not represent me to the best of their ability I would sue them!

Castleford have made me laugh with claims of loss of earnings on shirts with Denny's loss, Union may have still been so called amateur when we stole so many players from Wales, even South Africa, but it must have hurt them, now they are light years ahead of us as a game, and they stole so many ideas from us, including a real best mate Peter Deakin who I did an Australian Sports Course with in sports management back then it was unknown to think the way we were taught about sport, Peter made Bradford Bulls what they became at that stage, and then Saracens into what they are today, when I tried to move from radio into RL St Helens would not even meet me, though they knew me from the Amateur game and being a Youth GB Selector, Wigan met with me, and were unsure that the game should change the way it was run? perhaps I should have gone to Union lol

What part of this do you and others like Lebron not get? He was under contract to Cas, so legally has to complete that contract. It's not the same as a regular employment situation where you can just hand your notice in and leave.

I've got nothing against Solomona, he's just been badly advised, but Andrew Clarke is testing the law here in a case that could ultimately end Rugby League as a sustainable professional sport in this country. Union would be able to take any player at any point and you are fine with that? Bizarre. I've nothing against players leaving when their contracts are up, like Charnley, I've also nothing against Union clubs fairly negotiating the release of players. But for an agent to be actively marketing in-contract players to Union and encouraging them to walk out and ignore those contracts massively undermines the integrity of the sport(Note, not my statement, that is what Cas are alleging has taken place).

Not convinced saying not your statement is sufficient, no one has evidence that Clarke encouraged, going to be an interesting day in court, If it reaches that stage, Castleford need to look closely at what they are doing. I wonder if any clubs in League encourage players to move on?

Sport has moved on a lot, and no better examples that football, really what is a contract worth these days? if a player wants to leave he will and sadly ££££ comes first, not sure why some of the salaries that premiership football players are on.

I defend no one in this case, but I tread careful where there are serious allegations.

You haven't shut up about How Andrew and Phil Clarke are the scourge of rugby league. So I ask you. What have they done wrong other than look after their client? Please show me some evidenceto the contrary

Regards

King james

What they have done wrong is allegedly encourage someone to break a legally binding contract. The evidence will come out in court no doubt, if common sense doesn't prevail beforehand.

Why you are fine with them doing that is beyond me.

I'm with Saddened.

Sports contracts are not the same as standard employment contracts. Players want clubs to sign them up long term when it suits them. That's understandable since it provides a guaranteed income (including if they get injured) for its duration. That means long-term contracts have real value to players. If these are challenged in court and its found that there should be no penalty for walking away from a contract a player was apparently happy to sign at the time, then why on earth should clubs offer anything other than short-term contracts to any player?

In the end it would help a few players jump ship for more money, but hurt the sport as a whole and the players in aggregate.

I also don't quite understand the RFU's stance on this. They have very similar contracts, to which the same laws apply. If you can challenge a player jumping ship on the basis of moving to another sport, how long will it take before a player challenges a club and sport's ability to stop them signing for any other club in the same sport at the drop of a hat? Even if that weren't the case, can you imagine the outcry if a bunch of England RU internationals decided to do a Hayne and try the NFL, missing seasons in the process?

It may suit RU now because they are the ones doing the poaching, but that may not always be the case.

People are forever repeating this 'contracts mean nothing' mantra, but it simply isn't true. Yes, it's true that a contract no longer ensures, in practice, that a player will stay with a club for the agreed period. But what it does ensure is that if a player insists on leaving then the club is in a position to be financially compensated when he moves. Likewise, a club may, as you say, encourage a contracted player to move on, but the contract means that this player will be in a position to negotiate a healthy severance fee.

Contracts are not meaningless, but Clarke, Diamond and Solomona are currently engaged in an attempt to make them meaningless.