News form this side of the pond Phoenix has quit and is now with Tweed Heads Seagulls. Shame but don't blame him, 3 months without pay. www.stuff.co.nz/sport/league/926 ... visa-delay What makes it worse is no communication from the owners, it is like it was swept under the carpet. Makes our 2017 signings so far. Geoff Toovey - No visa Phoenix Hunapo-Nofoa - Quit Dane Chisholm - Ineligible Lee Smith - Injured Leon Pryce Colton Rouche - Rumored to be leaving Scott Moore - Court case pending We need some signings!

News form this side of the pond Phoenix has quit and is now with Tweed Heads Seagulls. Shame but don't blame him, 3 months without pay. www.stuff.co.nz/sport/league/926 ... visa-delay What makes it worse is no communication from the owners, it is like it was swept under the carpet. Makes our 2017 signings so far. Geoff Toovey - No visa Phoenix Hunapo-Nofoa - Quit Dane Chisholm - Ineligible Lee Smith - Injured Leon Pryce Colton Rouche - Rumored to be leaving Scott Moore - Court case pending We need some signings!

Doesnt make great reading does it.Quite clearly we are having major problems cutting through all this red tape.If I was honest I always thought it was a strange signing.I guess we will never know if he would have been a great assett or just another overseas mistake that had us all scratching our heads at what all the fuss had been about.Anyway good luck to him.We move on.What we never had we carnt miss.

I dont blame Phoenix at all - good luck to him (and his partner).
Based on our current form I dont think he's missed much of "[ilearn[ing] under one of the greats in Geoff Toovey[/i"

Ive believed in Cha-Lo from the beginning - but my patience is wearing thin now,
I appreciate the visa delay may be out of their hands but this is another nail in the bulls "coffin-of-doubt"

The RFL insisted any owners should have a 'knowledge of the game'..Pity they (RFL) themselves have little knowledge of procedure.Been stop, start from the beginning, nothing has run,I was going to say run to plan .... smoothly.I would love to know if it was purely down to lack of sufficient funding that has inhibited progress.Not much sign of an eager beaver to guide us through the red tape either, appears so amateurish, especially bearing in mind past experiences. So much is riding on the outcome of the groundwork, it had better be,I was going to say ...as thorough as they have said...well alluded too then.On the brighter side, we would hope we are nearing the end of the tunnel and that there is a bloody big light at the end of it.

Nothing is going to plan?

That's makes the assumption there is a plan. I do wonder that sometimes.

Like I said previously the best bits of news they have given us have never come to fruition, signed a world class NRL coach (who isnt officially here) Signed a world class 7s player (who never arrived) Signed a former fans favourite (what a mess). They actually need to give some good news that actually follows through

Honestly never expected this guy to arrive. With our pack he would have been wasted here anyway.
But still, it's something else we can add to the ever-growing list of things making this club look completely amateurish as of late.

It's a bit like kids at Christmas isn't it. You get them a rugby team and they rush to get the accessories such as Toovey and Phoenix. But then it works out to be a bit harder than they thought to play with so they lose interest.

When you read on Facebook comments from Phoenix's family and his girlfriend it really doesn't reflect well on Cha-Lo.

A sorry state of affairs and it inspires me with no confidence in the club owners.

I confess to being surprised at that.

I gave up wondering about, 'a plan', a while ago and just assumed it was a figment of someone's over fevered imagination. I think it comes down to basic expectations. We know there should be some kind of a plan, so we assume, on the basis that it would be ludicrous to go into such an enterprise without one, that there just [imust[/i be a plan. The owners are happy to go along with our assumptions as they realise they won't won't have to bother explaining how their non-existent plan works or give up-dates on how it is progressing.

To be fair, maybe there once was a plan. Maybe it just got hit amidship by circumstances (aka the RFL12 point deduction) and having no brass to chuck at any problems. We've not been told either way, so I guess we'll never know.

No drama, use the money to pay for chissy there is a direct replacement that's in the country,
then sign some forwards job done...

If this happens I will show my ar$e on the townhall steps.

Would you mind explaining the above in more detail as i'm not on Facebook.

I understand the issue with the visa, as until a bank account was in place nothing could be done, (I assumed that the paper work was submitted when the bank account was set up) however the problem seems to be that he was a 7's player and our board agency don't recognise that as a pro sport and that's why he couldn't get a visa or having difficulty getting a visa.

Please do correct me if i'm wrong.

update from the girlfriend for those without facebook.. thetwentysecondyear.weebly.com/r ... oor-closes

update from the girlfriend for those without facebook.. thetwentysecondyear.weebly.com/r ... oor-closes

Thing is I don't remember the lack of a bank account being mentioned as an issue when Phoenix's signing was announced.

Same with Toovey.

It emerged later.

There are three possible reasons that occur to me:

1. Cha Lo had no idea they'd need a bank account in order to apply for a visa and jumped the gun due to basic ignorance of the rules and the fact that they hadn't even applied and checked the Home Office guidance.

2. Cha-Lo were fully aware of the rules but were useless at keeping people informed.

3. Cha-Lo were aware of the rules but decided to keep people in the dark on purpose for some unknown reason.

Whatever reason it was at the very least it doesn't inspire you with confidence that they know what they're doing. Unless of course someone can suggest a perfectly reasonable explanation that I've missed?

The longer the Toovey thing drags on you wonder if in fact he does have a visa but it's done under the name of the RFL rather than the Bulls since the club were using their banking facilities for some time.

Has anyone had a receipt or anything lately that shows a transaction with the Bulls or are they still the RFL or that DB company? Do employees bank accounts show payment made to them by the Bulls or the RFL?

Meanwhile we have the Chisholm saga, the away shirts c0ck up and the failure to prepare for the Easter fixtures and the Sheffield game.

One hates to dwell on bad news but things like this shouldn't be swept under the carpet no matter how much we'd like to. I agonised about this post. am I alone in having these thoughts?

The information vacuum that comes out of Odsal doesn't help my feelings of unease. If it weren't for Mick's interviews we'd hear precisely nothing except the stuff they release that needs a proof read.

Mick's just tweeted:

The Game Caller‏ @TheGameCaller 9h
More
The Game Caller Retweeted Simon Waters
It was confirmed by the Border Agency that the delay was due to visa regulations around his eligibility as a 7's International.


So the initial delay was down to the club not having a bank account which we apparently now have. The next thing to hold it up was the fact that he was ineligible since he was a 7s player. One wonders why an ineligible application would be subject to delay? Unless Cha-Lo appealed.

One then wonders what's holding up Toovey's visa? He should certainly be eligible. So no delay then? Again more questions than answers...